R&B star R Kelly has been sentenced to 30 years in jail for sex trafficking and subjecting young fans to systematic sexual abuse
The Grammy-winning singer-songwriter, 55, was convicted of racketeering and sex trafficking last year at a trial that gave voice to accusers who had once wondered if their stories were being ignored because they were Black women.
He was also ordered to pay a $US100,000 fine.
US District Judge Ann Donnelly imposed the sentence after hearing from several survivors who attested to how Kelly’s exploitation had changed their lives.
R. Kelly’s accusers told the court he had preyed on them and misled his fans as the fallen R&B star listened with downcast eyes.
“You made me do things that broke my spirit. I literally wished I would die because of how low you made me feel,” one woman told the Grammy-winning, multiplatinum-selling singer.
“Do you remember that?”
Kelly, born Robert Sylvester Kelly, did not address the court.
Kelly’s lawyers had argued he should get no more than 10 years in prison because he had a traumatic childhood “involving severe, prolonged childhood sexual abuse, poverty, and violence”.
His lawyers painted Kelly as an adult with “literacy deficiencies,” the star was “repeatedly defrauded and financially abused, often by the people he paid to protect him”.
The Brooklyn federal court jury convicted him after hearing that he used his entourage of managers and aides to meet girls and keep them obedient.
