Lynn Neal and Beth Ferrier, two of the women at the centre of sexual assault allegations against Bill Cosby, appeared with their attorney Gloria Allred at a news conference on 13 July, after they filed a memorandum requesting that an entire deposition the comedian gave in 2005 be released.

"Upon reviewing the excerpts that were released, we discovered that Mr. Cosby had testified about two of my clients, Beth Ferrier, Jane Doe #5, and Rebecca Lynn Neal, Jane Doe #11. We are concerned that his partial testimony, if believed, can cause reputational damage to both of my clients," said Allred.

Both Neal and Ferrier accuse Cosby of drugging and sexually assaulting them.

"My roommates at the time of the assault were the ones that found me in my car after Cosby secretly drugged me. I was unconscious and my roommates were unable to wake me. They carried me into our house. I didn't wake up until the next evening," said Neal, who claims Cosby assaulted her in 1983 while she worked as a masseuse at a Las Vegas, Nevada, health club.

"It is important for the world to know the truth about how Bill Cosby hunted me like a predator. My refusal of his constant advances fueled his desire and eventual drugging rape ritual. In the recently released excerpts from his deposition Bill Cosby admits that he was with me in Denver and that he 'probably' had sex with me. I am here as a Jane Doe, one of the courageous thirteen Jane Does, who came forward in support of Andrea Constand and her 2005 lawsuit," said Ferrier, who alleges she was assaulted by Cosby in 1986 in Denver, Colorado, after she ended an extramarital affair with him.

A Pennsylvania judge recently unsealed testimony in a 2005 civil lawsuit against Cosby, in which the actor said he had obtained methaqualone with the intent of giving the sedatives to young women in order to have sex with them.

Cosby has never been criminally charged, and most of the allegations exceed the statute of limitations. His attorneys have consistently denied the accusations.