American singer R Kelly given 30 years imprisonment for sex racketeering
American R&B singer R Kelly was given a 30-year imprisonment sentence on June 29, 2022, for sexually abusing children and women. Kelly, whose full name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, was convicted of sex trafficking and abuse in September last year. His lawyers said that Kelly will appeal the sentence.
What is the case all about? R Kelly stands accused of using his celebrity status to sexually abuse children and women since his climb to fame in the 1990s. Starting in 1996, R Kelly faced various lawsuits alleging sexual abuse, however, while some were settled outside of court, others were dropped due to lack of evidence.
It was only after 2017, that bombshell media reports accusing R Kelly of running a sex cult by Buzzfeed and Lifetime documentary ‘Surviving R Kelly’, that multiple charges of child trafficking and abuse were filed against the singer.
Starting in 2019, R Kelly was facing criminal charges in three different states in the US for organising a system to traffic young children and women for sexual activities, producing photos and videos of child sex abuse, conspiring to destroy evidence and threatening witnesses, and prostitution.
What did the court say? R Kelly was sentenced in New York by US District Judge Ann Donnelly, who said, “This case is not about sex. It is about violence, cruelty and control.'
How did the abuse begin? Years of trial has revealed the detail of R Kelly’s cruelty against his victims. The abuse is traced back to his 1994 marriage with the late singer Aaliyah, when she was just 15 years old and he was 27. However, the R Kelly or Aaliyah’s kin has rarely spoken about the marriage during the trial. Aaliyah was killed in a plane crash in 2001.
The following years involved R Kelly being accused of causing emotional distress by sexually abusing teenagers, dictating every aspect of the victim’s life, forcing them into sexual intercourse with him and other people, recording the activities, intentionally infecting victims with Sexually Transmitted Diseases, forcing the victims to cut off contact with family and friends, etc.
R Kelly is accused of luring young girls and women into his abusive trap by promising to help them with their careers.
R Kelly’s childhood: The judge also acknowledged R Kelly’s troubled childhood while handing out the sentence, but said that while it gives some sort of reason for his crimes, it is not an excuse. R Kelly told psychiatric experts about having seen his childhood sweetheart drown and also being sexually assaulted by a family member and a landlord when he was 6 or 7 years old.
Reactions: Twitterati has praised the sentence for R Kelly. However, some compared the sentence of R Kelly with that of Ghislaine Maxwell claiming the difference as racist. Ghislaine Maxwell was handed a 20-year jail term recently for being an accomplice to sexual offender Jeffery Epstein.
There are some people who continue to support Kelly. Diana Copeland, Kelly's former assistant, requested a shorter sentence, while Joycelyn Savage, who says she’s engaged to Kelly, also voiced her support for the singer.