Bill Cosby ‘to be charged over allged sex assault in 2004’

US ACTOR Bill Cosby will be charged in an investigation into an alleged sexual assault more than a decade ago, prosecutors are set to announce.

Actor and comedian Bill Cosby is facing charges in a probe relating to an alleged sex assault over a decade ago. Picture: Getty

Two people familiar with the investigation said charges will be filed when prosecutors in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, announce the findings of their inquiry later.

A former Temple University employee told police the comedian drugged and violated her at his home near Philadelphia in 2004.

A previous district attorney declined to charge Cosby in 2005, and the 78-year-old comedian has previously said under oath that he had consensual sexual contact with the woman.

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It will be the first criminal case against Cosby over his conduct with women, which has received new scrutiny in the past year.

Prosecutors reopened the case over the summer as damaging testimony was unsealed in a related civil lawsuit against Cosby and as dozens of other women came forward with similar accusations.

Many of those alleged assaults date back decades, and the statute of limitations for bringing charges has expired in nearly every case.

But Pennsylvania law gives prosecutors up to 12 years for some sex crimes, with the clock running out on this case in January.

The former university employee settled her lawsuit against Cosby in 2006 on confidential terms.