Singer R. Kelly was convicted of sexual abuse and exploitation. The jury of seven men and five women ruled that the R&B star, best known for the song ‘I believe I can fly’ from 1996, is guilty at the end of a trial in which he was described as a predator of young women and African American girls Now face life imprisonment.
The 54-year-old singer has been accused of leading a criminal organization in Chicago for over two decades that recruited women by subjecting them to sexual and psychological abuse. Several victims testified during the trial that they were subjected to these abuses even when they were minors.
The R&B singer has been found guilty of a long list of crimes, including sexual abuse, child sexual abuse, sexual exploitation and racketeering. However, there is a wait until May 4th for the judge’s decision on the sentence. Robert Sylvester Kelly, 13 years ago was acquitted by an Illinois court of child pornography charges. New allegations against him surfaced in a 2019 documentary, Surviving R Kelly, which denounced how an entourage of supporters for years had protected the singer by silencing the victims.
Months after the release of the film, in July 2016, the singer was arrested accused by the federal judiciary of racketeering and violation of the Mann Act, which prohibits sexual exploitation.