Singer R. Kelly, sentenced to 20 years for sexual offenses against minors

A federal judge in Chicago has sentenced singer R. Kelly to 20 years in prison on Thursday for crimes of child pornography and seduction of minors for sexual purposes.

However, Kelly will serve most of that sentence concurrently with a 30-year sentence imposed last year on racketeering and sex trafficking charges.

In a major victory for the defense, U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber has said the 56-year-old singer will only have to serve one more year after he finishes his three-decade sentence in New York.

A week ago, prosecutors requested that Kelly - whose full name is Robert Sylvester Kelly - be given a new 25-year sentence that he would have to serve once he completes his 30-year sentence in New York.

In their sentencing recommendation to the US District Court in Chicago, prosecutors described Kelly's behavior as "sadistic," calling him "a remorseless serial sexual predator" and "posing a grave danger to society."

"The only way to guarantee that Kelly does not reoffend is to impose a sentence that will keep him in prison for the rest of his life," they argued.

For his part, the singer's defense requested a much shorter sentence, of about 10 years, and that could be served simultaneously with that of New York.

Her attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, said Thursday that Kelly will be lucky if she survives her 30-year sentence in New York alone.

Imposing a 25-year consecutive sentence as requested by the prosecution would have been something “exaggerated”, “symbolic”, she said.

"Because?

Because it's R. Kelly."

In the defense's sentencing recommendation, Bonjean accused the prosecution and "society at large" of targeting Kelly, who is black, for behavior for which "white counterparts" have gotten away with it.

"None have been prosecuted and none will die in prison," the lawyer wrote.

Kelly's legal team has appealed his New York and Chicago convictions.

In the trial held in Chicago in September of last year, the jury convicted the R&B singer of six of the thirteen charges against him.

He was found guilty of three counts of child pornography and three counts of sexual enticement, but was acquitted of seven other counts, including obstruction of justice and conspiracy to receive child pornography.

In Kelly's home state of Chicago, a conviction for a single count of child pornography carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years.

His conviction was considered a major milestone for the #MeToo movement in the United States.

The allegations against Kelly date back to the early 2000s. In 2002,

music journalist Jim DeRogatis published a story revealing that he had received an anonymous videotape of himself allegedly Kelly having sex with a 14-year-old girl.

The journalist also published that the Chicago police had been investigating the accusations about Kelly and the same girl for three years.

At the time, the girl and her parents denied that the girl had a sexual relationship with Kelly and that she was the girl on the recording.

A year later, Kelly was charged in Chicago with child pornography in connection with the video.

However, when the case went to trial in 2008, the singer was acquitted.

But the victim – known by the pseudonym Jane – had a relationship with the artist for years.

She decided to tell her story after seeing the documentary

, broadcast in 2019, which included the testimony of several women who accused the singer of sexual abuse since the 1990s.

At the Chicago trial last year, Jane said publicly for the first time that she was the girl in that sex tape.

She said that she was 14 years old on the recording and that the man was Kelly, then in her 30s.

She admitted that she lied when the existence of the tape became known because she was "embarrassed": "I didn't want that person to be me either."

Kelly was one of the biggest R&B stars of the 1990s, known for the song

.

But despite his fame, at that time it was common to see him at a McDonald's in Chicago, where he attracted female students from a nearby institute.

Jane was one of those girls.

Jane was part of a musical team and met Kelly when she was in high school.

She visited her recording studio with an aunt, who was a professional singer.

Shortly after that meeting, Jane told her parents that Kelly was going to be her godfather.

When her parents found out about the sex tape, Kelly knelt before them and apologized, according to Jane's testimony.

But back then Jane implored her parents not to take action against the musician because she "loved" him.

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