Playboy playmate among new women to accuse of Cosby of sexual assault as his lawyer describes claims as 'increasingly ridiculous' 

• Former playmate Victoria Valentino, now 71, claims Bill Cosby 'drugged her at Hollywood dinner in 1970, tried to rape her friend, then raped her instead'
• She claims she didn't come forward because 'what credibility did I have?'
• Cosby's lawyers blast the 16 sex abuse claims as 'increasingly ridiculous'
• 16 women including supermodel Janice Dickinson have come forward

By Mia De Graaf and Wills Robinson for MailOnline

Published: 23:28 EST, 22 November 2014 | Updated: 23:43 EST, 22 November 2014

A former playmate has become the 16th woman to accuse Bill Cosby of sexual assault as the legendary actor's lawyers continue to rebuff the allegations as 'increasingly ridiculous'.

Victoria Valentino claims Cosby, a regular at Hugh Hefner's club on the Sunset Strip, drugged her and a friend at dinner in Hollywood before driving them to a nearby apartment.

According to Valentino, now aged 71, she pulled Cosby away from her unconscious friend as he tried to rape her - provoking the entertainer to launch an attack on her instead.

The claims published by the Washington Post follow similar accounts by 15 women including supermodel Janice Dickinson and Law & Order star Michelle Hurd - that Cosby's lawyers have branded 'illogical'.

Latest claims: Former Playboy playmate Victoria Valentino says she was trying to stop Cosby from raping her unconscious friend when he turned on her after giving her a pill at dinner in Hollywood in 1970

'Feared for years': The 71-year-old said she felt her claims would have had no credibility at the time

Valentino said she never came forward because she felt she had no credibility.

It was only when she read Barbara Bowman's allegations against Cosby, now 77, that she decided - 44 years later - to come forward.

The alleged attack took place in February 1970, weeks after Valentino was introduced to Cosby by fellow Playmate Francesca Emerson.

Cosby, she says, sent a limousine to take her and a friend to dinner in Hollywood after meeting them weeks before.

At the end of the meal he allegedly fed both girls a pill and said: 'This will make us all feel better,' taking one himself.

Slurring their words and losing consciousness, Valentino told the Washington Post, Cosby offered to drive them home - but parked the car at an apartment near the Chateau Marmont hotel.

Inside, Valentino said she saw Cosby had an erection and was looking at her friend, who had passed out on a bed.

In what she describes as a desperate bid to divert him, she allegedly tried to pull him away from the lifeless girl.

'I reached out, grabbing him, trying to get his attention, trying to distract him,' Valentino told the paper.

'He came over to me and sat down on the love seat and opened his fly and grabbed my head and pushed my head down. And then he turned me over. It was like a waking nightmare.'

The star then left the apartment and told Valentino to get herself a cab home, she claims.

However, she decided to keep the alleged attack a secret, she says.

'What kind of credibility did I have?' she said. 'In those days, it was always the rape victim who wound up being victimized. You didn't want to go to the police. That's the last thing you wanted to do back then.'

'Increasingly ridiculous': Cosby's lawyers have lambasted the claims as 'illogical' and 'absurd'

More new 'victims': Joyce Emmons (left) told TMZ Cosby slipped her Quaalades in Las Vegas. Kristina Ruehli (right) said he attacked her in 1965 when he invited her round for a party - but no one else was there

Cosby's lawyers slammed Valentino's account - and the 15 others - as 'increasingly ridiculous'.

Martin Singer, an attorney for Cosby, said in a statement on Friday: 'The new, never-before-heard claims from women who have come forward in the past two weeks with unsubstantiated, fantastical stories about things they say occurred 30, 40, or even 50 years ago have escalated far past the point of absurdity.

'These brand new claims about alleged decades-old events are becoming increasingly ridiculous, and it is completely illogical that so many people would have said nothing, done nothing, and made no reports to law enforcement or asserted civil claims if they thought they had been assaulted over a span of so many years.'

Earlier on Saturday, a New Hampshire grandmother accused Bill Cosby of drugging and sexually assaulting her.

Kristina Ruehli, now 71, claimed the comedian attacked her in 1965 when he invited her round for a party - but arrived and saw no one was there.

She told Philadelphia Magazine that the 77-year-old, who she met while working for a Los Angeles talent agency, then told her his wife was out of town, so led her into a bedroom where he had an infant in a crib.

The child was fast asleep,' she said. 'He seemed so proud of it. He wanted to show me his little baby.'

'We went out into the kitchen. He proceeded to pour some bourbon. I drank a bourbon-and-7 at the time. I could really hold my liquor. I'm Irish. And I had a couple of those - just two - and then I just don't remember much.'

When she woke up the next day, she claims her nylon stockings were 'completely tore up'

Ruehli claims she ended up in a bed next to his swimming pool and insists he must have drugged her - because two bourbons would not have 'knocked her out' when she was that age.

At one point, she came to, she told the magazine that he had his shirt off on top of her while her pants were unzipped.

'He was attempting to force me into oral sex. He had his hand on my head,' she added.

Ruehli then fully woke up, managed to get away and then was very sick.

After the alleged encounter she never saw the star again, and every time she saw Cosby on TV she thought to herself: 'This isn't the good guy that he's portrayed to be.'

The grandmother-of-eight, who now spends her spare time skiing, says she decided to come forward when Andrea Constand's lawsuit was announced and she was branded 'a liar'.

She became one of the Jane Does in the lawsuit that was eventually settled, a part which Constand's lawyer thanked her for.

On stage: Her claims came on the same day Cosby received a standing ovation after a show in Melbourne, Florida, in the midst of the resurfacing allegations

Singer said: 'Over and over again, we have refuted these new unsubstantiated stories with documentary evidence, only to have a new uncorroborated story crop up out of the woodwork. When will it end?

'It is long past time for this media vilification of Mr. Cosby to stop.'

The comedian, who has been performing on staged despite the resurgence of allegations, stayed silent during a radio interview with NPR and pressured the Associated Press not to broadcast an interview where he was asked about the rape allegations.

He was given two standing ovations when he appeared before an enthusiastic audience in Melbourne, Florida, on Friday night.

The audience cheered as he walked on the stage and again when he completed his 90-minute performance.

Many in the audience even shouted for an encore at the end of the show, but Cosby did not reappear.

On the same day Law & Order: SVU star Michelle Hurd came forward to say that Cosby acted highly inappropriately towards her when she was a stand-in on The Cosby Show, and claimed that she knows of one woman on set who woke up drugged at his apartment.

Ten women have come forward in the last month saying they were attacked by Cosby, with Renita Chaney Hill, Louisa Moritz and Andrea Leslie the latest additions.

Four of the women claim they were teenagers at the time.

One of the accusers is supermodel Janice Dickinson, who claims that during a dinner in 1982 the actor gave her a pill and when she woke up he was on top of her.

Another four ladies; Barbara Bowman, Joan Tarshis, Tamara Green and Therese Serignese have all shared remarkably similar stories in which they claim to have shared a drink or a pill with Cosby and then woken up after or while they say he was sexually assaulting them.

Also coming forward recently is Carla Ferrigno, wife of Incredible Hulk star Lou Ferrigno, who says Cosby tried to sexually assault her during a gathering at his house in 1967.

THE WOMEN WHO SAY THEY WERE ATTACKED BY COSBY

Going public: Renita Chainey Hill accused Cosby of flying her to different cities around the country and drugging her in hotels when she was 17

Andrea Constand - A Temple University employee, she claimed in 2006 that Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her in his Philadelphia-area mansion two years earlier. Cosby eventually settled this suit out of court as the prosecution said they had 13 Jane Does who would testify Cosby did the same to them in the past.

Barbara Bowman - Bowman told MailOnline that Cosby raped and drugged her back in 1985 when she was a 17-year-old aspiring actress. Bowman was one of the 13 Jane Does in the 2006 trial against Cosby.

Joan Tarshis - Tarshis claimed that she was just 19-years-old when Cosby drugged and raped her twice in Hollywood back in 1969 while she was working as a writer for him.

Janice Dickinson - The supermodel said in an interview that Cosby asked her to come to Lake Tahoe and talk about a television role in 1982, but ended up drugging and raping her.

Tamara Green - Green, who first came forward in 2005 told MailOnline that she was an aspiring actress in the 1970s when Cosby gave her pills and pretended to care for her while she had the flu, but instead sexually assaulted her.

Therese Serignese - Also one of the 13 Jane Does, she says she was 19 when Cosby drugged and raped her in Las Vegas after one of his shows.

Louisa Moritz - She accused Cosby of sexual assault, saying he once forced her into oral sex, backstage at The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in 1971, and implied he would further her career if she went through with it.

Linda Joy Traitz - She said earlier this week that she was just 19 when Cosby drove her out to a beach and tried to get her to take pills to relax, before becoming 'sexually aggressive'. Traitz, of Hallandale Beach, Florida, has been charged in the past with trafficking pills. Cosby's attorney, Marty Singer, is trying to use Traitz's past to discredit her claims against his client.

Beth Ferrier - Beth Ferrier claims she had relationship with Cosby in the mid-1980s. She claims that she awoke in her car with her clothes in disarray and not remembering what had happened. Ferrier has claimed that he drugged her coffee.

Carla Ferrigno - The wife of Incredible Hulk star Lou Ferrigno, claims Cosby tried to sexually assault her during a gathering at his house in 1967. What's more, Cosby allegedly tried to use a friend to help court Ferrigno, and allegedly made his move on the former Playboy Bunny just moments after his own wife, Camille, left the room.

Angela Leslie - The former model-actress claims that Cosby forced her to masturbate him in his Vegas hotel suite after giving her a strong drink in 1992.

Renita Chainey Hill - The 47-year-old mother-of-three who met Cosby when she was offered a role on Picture Pages in Pittsburgh claimed he would fly her to different cities around the United States and drug her during a four-year relationship.

Kristina Ruehli - A New Hampshire grandmother-of-eight, now 71, claims Cosby invited her back to his house for 'party'. She arrived and no one was there. Ruehli alleges that he drugged two bourbons he poured her and she came to when he was on top of her, shirtless

Victoria Valentino - The former Playboy playmate claims Cosby drugged her and a friend, tried to rape her friend then violated her instead in a Hollywood apartment after dinner