‘Violence, cruelty and control’: R. Kelly jailed for 30 years for sex trafficking

New York: Disgraced R&B superstar R. Kelly has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for using his fame to subject young fans – some just children – to systematic sexual abuse.

Through tears and anger, several of Kelly’s accusers told a New York court, and the singer himself, how he had preyed on them and misled his fans. “You made me do things that broke my spirit,” said one unnamed survivor, directly addressing Kelly, who kept his hands folded and his eyes downcast. “Do you remember that?”

R. Kelly was found guilty of racketeering and sex trafficking last yearCredit: AP

Kelly, 55, didn’t speak at his sentencing, where he also was ordered to pay a $US100,000 fine ($145,000). He has denied wrongdoing, and plans to appeal his conviction.

The Grammy-winning, multi-platinum singer and songwriter was convicted last year of racketeering and sex trafficking at a trial that gave voice to accusers who had previously wondered if their stories were being ignored because they were black women.

“There wasn’t a day in my life, up until this moment, that I actually believed that the judicial system would come through for black and brown girls,” one survivor said outside court.

US District judge Ann Donnelly told Kelly on Wednesday (New York time) that “although sex was certainly a weapon that you used, this is not a case about sex. It’s a case about violence, cruelty and control”.

The sentence caps a slow-motion fall for Kelly, who was one of the most successful artists of his time and adored by legions of fans even after allegations about his abuse of young girls began circulating publicly in the 1990s. Widespread outrage over Kelly’s sexual misconduct didn’t come until the #MeToo reckoning, reaching a crescendo after the release of the docuseries Surviving R. Kelly.

Kelly’s lawyers 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.

Kelly was sued in 1997 by a woman who alleged sexual battery and sexual harassment while she was a minor, and he later faced criminal child pornography charges related to a different girl in Chicago. A jury there acquitted him in 2008, and he settled the lawsuit.

All the while, Kelly continued to sell millions of albums.

Jovante Cunningham, who says Kelly abused her, pauses to consider her view of his 30-year sentence while speaking to the media outside court.Credit: AP/John Minchillo

The Brooklyn federal court jury convicted him after hearing that he used his entourage of managers and aides to meet girls and keep them obedient, an operation that prosecutors said amounted to a criminal enterprise.

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.

Several accusers testified that they had been at the mercy of Kelly’s perverse and sadistic whims while underage – ordered to sign nondisclosure forms and subjected to threats and punishments such as violent spankings if they broke what one referred to as “Rob’s rules”.

Some said they believed the videotapes he shot of them having sex would be used against them if they exposed what was happening.

In this courtroom sketch, R. Kelly and his attorney Jennifer Bonjean, left, appear during his sentencing hearing in New York.Credit: AP/Elizabeth Williams

According to testimony, Kelly gave several accusers herpes without disclosing he had an STD, coerced a teenage boy to join him for sex with a naked girl who emerged from underneath a boxing ring in his garage, and shot a shaming video that showed one victim smearing faeces on her face as punishment for breaking his rules.

Kelly didn’t testify at his trial, but his then-lawyers portrayed his accusers as girlfriends and groupies who weren’t forced to do anything against their will and stayed with him because they enjoyed the perks of his lifestyle.

On Wednesday, Kelly’s lawyer, Jennifer Bonjean, said he was “devastated” by the sentence and saddened by what he had heard in court.

“He’s a human being. He feels what other people are feeling,” she said. “But that doesn’t mean that he can accept responsibility in the way that the government would like him to and other people would like him to. Because he disagrees with the characterisations that have been made about him.”

R. Kelly and the late R&B singer and actress Aaliyah. At age 27, R. Kelly married the then 15-year-old in secret. The marriage was annulled because of her age.Credit: AP

Evidence presented at the trial also centred on a fraudulent marriage scheme hatched to protect Kelly after he feared he had impregnated singer Aaliyah in 1994 when she was just 15. Witnesses said they were married in matching jogging suits using a license falsely listing her age as 18; he was 27 at the time.

Aaliyah worked with Kelly, who wrote and produced her 1994 debut album, Age Ain’t Nothing But A Number. Their marriage was later annulled. Aaliyah died in a plane crash in 2001 at age 22.

A supporter of R. Kelly cries outside court following the sentencing.Credit: AP/John Minchillo

An earlier defence memo suggested prosecutors’ arguments for a higher sentence overreached by falsely claiming Kelly participated in the paying of a bribe to a government official in order to facilitate the illegal marriage.

Lizzette Martinez was a 17-year-old aspiring singer when she met Kelly at a Florida mall. She was promised mentorship but quickly ended up “a sex slave,” she said outside court after the sentencing.

Asked whether Kelly’s 30-year sentence was sufficient punishment, she paused before answering.

“I, personally, don’t think it’s enough,” she said, “but I’m pleased with it.”

Kelly has been held behind bars without bail since 2019. He’s still facing child pornography and obstruction of justice charges in Chicago, where a trial is scheduled to begin on August 15.

AP

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