U.S. comedian Bill Cosby filed legal papers Tuesday calling for court sanctions against a woman accusing him of sexual assault, saying she breached their confidentiality agreement in the leak of his full deposition from a 10-year-old civil case to The New York Times.

    Cosby, 78, made the filing in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia in opposition to recent motions by Andrea Constand, a former Temple University employee who has alleged the comedian tricked her into taking drugs before he sexually assaulted her.

    The lawsuit she brought against Cosby was settled for an undisclosed sum in 2006, and all documents from the litigation were sealed until a federal judge July 6 released limited redacted excerpts from Cosby’s 2005 deposition testimony in the case.

    Those excerpts included Cosby’s admission under oath that he had obtained Quaaludes, the brand name for a sedative widely abused as a recreational drug in the 1970s, with the intent of giving the pills to young women in order to have sex with them.

    On July 8, Constand filed papers in court seeking to unseal the entire deposition and her settlement agreement with Cosby, as well as to free her from any confidentiality restrictions.

    The New York Times has since obtained its own record of Cosby’s deposition and posted additional excerpts on its website, revealing testimony in which the entertainer described how he had pursued women and how he obtained Quaaludes.

    More than 40 women have come forward in the past year alleging Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted them in incidents dating back decades.

    He faces at least four civil lawsuits stemming from such allegations. Cosby has never been criminally charged.

    (SD-Agencies)