There’s news on the conclusion of the federal trial of R&B musician and producer R. Kelly, according to the Associated Press.
#RKellySentenced to 30 Years in Federal Prison #sexabuse case https://t.co/c4rsdD5oMo @ap @pix11news pic.twitter.com/UxfhpVZfeR
— NEWS10 ABC (@WTEN) June 29, 2022
Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — R&B star R. Kelly was sentenced to 30 years in prison Wednesday for using his superstardom to subject young fans — some just children — to systematic sexual abuse.
55 year old singer and songwriter was convicted last year of racketeering as well as sex traficking. The trial provided a voice for accusers who were once wondering if their stories were being forgotten because they are Black women.
U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly imposed the sentence after hearing from several survivors who attested to how Kelly’s exploitation reverberated across their lives.
The AP goes on:
Kelly, born Robert Sylvester Kelly, used his “fame, money and popularity” to systematically “prey upon children and young women for his own sexual gratification,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing earlier this month.
…
In the 1990s, allegations that Kelly had abused girls grew in popularity. In 1997, a young woman filed a lawsuit against Kelly alleging sexual harassment and sexual battery. Later, he was subject to child pornography criminal charges in Chicago for the same girl. In 2008, he was cleared by the court and settled his lawsuit.
…
Kelly’s lawyers had argued he should get no more than 10 years in prison because he had a traumatic childhood “involving severe, prolonged childhood sexual abuse, poverty, and violence.”
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.
The wire service report notes that Kelly did not address the court or his victims at sentencing, and he still faces charges of “child pornography and obstruction of justice” in Chicago.
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