By Cynthia Akande
American Singer, Robert Sylvester, a.k.a R. Kelly has been sentenced in Chicago to 20 years in prison for child sex crimes.
On Thursday, 23rd February 2023, the sentencing was announced after a jury in Chicago found the rapper guilty of six of the 13 charges brought against him in September 2021.
However, the judge ruled that he will serve this sentence alongside the 30 years he is currently serving, effectively extending his prison sentence by a single year.
These included three counts of coercing minors into illegal sexual activity as well as three counts of creating pornography that showed him abusing a minor.
R Kelly is currently serving 30 years in prison for racketeering and sex trafficking charges.
Prosecutors argued that R Kelly’s sentence should be added on top of the current sentence he is serving, with Jeannice Williams Appenteng stating in court: “The only way to ensure he will not reoffend is to impose a sentence that will keep him in prison for the rest of his life.”
However, the rapper’s lawyer, Jennifer Bonjean, said that the 56-year-old was “likely to die in prison either way”.
Bonjean, who is appealing the conviction, said that if he was still alive at the end of his sentence, he would not pose a threat in old age.
R Kelly was acquitted of two further counts of enticing minors into having sex and one related to an obstruction of an earlier investigation into the abuse of the goddaughter he has been found guilty of abusing.
The “I Believe I Can Fly” singer has faced consistent allegations of sexual abuse and misconduct throughout his career, which he has denied.
