Allegation Of Sexual Abuse: R. Kelly In Custody-Video To Show Sex With 14-Year-Old

Illinois, for years there have been accusations of sexual abuse against R. Kelly, in 2008 he was acquitted in a trial. Now he has to stand trial again. The public prosecutor speaks of ten cases that the Grammy winner would be accused of.

R&B star R. Kelly has to answer for accusations of serious sexual abuse. The musician is accused of having committed offences against four partly minor victims, as Kim Foxx, the prosecutor of Cook County in the US state of Illinois, announced on Friday. The alleged assaults date back to 1998 and had been committed for more than a decade. In the evening, R. Kelly was driven in a dark car to a police station in Chicago, where he turned himself in and was immediately arrested. A court bail hearing is scheduled for Saturday.

For decades there have been accusations against the singer with the bourgeois name Robert Kelly, according to which he abused underage girls and women and practically kept some as slaves. He has always rejected any sexual behaviour. Also in the current case his lawyer Steve Greenberg called him "an innocent man".

Prosecutor Foxx spoke of ten cases of abuse that the Grammy winner was accused of. At least three of the victims were between 13 and 17 years old at the time of the crime.

A week earlier, the prominent lawyer Michael Avenatti, who also represents the porn actress Stormy Daniels, had handed over new video evidence against R. Kelly to the public prosecutor's office. A 14-year-old girl who can be seen in the recording with the star is one of the four victims named by the prosecution, Avenatti said on Friday at a press conference in Chicago. The footage shows two scenes on two different days at Kelly's estate in the late 1990s. Both the alleged victim and the R&B singer mentioned his age ten times. The videotape was unearthed during ten months of investigation by Avenatti's office.

The lawyer claims to represent six clients in the case, including two victims, two couples of parents and two persons who "belonged to the inner circle around R. Kelly for the greater part of 25 years. Avenatti described the new allegations as "a turning point". He also believes that criminal proceedings should also be instituted against more than ten other people from R. Kelly's circle: they helped with assaults by bringing in minors and concealing evidence.

In 2008, a jury cleared R. Kelly of the charges of child pornography. The case arose from a drastic video which, according to the public prosecutor's office, shows him having sex with a girl at least 13 years old. The musician and the girl denied that they were seen in the 27-minute recording - although the image quality was good and witnesses testified that they were. The presumed victim did not take the stand at the time.

Commenting on the upcoming criminal case, R. Kelly's attorney Greenberg said of his client, "He is extremely disappointed and depressed. That shocks him to his core." Later, he told reporters that one of the allegations against his client apparently related to the case of child pornography ten years ago. However, he had won the case. Therefore, it is a case of double criminal prosecution, which would render the whole thing obsolete. The public prosecutor's office has hastily made its decision, Greenberg said. R. Kelly was acquitted of all allegations.

For each of the ten cases of alleged abuse, Kelly faces seven years imprisonment.

The R&B singer became world famous with hits like "I Believe I Can Fly". His arrest marks the beginning of another trial for sexual misconduct against a celebrity in the "MeToo-Ara". Only last year entertainer Bill Cosby was sentenced to prison, the fallen Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein is waiting for his trial.