R&B icon R. Kelly received a 30-year prison term on Wednesday for systematically abusing young followers, some of whom were just children, while taking advantage of his notoriety.
AP News broke the news that the musician had been sentenced.
Almost a year since he was found guilty by a state jury in federal court in New York, United States, Judge Ann Donnelly imposed the punishment. He was defending himself against accusations of racketeering and numerous other offenses.
A number of accusers testified in this Wednesday’s hearing, detailing the ways in which they were harmed by the singer.
If Kelly is found guilty in another federal trial in Chicago for child pornography and obstruction, slated for August 15, he may add decades to his sentence.
In Minnesota and Illinois, he is still facing state accusations.
He had already avoided being convicted in 2018 when he was declared not guilty on 14 counts related to child pornography.
The singer, whose real name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, was charged with one count of organized crime and eight violations of the Mann Act, which forbids transporting individuals for sexual purposes over state boundaries. He refuted all accusations.
Federal prosecutors charged the singer with organizing a group of businesspeople, security guards, and other individuals who recruited women and girls for him to have sex with, abuse, as well as manufacturing pornography, including child pornography.
Kelly was found guilty, among other things, of bribing a government official who authorized his marriage to singer Aaliyah (1979-2001) in 1994, when she was just 15 years old.