Man testifies R. Kelly sexually abused him
After several days of testimony from women alleging they were groomed and sexually abused by R. Kelly, a man took the witness stand at Kelly’s sex-trafficking trail in New York City on Monday to say the R&B star exploited him in the same way when he was a high school student.
The witness, taking the witness stand in federal court in Brooklyn without using his real name, told a jury how Kelly lured him to his Chicago-area home in 2007 with false offers of helping him with his fledgling music career. Kelly asked the alleged victim, then 17, “what I was willing to do for music,” the witness said. He replied, “I’ll carry your bags . ... Anything you need, I’ll be willing to do.”
“That’s not it. That’s not it,” he said Kelly responded before asking him if he ever fantasized about having sex with men. He described how Kelly then “crawled down on his knees and proceeded to give me oral sex” even though “I wasn’t into it.” Afterward, “he told me to keep between him and me,” he said.
In a later episode, Kelly “snapped his fingers three times” to summon a naked girl from where she was hiding under a boxing ring to give Kelly and the witness oral sex, the man told the jury.
He kept seeing Kelly after that because “I really wanted to make it in the music industry,” he said. Kelly, 54, has repeatedly denied accusations that he preyed on victims during a 30-year career highlighted by his 1996 megahit “I Believe I Can Fly.” His lawyers have portrayed his accusers as groupies who are lying about their relationships with him.