More than two decades after allegations of abuse against the former pop superstar R. Kelly (54, "I Believe I Can Fly") first became public, a new and extensive trial against him began on Wednesday.

Kelly are accused of sexual exploitation of minors, kidnapping and bribery among other things in the Brooklyn borough of New York.

If convicted on all points, the singer faces a prison sentence of ten years to life, a spokesman for the public prosecutor said on Tuesday evening.

Prosecutor Maria Cruz Melendez called Kelly in her opening speech, according to a trial observer for the BBC, as a "predator", a term that is often used in the USA for sex offenders. Melendez further stated that Kelly was "a man who used lies, manipulation, threats and physical abuse to dominate his victims and to evade responsibility for them for years." He demanded absolute obedience from them, including permission for going to the toilet, it was said. Kelly calmly followed the charges in a gray suit and purple tie. TV cameras were not allowed in the courtroom.

According to the indictment, Kelly is said to have recruited adult women for decades, as well as minors and at least in one case also a boy for sexual intercourse, the British BBC summarized the allegations. According to the US media, the allegations specifically relate to the abuse of five women, three of whom are minors. He is also said to have tried to bribe an Illinois official in 1994 to issue fake papers for singer Aaliyah. You should indicate that the then 15-year-old is already 18 years old so that the singer, who was 27 years old at the time, could marry her. The marriage of the two was soon annulled. Aaliyah died in a plane crash in 2001.

The musician, who has been in prison since his arrest in summer 2019, has repeatedly denied all allegations and accused his critics of a character assassination campaign. Defense attorney Nicole Blank-Becker said on Wednesday, according to the media, that Kelly and the prosecutors initially "grew together like a family". "He didn't have to recruit them, they were fans." When the relationships worsened, the women then became angry and were looking for revenge, Blank-Becker explained.

The process is said to take several weeks and up to 3500 pieces of evidence could be brought in.

Seven men and five women, whose names remain anonymous, decide as a jury on Kelly's case.

Regardless of the outcome of the New York trial, the singer has to answer in other trials in Illinois and Minnesota on similar counts.

In Chicago, federal investigators are also investigating his case.

The first allegations against Robert Sylvester Kelly, who was born in Chicago in 1967, were known about 25 years ago.

In 2008 he was on trial for possession of pictures of serious child sexual abuse and was acquitted.