JAKARTA - R. Kelly was sentenced to 30 years in prison, Wednesday, June 29 local time. Kelly was found guilty of a crime that trapped girls and women in a network of sexual, emotional and physical abuse.
The sentence was handed down nine months after Kelly, 55, was found guilty of racketeering and sex crimes, in a trial on charges that have haunted the singer for two decades.
US District Judge Ann Donnelly in Brooklyn federal court said the evidence reflected Kelly's "indifference to human suffering" and "sheer brutality" towards his victims.
"This case is not about sex. It's about violence and cruelty, and control," Donnelly told Kelly, quoted by Reuters.
The owner, whose real name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, was one of those convicted when the #MeToo movement exposed sexual harassment by men in power.
The three-time Grammy winner, who has sold more than 75 million records worldwide, did not speak at the hearing yesterday, but he has repeatedly denied allegations of sexual harassment.
After the sentence was read out, her lawyer, Jennifer Bonjean, told reporters that Kelly was "devastated" by the sentence but she would appeal.
"Thirty years in prison is like a life sentence for him," said Bonjean.
The sentence was handed down after several victims, some in tears, told the judge how Kelly promised to be a mentor and help them gain fame, but instead made them victims of sexual and physical abuse.
Many victims say the abuse leads to ongoing mental health problems.
"As a teenager, I didn't know how to say no to R. Kelly when he asked me to perform oral sex on him," said the woman who identified herself as Jane Doe No. 2.
He paused, looked at Kelly, and asked, "Do you remember that?"
In the nearly six-week trial, victims said Kelly asked them to strictly abide by the rules, including asking for permission to go to the bathroom and calling him "Daddy".
One of Kelly's victims was singer Aaliyah, whom prosecutors said she illegally married when she was 15 to cover up her previous sexual abuse. Aaliyah died in 2001.
"This is a significant outcome for all of R. Kelly's victims and especially for the survivors who have courageously testified about the horrific and sadistic abuse they experienced," Brooklyn federal prosecutor Breon Peace told reporters after the trial.
Kelly is one of the most commercially successful R&B musicians, with the hit song "I Believe I Can Fly".
Quoted from AFP, R. Kelly was born on January 8, 1967 in Chicago, the third of four children raised by his mother.
In a 2012 memoir, Kelly described a sexual experience that occurred when she was eight years old, saying she sometimes saw older couples having sex, and was asked to take their picture.
Kelly said she was raped by an older woman, when she was eight, and an older man near her home sexually assaulted her when she was a teenager.
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