American singer R Kelly Jailed For 30 Years Over Sex trafficking

American singer R. Kelly was sentenced to 30 years in prison Wednesday for leading a decades-long effort to recruit and trap teenagers and women for sex. Judge Ann Donnelly handed down the term in the Brooklyn federal court nearly a year after the 55-year-old Kelly was convicted by a New York jury. In September, the fallen superstar was found guilty on all nine charges he faced, including the most serious of racketeering.

Kelly’s lawyers called for a lighter sentence with a maximum of approximately 17 years. Kelly’s conviction in New York was widely seen as a milestone for the #MeToo movement: It was the first major sex abuse trial where the majority of accusers were Black women. Calling 45 witnesses including 11 alleged victims to the stand, they painstakingly presented a pattern of crimes they say the artist-born Robert Sylvester Kelly carried out for years with impunity, capitalizing on his fame to prey on the less powerful. Lurid testimony intended to prove those acts included accusations of rape, druggings, imprisonment and child pornography.

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