Monsurat
Disgraced R & B singer, Robert Sylvester Kelly, known professionally as R Kelly has now received an additional 20-year jail term in a second federal trial in Chicago on charges of child pornography and enticement of a minor.
The 56-year old is already serving a 30-year jail term for charges of racketeering and sex trafficking, after a trial in New York. This means the singer will be in jail until his mid-80s.
US District Judge Harry D. Leinenweber said in his verdict on Thursday that Kelly will be serving all of the sentence simultaneously alongside the old sentence. One year would be served consecutively, meaning he will serve 31 years.
In a statement read aloud in court, one of Kelly’s victims identified as “Jane”, said “I have lost my dignity due to Robert Kelly. I have lost my dreams due to Robert Kelly. I have lost my teenage years to Robert Kelly.”
According to BBC, prosecutors sought a 25-year sentence in the trial, saying that his crimes were made worse by the fact that he filmed his victims and some of the footage became public. “Because Kelly is Kelly, more people have watched child pornography,” the prosecutors said in a memo as per BBC Report. “The effects of Kelly’s conduct are wide-ranging, incalculable and irreversible.”
They argued that a lengthy sentence was necessary to “protect the community” from further harm. However, Jennifer Bonjean, Kelly’s defense attorney asked the judge to allow Kelly serve the new jail term simultaneously with the previous one as a consecutive sentence would mean “a second life sentence.”
Kelly enjoyed commercial success during his active years and won three Grammy awards.
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