NEW YORK – Singer R. Kelly was yesterday convicted of leading a decades-long sex crime ring, with a jury here finding him guilty on all nine charges, including the most serious of racketeering.
After six weeks of disturbing testimony, the jury deliberated just nine hours before finding the incarcerated 54-year-old celebrity guilty of systematically recruiting women and teenagers for sex, before grooming and brutally abusing them.
Wearing a light-blue tie, pinstriped navy suit and a white mask, Kelly sat largely motionless, holding his head down and periodically closing his eyes behind black-rimmed glasses.
He faces up to life in prison. His sentencing is scheduled for May 4.
To convict Kelly on the most serious charge of racketeering, jurors had to find him guilty of at least two of 14 “predicate acts” – the crimes elemental to a wider pattern of illegal wrongdoing.
Lurid testimony intended to prove the said acts includes accusations of rape, drugging, imprisonment and child pornography.
The jury of five women and seven men found that all but two of the acts were proven.
Kelly was also convicted on all eight charges of violating the Mann Act, an anti-sex trafficking law.
“We’re disappointed with the verdict,” his attorney Deveraux Cannick told journalists outside the courtroom.
He said they will be “considering” an appeal.
Kelly still faces prosecution in three other jurisdictions, including Illinois.
One of the 1990s’ brightest stars whose hits include I Believe I Can Fly, the disgraced artiste has long been trailed by abuse allegations, but evaded them for decades. – AFP, September 28, 2021
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