American singer and producer R. Kelly was found guilty: it happened at the end of a six-week trial in which he was accused, among other things, of sexual abuse and exploitation and conspiracy.
During the trial, eleven people – nine women and two men – testified against him, describing numerous incidents of violence, threats and abuse, many of which occurred when they were minors.
According to the thesis supported by the prosecutors, with which the jury has shown agreement, for more than ten years Kelly would have used her fame to attract young women and underage girls interested in a career in music and then subject them to severe physical, psychological and sexual.
Kelly was found guilty of all charges, including that of conspiracy: the prosecution claimed that the set of managers and assistants who helped Kelly meet the girls (and then ensure that they continued to stay under his control, obeying him without talking to anyone about what they suffered) constituted in fact a criminal organization.
Kelly was also found guilty of violating the “Mann act”, a federal law that prohibits transporting a person outside the state borders for “immoral purposes” (the law dates back to 1910 and was made to combat trafficking. of human beings and the exploitation of prostitution).
For about twenty years Kelly has been accused of violence and sexual abuse of young women and underage girls. The first time it was widely talked about was in 2000, when the Chicago Sun-Times published a first investigation dealing with these allegations.
Even before then, however, he had been formally accused of having sex with underage girls (resolving the lawsuits with compensation).
When he was 27, in 1994, he made a lot of talk about himself when he married singer Aaliyah, who was then 15 years old. The news went public when a newspaper published the marriage certificate. On the document, however, Aaliyah’s age had been falsified to pretend that she was of age (in 1995 the marriage was annulled).
In 2002 Kelly was charged with child pornography when a video began circulating showing him having sex with a fourteen-year-old girl. The girl did not testify at the trial; in 2008 Kelly was acquitted.
Things changed for him in 2019, when the documentary Surviving R. Kelly – who collected many testimonies from young women who said they had been abused by him – made the allegations even more known and discussed. He was arrested in that year.
The verdict that will specify the sentence will be read on May 4th: Kelly faces life imprisonment.
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