30 years in prison for luring women and children and for leading - for over twenty years - a criminal network that recruited women in Chicago and subjected them to sexual and psychological abuse. This is the condemnation issued by a jury in New York against R. Kelly (Robert Sylvester Kelly the real name), the famous singer author of the song "I believe I can fly", with which he won a Grammy in 1996.
Last September, the 55-year-old was found guilty after prosecution described him as a "serial rapist and predator who kept control over his victims with any trick".
Kelly was "a Pied Piper who lured minors with his money and his celebrity," said one of the victims identified only by the name of Angela, the first to testify today in the Brooklyn court: "With each victim you became more evil", he attacked the woman again, looking the former star in the eye for all his touching testimony. "You used fame and power to raise underage girls and boys and enslave them to your sexual gratification."
Forty-five witnesses who have alternated at the bar in recent months.
A trial that will be considered a milestone for the #MeToo movement since it was the first major one for sexual abuse in which most of the accusers and victims were African American women.
(Unioneonline / ss)
