R&B singer R Kelly was sentenced to a 30-year jail term for leveraging his fame to repeatedly sexually abuse young followers. Some of whom were just children. He was guilty of racketeering and sex trafficking offences in New York last September. Judge Ann Donnelly imposed the sentence in federal court in Brooklyn.
“The verdict is in: R Kelly has been sentenced to 30 years,” the US attorney’s office said in a tweet. At his six-week Brooklyn trial, jurors learned of his involvement in the trafficking of women across various US states. Those acts were with the help of managers, security personnel, and several people from his entourage. The jury also learnt about how Kelly obtained illegal documents to marry Aaliyah when she was 15 in 1994.
Kelly’s attorneys had claimed that due to his horrific upbringing, which included “severe, prolonged childhood sexual abuse, poverty, and violence,” he shouldn’t serve more than 10 years in jail. As an adult with “literacy deficiencies”, the star was “repeatedly defrauded and financially abused. Often by the people he paid to protect him”, his lawyers said.
R Kelly denies his misconduct
The public was first made aware of Kelly’s alleged abuse of underage girls in the 1990s. He was sued in 1997 by a lady who claimed that he had molested and harassed her while she was a teenager. In Chicago, he later faced criminal child pornography accusations involving a different girl. In 2008, a jury there found him not guilty, and he later resolved the claim. He was facing accus by several people of subjecting underage victims to bizarre and brutal impulses.
Kelly has vehemently denied any misconduct. His former attorneys painted his victims as girlfriends and groupies. Stating they lived with him because they appreciated the benefits of his lifestyle. However, he himself was not present during the trial. The #MeToo movement hailed his conviction in New York as a turning point. This marks the first significant sex assault trial in which Black women made up the vast majority of the accusers.
