Breaking: R. Kelly Found Guilty Of Sex Trafficking, Convicted

A jury in federal court in Downtown Brooklyn has convicted R&B superstar R. Kelly on racketeering charges related to shocking and lurid accusations of exploiting, coercing, and sex-trafficking several young women and girls.

A jury of seven men and five women found Kelly guilty of racketeering on their second day of deliberations.

Jurors began the day by sending the judge a note asking for transcripts of testimony by two former Kelly employees and for a legal clarification. Deliberations first began on Friday at federal court in Brooklyn before the panel of seven men and five women took the weekend off

Kelly, 54, had repeatedly denied the accusations that he preyed on women and girls during his 30-year Grammy-winning career.

Kelly’s lawyers portrayed the accusers as groupies who wanted to take advantage of his fame. But the jury didn’t buy that.

During the trial, several accusers took the witness stand and testified that Kelly physically, sexually, and psychologically dominated them. They said he sexually assaulted them, made them call him “Daddy,” told them how they could dress, restricted whom they could speak with, and controlled when they could use the bathroom.

Prosecutors said Kelly used an entourage of loyalists — managers, bodyguards, personal aides, and drivers — to do his bidding and recruit victims.

A racketeering conviction carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.

Kelly, whose full name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, also faces charges in Illinois and Minnesota.

Meanwhile,Unlike the convictions of other celebrities like comedian Bill Cosby and film producer Harvey Weinstein, most of the victims that helped convict Kelly were black.

Many of the allegations were first laid out in the 2019 documentary Surviving R Kelly.
Accusers were sometimes selected from his concert audiences, or were enticed to join him after being offered help with their fledgling music careers after change encounters with the singer.

But after joining his entourage, they found that they were subjected to strict rules and aggressively punished if they violated what his team had dubbed “Rob’s rules”.

CityNews Nigeria will bring you details later…