Fallen music icon R. Kelly faces the rest of his life in prison.
After a guilty verdict last September for the sexual abuse of minors and the formation of a criminal organization with the aim of recruiting girls, boys and young women for the musician, the federal court in the New York borough of Brooklyn sentenced the 55-year-old to 30 years on Wednesday afternoon (local time). detention.
Prosecutors had asked for 25 years or more.
Since R. Kelly, real name Robert Sylvester Kelly, had habitually abused minors for three decades, the prosecutors argued that he would continue to pose a threat in the future. Several victims testified in tears on Wednesday before the sentence was announced and wished for death after the humiliations to have.
With reference to the alleged abuse, violence and poverty of the later self-proclaimed "King of R&B" childhood, the defense had requested less than ten years in prison.
Next criminal trial in Illinois
The Grammy Award winner ("I Believe I Can Fly") was arrested in his hometown of Chicago, Illinois, in the summer of 2019.
In addition to the judicial authorities in the Windy City, the prosecutors in New York and Minnesota had also started investigations against him.
At the time, the #MeToo movement fueled speculation about systematic sexual abuse by R. Kelly, which had been circulating in the American music industry for decades.
During the six-week criminal trial, witnesses later confirmed that he had been raped, beaten and filmed having sexual encounters.
In Illinois, the singer and his entourage are already awaiting the next criminal trial.
There, the former hip-hop star and some of his employees have to answer for child pornography, abuse and obstruction of justice from August.