FILE - In this April 26, 2018 file photo, actor and comedian Bill Cosby departs the courthouse after he was found guilty in his sexual assault retrial, at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa. University of Cincinnati trustees will discuss revoking Cosby's honorary degree at a special meeting planned Tuesday, May 8. Yale, Temple and Carnegie Mellon universities are among those that have revoked honors for Cosby since the comedian's sexual assault conviction last month. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File)

Bill Cosby’s Kennedy Center Honors and Twain Prize rescinded

NEW YORK – The Kennedy Center has voted to rescind two of its biggest honours it awarded Bill Cosby — the Kennedy Center Honors and the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.

In a statement, the centre says the comedian’s recent criminal conviction has “overshadowed the very career accomplishments these distinctions from the Kennedy Center intend to recognize.”

Jurors in Pennsylvania late last month convicted Cosby of sexually assaulting former Temple University employee Andrea Constand in 2004. He awaits sentencing.

Cosby won the Kennedy Center Honors in 1998 and the Twain prize in 2009.

The comedian has lost several honours since his conviction. The organization that bestows the Academy Awards expelled Cosby last week, and the television academy has said it is reviewing his inclusion in its hall of fame.

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Abbey Westbury

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