R&B singer R Kelly has been sentenced to 30 years in prison by a court in New York for masterminding an elaborate scheme to entice and sexually exploit young aspiring singers and children. A jury found Kelly, 55, guilty of racketeering relating to bribery and forced labor, and other counts last year at a trial that was seen as a signature moment in the #MeToo movement. Here’s what you need to know.
At his sentencing on Wednesday, the court heard victim impact statements from seven women, presented anonymously to the court as Jane Does, who detailed Kelly’s “God-like complex” and how he used his “fame and power” to entice his victims.
R Kelly’s Victims Speak Out After The Singer’s Sentencing
A woman using the pseudonym Angela told him: “The pied piper of R&B, both in music and in technique and in approach. Success and love… you presented these glittering gems as if they were gold. With every addition of a new victim you grew in wickedness, cockiness, diminishing any form of humanity or self-awareness, which soon became the breeding ground for your God-like complex.”
In her sentencing remarks, Judge Ann Donnelly told Kelly: “Having your minions troll for young people at the mall… handing out your phone number… for the opportunity to meet R Kelly. ou fancied yourself a genius that can do ‘whatever I want because of what I give to the world.’ You taught them that love is enslavement and violence.”
Gloria Allred, a lawyer for some of Kelly’s accusers, said the singer used the power of his celebrity and his music business to “lure and to manipulate and to isolate and to denigrate many young girls.”
His prolific sexual abuse led him to being labelled the “the pied piper of R&B” by one of his victims. One victim described being forced to perform a sex act on him in a car full of his entourage. “I was 19, you were a 31-year-old pedophile looking for another life to destroy. You broke my spirit, stripped me of my dignity and self respect. Do you even remember?” She went on to say she hoped he would never be released, “if you were you’d carry on.”
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