AFP

Los Angeles

The only woman to have filed a sex assault lawsuit against Bill Cosby has taken her case to police, accepting an offer to have her claims investigated despite them dating from 40 years ago.

Judy Huth, who filed legal action against Cosby earlier this week, was accompanied by celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred to meet detectives at Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD).

LAPD chief Charlie Beck said on Thursday that his force would investigate any sexual assault charges against the embattled entertainer, or anyone else, regardless of whether they were covered by the statute of limitations, which limits how long after the fact lawsuits can be filed.

“Today Judy Huth and I came here ... to meet with detectives of the LAPD to request an investigation of Mr Cosby,” Allred said in a statement in front of the police headquarters in downtown Los Angeles.

“She is here because she believes that it is important that Bill Cosby be investigated ... we are here to accept Chief Beck’s invitation,” she added.  “We also urge others to go to the LAPD and ask them to investigate.”

The LAPD did not immediately comment on the meeting.

Around 20 women have now accused the 77-year-old Emmy and Golden Globe winner of sexual assault and even rape in incidents dating decades ago.

So far the only one who has taken legal action is Huth, a 55-year-old former Playboy hostess who filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles on Tuesday claiming Cosby assaulted her at Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Mansion in 1974.

On Thursday Cosby’s lawyer, Marty Singer, counter-sued Huth in the LA Superior Court, accusing her of trying to extort up to $250,000 from him in return for her silence.

On Friday a new accuser came forward, another former Playboy “bunny” who claimed that she and at least 12 other fellow employees were raped by Cosby.

PJ Masten, who began working as a Playboy waitress in 1972, claimed that Cosby drugged and raped her after inviting her to his hotel room in Chicago, and offering her a glass of what he said was Grand Marnier.

“The next thing I knew, it was four o’clock in the morning,” she told CNN. “I woke up in a bed naked, bruised. He was lying next to me, and I slithered out of the bed ... I got myself together, I went downstairs, I got in a cab and I went home,” she said.

But she was certain that he had raped her while she was unconscious.

“This man has to be held accountable. He’s a serial rapist. He’s been that way since the ‘60s,” she told the broadcaster.

She was not the only former “bunny” to be raped by the entertainer, she claimed.

There were “12 former bunnies that I know of that are ashamed to come forward, frightened to come forward, married with families (and) don’t want to come forward,” Masten said. “But they were also drugged and raped by Bill Cosby.”

Overnight on Thursday a vandal scrawled the word “rapist” on Cosby’s Hollywood Walk of Fame star.

The word was written three times on the star on the storied Walk of Fame, the stretch of sidewalk honouring Hollywood celebrities that is visited by millions of tourists every year.

The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, which looks after the stars and organises ceremonies for new inductees, acted quickly to have the graffiti removed.

“The Hollywood Walk of Fame is an institution celebrating the positive contributions of the inductees,” it said in a statement. “When people are unhappy with one of our honourees, we would hope that they would project their anger in more positive ways than to vandalise a California state landmark.”

Cosby is famous for his role in The Cosby Show, a popular family sitcom that aired in the 1980s and 1990s.