Bail set at $1m for R Kelly who faces sex abuse charges

A judge says the amount represents $250,000 for each of his four alleged victims as the star stared at the floor looking dejected

A judge has set bail at $1m (£760,000) for R Kelly who is charged with 10 counts of sex abuse.

The R&B singer is accused of the aggravated sexual assault of four women between 1998 and 2010. His alleged victims include three who were aged between 13 and 17 at the time.

If found guilty, the grammy-winner, whose hit tracks include I Believe I Can Fly, could face up to 70 years in prison. In a Chicago court, the star stood with his hands behind his back and said to the judge: “How are you?”

Cook County judge John Fitzgerald Lyke Jr said the bail amount represents $250,000 for each of the people he is charged with abusing. The judge called the allegations “disturbing” as the singer stared at the floor looking dejected.

Kelly’s lawyer Steve Greenberg said his client was not a flight risk and told the judge: “Contrary to the song, Mr Kelly doesn’t like to fly.” The bail requires Kelly to post $100,000 to be released.

Mr Greenberg said Kelly was trying to get the money together and hoped to be released from custody this weekend.  The star appeared in court after being driven to a police station on Friday in a dark van with heavily tinted rear windows, where he handed himself in.

The 52-year-old was handcuffed and escorted by two officers as he entered the building. Police confirmed he would be fingerprinted, photographed and processed.

The star, whose legal name is Robert Kelly, has faced allegations of sexual misconduct with underage girls for decades. He has denied any wrongdoing.  Speaking after the charges were brought, Mr Greenberg said Kelly was “extraordinarily disappointed and depressed. He is shell-shocked by this”.

Mr Greenberg said his offer to sit down with prosecutors before charges were filed was refused.

“Unfortunately, they have succumbed to the court of public opinion, who’ve convicted him,” he said.

Kelly was charged a week after attorney Michael Avenatti, who represents some of the victims, said he gave prosecutors video evidence of the three-time Grammy award winner with an underage girl.

Mr Avenatti said a 14-year-old girl seen with R Kelly on the video is among four victims linked to the charges.

He claimed the video shows two separate incidents on different days at Kelly’s residence in the late 1990s, and both the victim and Kelly refer to her age 10 times in the footage.

Avenatti said he believes more than 10 other people associated with the singer should be charged for enabling the assaults.

Also on Friday, two women came forward to allege R Kelly arranged for them to be brought to his room for a threesome when they were underage in the mid-1990s.

Latresa Scaff, then 16, claims Kelly had sex with her, despite her being unable to consent because she under the influence of alcohol and cannabis.

Rochelle Washington, then 15, says she had escaped and hid in the bathroom.

The singer’s arrest comes six weeks after the documentary Surviving R Kelly examined old sexual misconduct allegations against him.

Shortly after the documentary aired, one of Kelly’s former managers handed himself in to police in Georgia, where he was wanted on a charge of making threats against one of the families that took part in the documentary.

In 2008, Kelly was acquitted of child pornography charges connected to a video prosecutors claimed showed him having sex with a girl.

Although witnesses testified it was the singer and the girl in the footage, she decided not to take the stand.

Kelly could have been sentenced to 15 years in prison. – news.sky.com