Source: Chicago Tribune / Getty
A Chicago, Illinois woman testified in court that she and disgraced entertainer R.Kelly had sexual encounters numerous times before she was 18 years old.
According to reports, the 37-year-old woman testifying under the name of Jane Doe made those statements during Kelly’s second federal trial on Thursday (August 18). She is the key witness for the prosecution in these proceedings. The lawyers stated that they would play pieces of recordings that Kelly made of him engaging her in sexual acts when she was only 15. It was the same recording that was used as evidence in the infamous 2008 trial where the singer was charged with child pornography, after which he was acquitted partially because Jane was too young to testify at the time. Lawyers for the prosecution contend that Kelly paid her family off with trips to the Bahamas and Mexico, and coerced them not to cooperate with lawyers which led them to charge him with obstruction of justice.
On the stand, Jane testified that she met Kelly when she was 13, being introduced by her aunt, the recording artist known as Sparkle. “She told me that I should ask him to be my godfather,” she testified, to which Kelly agreed. Their interaction soon became filled with Kelly’s predatory sexual advances, where he groped her when she was 14, assaulting her “uncountable times”. She also testified that she lied to a grand jury in 2002 when subpoenaed and that prior to that she and Kelly had a detailed conversation about “loyalty” and “denying our relationship and the sex tape.”
The woman only looked at Kelly once to identify him during her testimony, while the singer kept his eyes lowered. She is one of five women expected to give their testimony in the federal trial. Kelly has been charged with including producing and receiving child pornography, enticing minors to engage in criminal sexual activity, in addition to obstruction charges. He has already received a sentence of 30 years after being convicted in a federal court in Brooklyn for sex trafficking.