R. Kelly's Chicago federal sex crimes trial continues. Yesterday's hearing featured some scandalous testimony from the singer's former goddaughter, who claimed she had sex with Kelly hundreds of times and he filmed the sex acts.
On Thursday (Aug. 18), a woman who is being identified as "Jane" took the stand for the prosecution and delivered a shocking account of her relationship with the embattled singer in the mid-1990s, according to local Chicago news outlet WGNTV. "Jane," who is now 37, testified she was only 13 when she met Kelly through her aunt, who was reportedly romantically connected to Kelly at the time. "Jane" testified that her aunt told her to ask Kelly to be his goddaughter. Shortly after agreeing, Kelly started making sexual advances at the teen, Jane told the jury.
Jane said Kelly started out with phone sex, which eventually escalated to inappropriate touching and physical sex. She also admitted she began meeting up with Kelly to have sex and said they had sex "hundreds" of times.
The victim is allegedly the girl featured in the infamous 2002 sex tape that R. Kelly went to trial for in 2008, and was acquitted for. In the 2008 trial, she refused to testify. She is now receiving immunity for her testimony. In court, she acknowledged she is the girl in the 2002 sex tape. Jane testified she continued to live with Kelly until 2014, when he became abusive.
"I was afraid that something bad would happen to Robert," she said of her reluctance to come forward. "I wanted to protect him so I did everything I could to keep it a secret. That was something I was going to take to my grave. It was instilled in me not to admit that to anybody and that’s exactly what I did."
XXL has reached out to R. Kelly's attorney for comment.
The 55-year-old singer is being accused of child pornography, obstruction of justice and the enticement of minors into criminal sexual activity. On top of having sex with minors, Kelly and his former business manager Derrel McDavid and associate Milton "June" Brown are being accused of conspiring to bribe Jane's family into not coming forward during the 2008 trial. Jane's family will also testify in trial.
During the trial, the jury will be shown at least three sex tapes involving R. Kelly and underage girls. "The videos are difficult to watch," U.S. Assistant Attorney Jason Julien told the jury on Wednesday (Aug. 17). "But it’s important for you all to watch those videos to understand what happened."
R. Kelly was sentenced to 30 years in prison this past June, after being found guilty of racketeering and sex trafficking charges last September.