A woman central to R Kelly’s legal troubles for more than two decades testified on Thursday that the R&B singer had sex with her “hundreds” of times before she turned 18, starting when she was 15.
Jane – the pseudonym for the now 37-year-old at Kelly’s trial on child sexual abuse images and obstruction of justice charges – told jurors that in the late 1990s when she was 13, she asked the Grammy-winning singer to be her godfather because she saw him as an inspiration and mentor.
Within weeks, she said, Kelly would call her and say sexual things. She said he first touched her breasts and other parts of her body when she was around 14 at a Chicago recording studio, and that around that time he “started penetration” at his North Side Chicago home. She told jurors she was 15 when they first had intercourse.
Asked by a prosecutor how she would know what to do sexually, Jane answered, “He would tell me what to do.”
Asked how many times they had sex before she turned 18, she answered quietly: “Uncountable times. Hundreds.”
Prosecutors say a video Kelly took of himself having sex with Jane around 2000 led to the first investigations of the singer.
Speaking softly and tentatively, Jane described her upbringing in a musical family in a Chicago suburb, including that she was home-schooled because she was in a touring musical group she joined when she was about 12.
Among the most serious charges Kelly faces at the federal trial is conspiracy to obstruct justice by allegedly rigging a 2008 trial on state child sexual abuse images charges stemming from the purported video of him and Jane having sex.
Among other things, prosecutors say Kelly paid off and threatened Jane to ensure that she didn’t testify. She did not and he was acquired.
Kelly is also standing trial on charges of producing child sexual abuse images and enticing minors for sex. Unlike at the 2008 trial, Jane cooperated with prosecutors leading up to the current trial and is a pivotal witness.
A conviction in Chicago could add decades to a 30-year prison sentence Kelly received from a New York federal judge this year for convictions on charges that he used his fame to sexually abuse other young fans. Different accusers testified at that trial.
Jane met Kelly in the late 1990s when she was in junior high school. She tagged along to his Chicago recording studio with her aunt of him, a professional singer. Soon after that, Jane told her parents of her Kelly was going to be her godfather of her.
Prosecutors have said Kelly shot the video of Jane in a log cabin-themed room at his home between 1998 and 2000, when she was as young as 13. The girl is heard calling the man “daddy”.
Kelly, who rose from poverty on Chicago’s South Side to become a star singer, songwriter and producer, knew a conviction in 2008 would effectively end his life as he knew it.
According to prosecutors, he told the parents and Jane to leave Chicago, paying for travel to the Bahamas and Mexico. When they returned, prosecutors say Kelly sought to isolate Jane, moving her to different hotels. When called before a state grand jury, Jane, her father and mother denied she was in it.
Kelly was acquitted on all counts of child sexual abuse images. Some jurors told reporters they weren’t convinced the female in the video was who prosecutors said she was.
Before the 2008 trial, Kelly carried a duffle bag full of sex tapes everywhere he went but some tapes later went missing, according to court filings. In the 2000s, bootleg copies appeared throughout the US.
In the early 2000s, the aunt showed the parents a copy of a video she said depicted their daughter having sex with Kelly. When they confronted Kelly, he told them, “You’re with me or against me,” a government filing says. The parents took it as a threat.
Kelly, who has denied wrongdoing, has been trailed for decades by complaints and allegations about his sexual behavior. The scrutiny intensified in the #MeToo era and after a 2019 six-part documentary, Surviving R Kelly.
He also faces four counts of enticement of minors for sex – one each for four other accusers. They are expected to testify. Prosecutors told jurors that the evidence includes at least three videos showing Kelly having sex with underage girls.
Two Kelly associates, Derrel McDavid and Milton Brown, are co-defendants. McDavid is accused of helping Kelly fix the 2008 trial, while Brown is charged with receiving child sexual abuse images. Like Kelly, they also have denied wrongdoing.
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George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism