R Kelly handed 30 years in prison over sex trafficking
R KELLY, the disgraced R&B singer, was last night sentenced to 30 years for leading a decades-long effort to recruit and trap teenagers and women for sex.
A judge handed down the term in the Brooklyn Federal Court in New York almost a year after Robert Kelly, 55, was found guilty by a jury.
The singer and songwriter was convicted of racketeering and sex trafficking.
Ann Donnelly, the US District Judge, imposed the sentence after hearing from several survivors who told how Kelly’s exploitation ruined their lives.
One survivor told the court: “You made me do things that broke my spirit.
“I literally wished I would die because of how low you made me feel. Do you remember that?”
In court, Kelly kept his hands folded and his eyes downcast. He did not address the court before being sentenced. Kelly was adored by fans and sold millions of albums, even after allegations about his abuse of young girls began circulating publicly in the 1990s. There was renewed widespread outrage over his sexual misconduct after the release in 2019 of the docuseries Surviving R Kelly.
His lawyers had argued he should get no more than 10 years in prison because he had a traumatic childhood. They said that involved “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 claimed. Prosecutors said Kelly used his “fame, money and popularity” to systematically “prey upon children and young women for his own sexual gratification”.
His lawyers attempted to portray his accusers as girlfriends and groupies who were not forced to do anything against their will.