Bill Cosby Rape Scandal: Janice Dickinson Calls For Sexual Assault Policy Reform Amid Her Allegations Against The Comedian

Janice Dickinson, one of the more than 40 women who have made rape allegations against comedian Bill Cosby, said she hoped recent attention on sexual assault would help spark legal reform. Following her alleged rape by Cosby in 1982, the former model said she was nervous about making her claims public out of fear she would not be believed and her reputation would be damaged. Now she's calling on current laws relating to statutes of limitations to be changed.

“Rendering any person helpless with the sole intention of having sex with them is rape. There should be no statute of limitations because -- look, I’m a God-fearing patriot, I’m a proud United States woman who has raised two children as a single mother, and I’ve kept this secret about my dad for several years, and I kept the secret of Bill Cosby since 1982," she told the Guardian.

Dickinson went public with her claims against Cosby in November, as a growing number of women were coming forward with similar accusations against the comedian. She said Cosby courted her with career opportunities as a singer or actress on the 1980s "The Cosby Show," and after complaining of menstrual cramps, offered her a pill and red wine. Dickinson said the pill knocked her out, and she later woke up alone after having been raped by Cosby.

Cosby has called the charges against him baseless, and his lawyer has called Dickinson's claims a "fabricated lie." But court documents from 2005 reveal that Cosby admitted buying quaaludes with the intention of drugging young women.

Dickinson and two others have filed a defamation suit against Cosby, whose reputation has been badly tarnished by the scandal. Dickinson told the Guardian she hoped the recent allegations against Cosby would "hit him where he breathes: his pocket," adding that she hoped women would band together to push for reform in laws covering sexual assault cases. “We as women should band together and make Obama change the law. A man should go to jail for the crimes he’s committed.”

President Barack Obama alluded to the accusations against Cosby earlier this month, without mentioning the comedian by name. “If you give a woman -- or a man, for that matter, without his or her knowledge -- a drug, and then have sex with that person without consent, that’s rape,” the president said.