The prosecution testimonies against R. Kelly follow and resemble each other.
After Jerhonda Pace's story, jurors heard from a former girlfriend of the singer who spoke at length about his five-year relationship with the "
King of R'n'B
", marked by violence and control, this Monday.
The American artist has been tried since August 9 by the New York court for sexual abuse.
Read also Violence and humiliation: at the trial of R. Kelly, a victim testifies
Renamed "
Jane Do No. 5
" to preserve her identity, the young woman said she had met R. Kelly at the Orlando festival where he would have paid "a
lot of attention
" during his concert.
She was 17 at the time, in 2015. He then allegedly gave her her phone number through a member of his team.
At that time, the underage teenager was in her penultimate year in high school and was hoping to become a singer.
She certified that she agreed to meet R. Kelly in a hotel for an audition.
But the latter would have conditioned his test to oral sex.
After this meeting, the high school student would have regularly attended the singer and had sex with him in different cities.
An assistant to R. Kelly was in charge of booking the flights.
Violence
The singer would have hit him, for the first time, at the end of the summer of 2015. The teenager had just announced to him that she had to go back to school.
He went so far as to suggest that she do her final year of high school remotely and move with him to Chicago.
The singer would have become more violent as time passed.
He once allegedly beat her with a basketball after catching her texting a friend about their relationship.
According to her, the singer checked her phone frequently to make sure she didn't discuss it with her friends.
Control and humiliation
Like other defense witnesses, she told jurors that R. Kelly made specific rules.
She had to ask permission to do almost anything, even to leave a room to eat or go to the bathroom.
The man, now 54, allegedly asked him to call him "
Papa
" and kiss him as soon as he entered the room.
She also said the artist "
berated
" her for disobedience. He would have hit her buttocks so hard that she would have bruised and torn her skin. "
I could be reprimanded almost every two or three days,
" she recounted in court in Brooklyn. Now 23, the victim also said that the singer had forced him to have an abortion in 2017.
The teenager contracted herpes, which
"
got
worse to the point where I couldn't walk,
" she says.
Before adding in tears: "
I was devastated
".
She confessed that she had not had any relationship before and that she believed R. Kelly had "
intentionally transmitted the disease
".
He is said to have joked about the situation saying, "
Everyone has it
."
The fallen R'n'B star would have constantly recorded their antics on an iPad.
The singer allegedly even forced her to film a video where she smeared her face with excrement.
The
I Believe I Can Fly performer
pleaded not guilty to all nine counts.
If found guilty, he could face a life sentence.
The singer also faces criminal charges relating to child sexual abuse in Illinois and Minnesota.
SEE ALSO -
Sexual abuse: singer R. Kelly portrayed as a
sexual
"
predator
" on the first day of his trial (08/19/2021)
