WASHINGTON: American singer R Kelly has been convicted on federal child pornography charges. On Wednesday, R Kelly was convicted for making videos of himself abusing his 14-year-old goddaughter. The victim is now 37 years old. After a month-long trial in Chicago, the verdict was announced.
According to New York Post, on six of the 13 counts Kelly was charged with, including three child pornography offences, the jury returned with a guilty judgment after deliberating for almost 11 hours starting on Tuesday afternoon. One such crime alone carries a mandatory minimum sentence of five to 10 years in Chicago.
It’s important to mention that it comes on top of a 30-year prison sentence handed to him in earlier in June. He was found guilty of sex trafficking and racketeering in a separate federal case in Brooklyn.
Kelly was charged with child pornography and accused of manipulating his 2008 state trial where he was found not guilty. Kelly was also accused of videotaping himself while having sex with underage girls.
According to New York Post, jurors found him not guilty on Wednesday of the conspiracy accusation that he had rigged his prior trial. In addition, the jury acquitted him of two further charges of enticement and three counts of conspiracy to receive child pornography.
New York Post reports that during the trial, the prosecution claimed that the R Kelly was “a sexual predator” who had used his popularity to prey on young girls and videotape the abuse.
“Robert Kelly abused many girls over many years,” Assistant US Attorney Elizabeth Pozolo told the jurors, using the fallen star’s full name. “He committed horrible crimes against children…All these years later, the hidden side of Robert Kelly has come out.”
New York Post further reported that graphic videos of Kelly abusing his teenage goddaughter, who provided incriminating testimony against him, were part of the prosecution’s list of evidence against the singer. (ANI)