R. Kelly found guilty of child sexual abuse charges

R. Kelly has been found guilty of six out of 13 charges relating to images of child abuse, after a four-week trial in his hometown of Chicago.


The disgraced R&B artist, whose real name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, was found guilty on three counts of child pornography and three counts of child enticement. The 55-year-old is already serving a 30-year sentence in New York on racketeering and sex trafficking charges.

The new verdict did, however, acquit him of fixing a state trial on pornography charges in 2008.

The singer, whose sold some 75 million albums, making him at one stage one of the best-selling artists in the world, now faces more years being added to his sentence. The Chicago Tribune reports that each of the child pornography charges carry a mandatory-minimum 10-year sentence.

R. Kelly Convicted

Photo: Nuccio DiNuzzo

Allegations have been levelled at R. Kelly for decades, dating back to at least 1996 when the singer was accused of having sex with underage women, before further allegations were made in 2001 and 2002.

Eventually, a trial took place but ultimately acquitted him in 2008. That trial had centred on a 30-minute video of Kelly with a then-14-year-old girl, who goes by the pseudonym “Jane” and didn’t testify in the trial 14 years ago.

However, in this latest trial, “Jane”, now 37-years-old, did testify and identified herself as the person in the footage, saying Kelly abused her hundreds of times whilst she was underage. Four other women also accused Kelly in the trial and more than 30 witnesses testified in total.

The disgraced artist is still facing state charges of aggravated sexual abuse in Illinois and prostitution and solicitation charges in Minnesota.


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