November 24, 2024
R. Kelly: US singer faces decades in jail at sex trafficking sentencing
Singer R. Kelly could face decades in prison when he is sentenced on Wednesday, nine months after being found guilty of running a scheme to sexually abuse women and children.
In September, a New York jury convicted the disgraced pop star of racketeering and eight counts of sex trafficking.
R&B singer R Kelly
The 55-year-old R&B singer will spend at least 10 years in prison, with the maximum possible sentence being life.
Prosecutors have said he should spend at least 25 years behind bars.
His legal team have argued that he deserves no more than the minimum sentence of a decade because he is “not currently a risk to the public”.
The singer – known for the hit songs I Believe I Can Fly and Ignition (Remix) – was found to have been the ringleader of a violent and coercive scheme to lure women and children for him to sexually abuse.
The six-week trial heard how he trafficked women between different US states, assisted by managers, security guards and other entourage members, over two decades.
Prosecutors said he showed a “callous disregard” for his victims and showed no remorse.
“Indeed, the defendant’s decades of crime appear to have been fuelled by narcissism and a belief that his musical talent absolved him of any need to conform his conduct – no matter how predatory, harmful, humiliating or abusive to others – to the strictures of the law,” they said.
The court also heard how Kelly had illegally obtained paperwork to marry singer Aaliyah when she was 15 in 1994, seven years before the singer died in a plane crash.
The certificate, leaked at the time, listed Aaliyah’s age as 18. The marriage was annulled months later.
After several delays, he will be sentenced at the US District Court in New York on Wednesday.
Kelly is separately facing trial in Chicago on child sex images and obstruction charges. He is also due to face sex abuse charges in Illinois and Minnesota. – bbc.com
