 Welcome back to The Breakfast here on Plus TV Africa, beautiful Monday morning. Let's tell you what happened today in the year 2018. He is one of the most popular black comedians of all time and if you remember growing up in the 90s you must have enjoyed programs like The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and The Bill Cosby Show. It was on this day in 2018 that Bill Cosby was found guilty of sexual assault. He's an American comedian and of course he had been a subject of publicized sexual assault allegations and was on this day convicted of aggravated incident of assault in 2018. He has been found guilty of three counts so far of sexual assault, each of which carries a potential 10 years in prison, has also been accused by numerous women of rape, drug facilitated sexual assault, sexual battery, child sexual abuse and sexual misconduct. Cosby over you know in the last couple of years has maintained his innocence and repeatedly denied the allegations made against him. He has also been on trial for drugging and assaulting an ex-basketball player Andrea Costand in 2004. If you remember also at the start of the trial in Pennsylvania it was revealed that Cosby had paid Ms. Costand almost $3.4 million in civil settlement in 2006. Some of his accusers were present in court during the trial and of course they all cried as the guilty verdict was returned. This was also one of the you know the big ones that started a Me Too movement back then. That year was really really huge on revelations concerning sexual assault and all of that that happened many years ago. Kevin Spacey was also one of the people that was convicted. What's his name? Now the movie producer who's you know still going in and out of jail also learned a little bit from Nigerian politicians when they have been accused fainting in court and going to court with us which is the stretcher I can remember his name now was also one of the people you know who was you know convicted as a result of the Me Too movement and revelations from the Me Too movement in 2018 2017 2018 you know it was huge. Bill Cosby for a lot of people there were conspiracy theories that it was just you know plots to bring the black man down. He reached a peak of his career and there were forces that were trying to bring him down and that's why these allegations came up but you know there was so many of all these revelations and at some point everyone just had to you know realize and agree that now this isn't anybody trying to bring anybody down. He had committed crimes in the past and it was time for him to pay for those crimes and it also is at that time it also showed a lot of what we call unlearning that needed to be done with what we saw as normal in the 80s. So some of the things not even as bad as you know assaulting and drugging some of these women and they you know sexually you know assaulting them some of the things that we even used to say that were normal back then you know some of the things that we used to do not me now but you know the world used to do and say as normal back then in the 80s and in the 90s in you know 2018 where of course obviously now you know seem to be you know assault maybe it was normal back then but it's no we're no longer in that era we're no longer in that space and so the mutual movement made a lot of people more aware of what assault is and the the unsafe environment that they had put a lot of you know women back then in the 80s and in the 90s and of course you know over time so it was a great period unfortunately or unfortunately you know some of these people like Bill Cosby like Kevin Spacey had to you know go to jail for them. And it just reminds me of the story I'm sharing for today in history you know we're talking about you know how the long arm of the law actually caught up with people who you know dared to commit crimes you know this guy we're talking about somebody in the US who was a police officer you know he basically had committed rape he had basically assaulted people and for many years he went you know went scot-free the law didn't catch him nobody could catch him because nobody could identify that he was responsible for those crimes but when eventually you know he was caught he was sentenced in arrested in 2018 and of course sentenced to jail in the year 2020. So this particular story here is of a James Joseph James D'Angelo Jr. you know he was called the Gordon Stake Killer he had committed 13 murders committed 50 rapes and 120 burglaries within 13 years. I mean this guy basically had done a lot of damage a lot of evil and how did he get caught basically these crimes are committed many years ago about 40 years ago but the police had been trying to investigate but they never knew that all these different crimes I told you about 15 murders 13 rapes they didn't know that it was the same crime I mean take a look at the picture there that was him younger committing all those crimes and many years later you know nobody was able to pinpoint that all these crimes that were happening in the US was by the same person you know whenever each crime was committed they would call it by you know give the the attacker a certain name based on the experiences that the you know victim had shared but the the police you know in the US set up a fake DNA profile they sent it to a DNA matching uh company you know saying they want to be matched looking for what they used was um they took um DNA evidence from one of the people who had been raped and you know used it to set up a profile saying they want to look for their relative their long-lost relative and many years later you know maybe he has family trying to you know do up a DNA match and testing and all of that and that's how the police was alerted you know that this is a relative and that's how they swapped in and found this is the same person who was committed 13 rapes and 15 murders over the past years so it just shows how you know committed really how consistent really you know the police in some parts of the world in some countries and how much they would take their time get invested in a case just so they can persecute someone and basically bring justice to your matter but here you know we've talked about this many times on the show you go until you've been raped and the police would tell you that you know happy that someone found you attractive yeah so it's you know pretty much the same thing with the with the Bill Cosby case um our attitude towards some of the oldest crimes are entirely different here Bill Cosby's crimes are from you know 80s you know early 90s and in 2018 there was still enough you know to you know convict him rape is one of the hardest things to prove sexual assault is also one of the hardest things to prove you know if there's no click or evidence and or video cameras and some of all of that but they have a system there that is able to assist the victims to be able to share their stories and to also be able to assist the victims um um assist the case basically to come to light and of course people to be found guilty we have a lot of work that we need to do here in Nigeria um our forensic investigation almost doesn't exist here in Nigeria um either I don't think any crime that was committed in 1980 would have DNA evidence in you know in today's world here in Nigeria and so there's so much that we that we lack um but you know seeking you know that level of investigation in Nigeria is which would be looking for a unicorn or flying elephant um we need to at least we there's so much work that needs to be done to improve our criminal justice system and our policing system and all of that before we get to that level um and I hope that at some point you know we're also going to move away from saying that people were young and naive when they committed these crimes because I'm sure because we was in Nigeria and it was you know a minister he probably would have been forgiven and said that he was naive and you know he was young when he did that let's let it go um but that's what we're sharing with you today the uh I think it was called the Gordon State Killer yes um and of course Bill Cosby in 2018 he was found guilty of sexual assault today in history 26th of April stay with us our first major conversation comes up next after this short break