R&B singer R. Kelly was sentenced to 20 years in prison for child sex crimes by a federal judge in Chicago on Thursday, all but one year of which will be served concurrently with the 30-year sentence he received in 2022 for sex trafficking and racketeering.
The most recent charges of sexual abuse that Kelly faces date to the 1990s, with the jury finding him guilty of producing videos of himself sexually abusing his 14-year-old goddaughter. The six charges on which Kelly was convicted include three counts of coercing minors into sexual activity and three of producing sex tapes involving a minor.
Several of the women who accused Kelly of abuse—all of whom were identified by pseudonymous first names in order to protect them from potential retaliation—took the stand to face their abuser at his Chicago hearing, with the woman referred to as Jane telling the court in a statement: “When your virginity is taken by a pedophile at 14…your life is never your own,” and adding, “I will never get back what I lost to Robert Kelly.” Another accuser referred to as Nia told Kelly in court: “Now you are here…because there is something wrong with you. No longer will you be able to harm children.”
This article first appeared on Vogue.
