Chicago court convicts R. Kelly of making videos in which he appears to sexually abuse his 14-year-old goddaughter
American romantic singer R. Kelly was sentenced this Thursday (23/2) to 20 years in prison for pornography and child sexual abuse. He was found guilty in a Chicago federal court of producing three videos of himself sexually abusing his 14-year-old goddaughter, further boosting his criminal conviction in his scandal-ridden career.
The jury convicted Kelly of six of the 13 charges brought against him, acquitting him of one charge of attempting to obstruct an earlier investigation into the abuse of his goddaughter and of two other counts of soliciting minors into sexual activity.
Kelly was even acquitted of producing images of sexual abuse of her goddaughter in a previous trial, held in 2008, when some jurors said they were influenced by the young woman’s failure to testify. At the time, she denied to the jury that she was the person on the tape who appeared to have been abused and humiliated by Kelly. However, she changed her testimony in the retrial, identifying herself as the minor being molested in the videos of her, excerpts of which were shown to the jury.
“No amount of therapy is going to make me normal,” said the woman, identified as Jane, in a statement read out by her attorney, Christopher Brown.
Considered the “king of R&B”, the singer, who was very successful in the 90s, has already been considered a source of pride by the city of Chicago. That all changed when dozens of abuse allegations surfaced, which ended up collated in a Lifetime documentary series: “Surviving R. Kelly,” in 2019.
Because of the allegations, the artist was already sentenced in June last year to 30 years in prison by a federal court in Brooklyn. The jury found him guilty of leading a decade-long network of trafficking and sexual abuse.
“The only way to make sure he doesn’t reoffend is to impose a sentence that will keep him in prison for the rest of his life,” said Jeannice Williams Appenteng, one of the Chicago prosecutors.
Kelly’s attorneys plan to appeal the ruling.
Source: Terra
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