Disgraced R’n’B singer R-Kelly has been sentenced to 30 years imprisonment. The super-star fell from grace after being found guilty of federal racketeering and sex trafficking charges last year. On Wednesday the US court sentenced the 55-year-old singer.
Kelly’s defense attorneys requested a sentence of 10 years or less, arguing that the prosecution’s request was “tantamount to a life sentence.” The prosecution had urged the judge to sentence Kelly, 55, to more than 25 years in prison.
As US District Court Judge Ann Donnelly began reading Kelly’s punishment, survivors of his abuse clasped hands and prayed. Kelly, who attended the hearing in federal court in Brooklyn while donning a tan prison uniform, dark-rimmed glasses, and a black mask, displayed no emotion.
It is reported that R-Kelly used his fame to trap the victims he sexually abused. In February 2021, Kelly was charged with 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse involving four women, three of whom were allegedly underage. Lifetime’s documentary Surviving R. Kelly, which aired in January 2021, featured dozens of sources — alleged victims, their family members, and Kelly’s former business associates — who say Kelly seduced young women and then held them at his home as sex slaves.
A lawsuit by a former girlfriend was settled in 1998, four years after he secretly married the then-15-year-old singer Aaliyah, and a jury acquitted Kelly of allegations of child pornography in 2008.
