The sentence was handed down in a Pennsylvania courtroom Tuesday.
Bill Cosby, the comic once regarded as "America’s dad" before allegations of sexual assault derailed his once legendary career, has been sentenced to three to 10 years in prison.
The comedian showed no emotion as the sentence was handed down in a Pennsylvania courtroom Tuesday by Judge Steven O'Neill, who called Cosby a "sexually violent predator."
Judge O'Neill also denied a request by Cosby's legal team to grant bail while they file an appeal, and Cosby was remanded into custody.
Cosby's name will now appear on the sex-offender registry. In addition, he will have to undergo counseling for the rest of his life and report to authorities every three months, according to The Associated Press.
The 81-year-old, who entertained TV audiences for years as Dr. Cliff Huxtable on "The Cosby Show," was convicted in April of three counts of aggravated indecent assault against Andrea Constand.
She said she first met Cosby in 2002, when she served as director of operations for Temple University's women’s basketball team. At the time, Cosby was on the college's board of trustees, and she considered him a mentor.
The former Temple basketball player testified that she was helpless to stop Cosby’s sexual advances after the comedian gave her some wine and three blue pills “to take the edge off."
On Tuesday, Constand submitted a victim impact statement to the judge, in which she recounted the day "a man I had come to know as a mentor and friend drugged and sexually assaulted me."
"... After the assault, I wasn’t sure what had actually happened but the pain spoke volumes," the statement read in part. "The shame was overwhelming. Self-doubt and confusion kept me from turning to my family or friends as I normally did. I felt completely alone, unable to trust anyone, including myself."
Cosby himself did not address the court.
Prosecutors had pushed for a sentence of five to 10 years, while Cosby's attorney's argued for house arrest, citing his age.
Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele scoffed at the notion.
"To say that he’s too old to do that — to say that he should get a pass, because it’s taken this long to catch up to what he's done?" Steele said in court Monday. “What they’re asking for is a ‘get out of jail free' card.”
Cosby first faced a judge in the sexual assault case in 2017. That trial resulted in a hung jury, but not before dozens of women came forward with stories similar to that of Constand.
Five Cosby accusers testified against him during the retrial, including former model Janice Dickinson.
Speaking to Inside Edition in an interview that aired Monday, Dickinson urged the judge to “throw the book at him and lock his a** up."
She added: "I want years of prison because he deserves years in prison, yes he does."
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