Rolf Harris

Bill Cosby attends the American Comedy Awards in New York on April 26, 2014. Jian Ghomeshi attends the Canada for Haiti telethon at the CBC studios in Toronto on January 22, 2010. Rolf Harris arrives for sentencing at Southwark Crown Court in London on Ju

Bill Cosby is unlikely to face rape charges in court, but that wouldn’t be the case in other countries

Justice

Allegations against Bill Cosby dating from decades ago have stirred a debate in the US over whether legal statutes of limitations should apply to sexual assault cases. Some countries, like Canada and the UK, don’t have deadlines for prosecuting such cases, which has allowed prosecutors to open high-profile “historic cases” of assault with some success.