Disgraced R&B singer R.Kelly has just been sentenced after a jury returned with a guilty verdict for nine different offenses last year.
Although R. Kelly’s been known for his suspicious sexual behavior for decades, it’s only in recent years that he’s seen any real consequences for his actions.
And once the documentary Surviving R. Kelly brought his most recent allegations to light, he’s been dropped from his label and faced well over 11 sexual abuse counts .
Now, we know what those charges have amounted to and it’s clear that Kelly will be in prison for a long time.
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On June 29, US District Court Judge Ann Donnelly sentenced Kelly to 30 years in federal prison after he was convicted of federal racketeering and sex trafficking charges last year.
According to CNN , nine of these charges appeared to stick to him and included one racketeering count and eight violations of the Mann Act.
As the BBC reported, these stemmed from a pattern that saw Kelly use his fame to lure underage girls into his home and studios with the promise of helping their careers but with the ultimate goals of exploiting them and controlling their lives.
Given his isolation of these girls from their families as described by three former employees and the girls’ parents, accusers described him as running a sex cult.
In the BBC’s report, a former collaborator named Lovell Jones stated that Kelly would explicitly ask him to scout out girls that looked young for him.
Meanwhile, survivors that exceeded a dozen came forward with claims that Kelly not only assaulted them when they were underage, but forced them to exhibit lewd behavior towards each other while he recorded them.
During the trial, Kelly’s legal team included 14 hours of testimony from psychiatrists who spoke to Kelly’s own childhood traumas.
Much of this testimony came from Renee Sorrentino from Harvard Medical School, who revealed that he was deeply affected by the death of his mother and by frequent sexual abuse from his older sister and landlord that occurred on an almost weekly basis.
In Sorrentino’s opinion, these likely contributed to the “hypersexuality” that underpinned the actions that earned him a sweeping criminal conviction.
However, one survivor named Faith counter-argued that while her father experienced similar acts to Kelly, it was only Kelly who abused her.
As an attorney who represented three of Kelly’s victims named Gloria Allred said, “No one can undo the harm that has been done to these victims, but at least it’s time for Mr. Kelly to be accountable.”
The witnesses supporting the veracity of his actions spanned all the way back to 1994 and included those who helped arranged his marriage to Aaliyah when she was 15.
And while his defense argued that the 30-year sentence handed down to him was akin to a life sentence, the prosecution argued that the lengthy sentence was needed to protect the public from further crimes.
One of his victims who used the name Jane Doe 2 agreed, saying, “It’s been 23 years since we knew each other, and you’ve victimized a lot of girls since then. Now it’s your turn to have your freedom taken from you.”
