Dylan Bettencourt
R&B singer R. Kelly faces life in prison after a U.S. jury found him guilty of sex crimes which involved trapping female teenagers and adults in sexual, physical and emotional abuse.
“To the victims in this case, your voices were heard, and justice was finally served,” the acting US attorney Jacquelyn Kasulis said on Monday, as she announced the verdict.
A total of 11 accusers – nine women and two men – took to the stand in the six-week trial, during which they described the abuse and humiliation they faced at the hands of R. Kelly.
Kelly, full name Robert Sylvester Kelly, is due to be sentenced before 4 May 2022 and reports suggest he is likely to spend the rest of his life behind bars.
The singer was also accused of sex trafficking on eight separate counts, allegedly of women across U.S. states. Kelly was also found guilty of racketeering to collect illegal money.
The 54-year-old Kelly, who is a three-time Grammy winner who sold over 75 million records, remains one of the most commercially successful artists of all time.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Geddes said Kelly’s associates enabled and supported his predatory behaviour over the three decades in which it took place.
Despite Kelly’s lawyers’ best efforts to save the disgraced artist, the jury of five women and seven men found him guilty of all charges. The jury indicated that the star used his fame to systematically recruit his victims for sex, and was supported by his entourage.
Kelly said he was exposed to pornography and was raped when he was eight years old. He has also previously stated that an older man in his neighborhood sexually abused him when he was a pre-teen.
The verdict comes 13 years after he was first charged with child pornography charges in the state of Illinois. Several of the singers’ charges were brought to light in the Surviving R. Kelly documentary that helped to expose the artist’s wrongdoings over the years.
Image source: @SkyNews
