Singer R. Kelly found guilty of child pornography
The interpreter of the famous “I Believe I Can Fly” was sentenced Wednesday in Chicago for production of child pornography and embezzlement of a minor.
R. Kelly on stage in 2013.
Getty Images via AFP
R. Kelly, a fallen R&B star who was previously sentenced to 30 years in prison in June for sex crimes against young, sometimes teenage, women, was found guilty of child pornography in Chicago on Wednesday.
Robert Sylvester Kelly, 55, was convicted of production of child pornography and embezzlement of a minor, according to the Chicago Tribune newspaper.
The singer, known worldwide for his hit “I Believe I Can Fly” and his 75 million records sold, was however acquitted by a federal jury on other charges of obstruction of justice. He and two former associates – also acquitted on Wednesday – were charged with disrupting the course of his 2008 child pornography trial, in which the jury found him not guilty. They were accused of having both threatened and corrupted a victim, who had not then testified. Now 37, she spoke this time.
Excerpts from videos showing sexual violence committed by R. Kelly on young teenage girls, one of whom was only 14, were shown during the trial.
The 12-person jury took about 11 hours to reach this verdict, which could add a heavy prison sentence to the 30 years of imprisonment to which R. Kelly has already been sentenced.
The artist was found guilty in September 2021 in New York of having piloted for three decades a “system” of sexual exploitation of young people, including adolescent girls.
System
This lawsuit had been considered a major step in the #MeToo movement: it was the first time that the majority of the plaintiffs were black women and that they accused a black artist.
For decades, the success of R. Kelly had been tarnished by suspicions of sexual violence, subject of persistent rumors. He had long managed to silence them with financial agreements that included confidentiality clauses.
As early as 2017, two women, Kenyette Barnes and Oronike Odeleye, had called for a boycott of his songs, sharing the hashtag “Mute R. Kelly” (“Shut up R. Kelly”). In January 2019, the documentary series “Surviving R. Kelly” hit the nail on the head. Several victims described the singer as manipulative, violent and obsessed with very young girls.
During the trial in New York, the victims had described the tactics used by the singer to attract very young women by using his celebrity, and with the complicity of those around him.
Many of them had met the star at concerts, after which they were slipped a small piece of paper indicating R. Kelly’s contact details. He would do something for their musical career, they were promised. Instead, they were “indoctrinated” into R. Kelly’s “squalid” milieu, coerced into sex, and kept in that “system” by “coercive measures,” according to the prosecution.
The singer had managed to climb to the top of the music industry despite his tumultuous personal life, including his marriage – then canceled – with his 15-year-old protege, singer Aaliyah. R. Kelly wrote and produced the late artist’s 2001 debut album, “Age Ain’t Nothin’ But A Number.”
AFP
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