R. Kelly sentenced to 20 years in prison for child pornography

Los Angeles, Feb 24
R&B singer R. Kelly has been sentenced to serve 20 years in prison for child sex crimes by a Chicago federal court.

The 56-year-old singer, whose full name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, was found guilty of six of the 13 charges brought against him (all were filed in 2019), including three counts of coercing minors into sexual activity and three of producing sex tapes involving a minor, reports Variety.

The jury found that Kelly had produced three videos of himself sexually abusing his then 14-year-old goddaughter.

He was acquitted of a charge that he had attempted to block an earlier investigation into his abuse of the goddaughter, and two other counts of enticing minors to have sex.

Kelly is already serving a 30-year prison term for his 2021 conviction on racketeering and sex trafficking charges in a New York federal court.

Though prosecutors asked for a 25-year sentence to be served once his other 30-year prison sentence is complete, the judge ruled that all but one year of the prison sentence would be served simultaneously with the previous sentence. With this, Kelly technically avoids a life sentence, though he is still serving a full 31 years in prison.

"The only way to ensure he will not re-offend is to impose a sentence that will keep him in prison for the rest of his life," said prosecutor Jeannice Williams Appenteng, according to a report by the New York Times.

Kelly was found guilty on three counts of child pornography and three counts of child enticement but was acquitted of a fourth pornography count. He was also acquitted of the conspiracy to obstruct justice charge accusing him of fixing his state child pornography trial in 2008.

The sentencing hearing is the latest in the culmination of nearly three decades of allegations against Kelly, reports Variety.

In 2002, Kelly was indicted on several child pornography charges for allegedly videotaping himself having sex with an unidentified underage girl, but he was acquitted in 2008 on all counts after the jury deliberated for a day.

Kelly's lawyers have decided to appeal the convictions in both New York and Chicago. Since his arrest in 2019, the disgraced singer has been in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago.