Singer R. Kelly has been found guilty on multiple counts related to child pornography by a federal jury in Chicago.
The disgraced R&B star was acquitted on charges of conspiring to obstruct justice. He was already convicted of sex trafficking back in June, for which he faces 30 years in prison, and still faces additional charges. The charges he was convicted on carry a minimum of 10 years in prison, according to the Chicago Tribune.
The child pornography charges relate to a video Kelly made 20 years ago that allegedly show him sexually abusing his then-14-year-old goddaughter. Jurors were shown 17 separate clips of the video in August, with a large black partition set up in the courtroom to hide the explicit video from reporters, according to WGN News. The girl depicted in the tape, now 37, using Jane as a cover name, testified in court, facing hours of cross-examination from R. Kelly’s lawyers, according to WCSC 5.
Kelly, 55, was convicted of child pornography in 2002 but was acquitted in 2008 after Jane and her family denied it was her in the video. The victim only decided to recant this recently, telling the court, “I became exhausted living with these lies.”
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Jane began cooperating with law enforcement after the airing of the 2019 Lifetime documentary series Surviving R. Kelly, according to the Chicago Tribune.