R. Kelly in a 2019 photo (AP Photo/Matt Marton, File)
For child pornography and incitement to minors: He will serve almost the entire sentence, along with the 30 years he has already been sentenced to for sexual abuse
American singer and producer R. Kelly has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for child pornography and incitement to minors, of which he was found guilty last September. R. Kelly had previously been sentenced to 30 years in prison in another trial in which he was found guilty of sexual exploitation and conspiracy: the Chicago federal court judge who delivered the sentence ruled that he should serve 19 of the proposed 20 Years along with The 30 he has already served and partially accepted the defense’s motions if convicted. So in fact he has to serve 31 years in prison, one more than the sentence he has already served.
R. Kelly, pseudonym of Robert Sylvester Kelly, is 56 years old and became famous mainly in the 90s and early 2000s for singles like “I believe I can fly” and “Ignition”. In June 2022, he was sentenced to 30 years: According to the judges, he had used his fame to attract young women and underage girls interested in careers in music and then, with complicity, subjected them to serious physical, psychological and sexual abuse suspended some managers and assistants. However, the following September he was found guilty of six of the thirteen counts he was charged with in the trial, for which the verdict came Thursday.
The trial concerned events dating back more than 20 years and had already landed at the center of another trial that took place in 2008 after the dissemination of a video in which the singer was seen having sex with a 14-year-old girl. On that occasion, R. Kelly was acquitted because the girl who accused him did not testify. However, last summer the same girl – now 37, identified by the alias “Jane” – had chosen to testify, claiming she was the person captured in the video and accusing R. Kelly of abusing her hundreds of times when she it was a minor one. In addition to her, four other women had made the same allegations against the singer.
R. Kelly has also been charged with crimes related to sexual abuse and exploitation of prostitution in Minnesota, where no trial has yet taken place.
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