Bill Cosby ordered to testify in lawsuit alleging he abused 15-year-old girl in Playboy Mansion

Cosby will answer questions under oath from lawyer of his accuser

Cosby is accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl at the Playboy Mansion

(Getty)

Bill Cosby has been ordered to testify in a lawsuit brought by a woman who claims he sexually abused her at the Playboy Mansion when she was 15-years-old.

The comedian will be required to answer questions while under oath from the lawyer of his accuser, Judy Huth, on 9 October, who will also be expected to answer questions from Cosby’s lawyers a week later on 15 October.

Huth, who brought her civil suit against Cosby in December 2014, claims the 78-year-old abused her after she and a female friend met Cosby at a park in 1974 where he was filming a movie. She claims Cosby invited both to his tennis club the next weekend, where he gave them drinks before taking them to the Playboy Mansion. She alleges the assault took place there.

Huth is one of more than 40 women who have come forward in the past year to say that they were raped or molested by Cosby after he plied them with alcohol or drugs. Thirty-five of his accusers appeared on the ground-breaking cover of The New York Times and gave their accounts of the abuse they were allegedly subjected to.

Cosby’s lawyer Martin Singer dismissed Huth's allegations false and “defamatory”. Cosby settled a case with a former Temple University employee in 2006 who accused him of sexual assault.

The settlement was reached in confidentiality but parts of the deposition were made public last month, including his admission that he gave drugs to women and sometimes had sex with them, both activities he said were consensual.

Huth’s lawyer, Gloria Allred, said in a statement: “We are pleased that we will now be able to move ahead without further delay on Ms. Huth’s case, and we look forward to taking Mr. Cosby’s deposition on 9 October, 2015.” Cosby has never been criminally charge and his lawyers have consistently denied all of the allegation against him.

Additional reporting by Reuters