New Delhi: R&B singer R Kelly was sentenced to 20 years in prison in Chicago federal court on Thursday after pleading guilty last year to charges of child pornography and soliciting a minor.
According to CNN reports, Kelly is already serving a 30-year prison sentence in federal court in New York for his 2021 conviction on fraud and sex trafficking charges. US District Judge Harry D. Leinenweber told the court on Thursday that 19 years of the 20-year prison sentence will be served concurrently or in conjunction with his second sentence. The punishment will be served continuously for one year or after the completion of the sentence, he said.
Kelly was convicted in September of three counts of manufacturing child pornography and three counts of enticing a minor to engage in criminal sexual activity. An appeal for a new trial was denied last week.
According to CNN, before sentencing, attorney Christopher Brown read a statement made by one of Kelly’s victims, identified as “Jane”.
“I lost my dignity because of Robert Kelly. I lost my dreams because of Robert Kelly. I lost my teenage years to Robert Kelly,” he read.
She wrote that Kelly was “abusive and domineering” and that she was suicidal. “I will forever be the girl that R. Kelly urinated on,” Jane said through attorney, referring to the infamous sex tape video shown during her trial that showed Kelly urinating on a victim.
The sentencing hearing is the culmination of nearly three decades of allegations Kelly sexually abused underage girls, allegations first reported in the Chicago Sun-Times. In 2002, Kelly was indicted on child pornography charges for allegedly having sex with an undisclosed underage girl, but he was acquitted in 2008, reports CNN.