Now disgraced R&B star R. Kelly, whose songs used to rule the airwaves was sentenced Wednesday, June 29th to 30 years in prison.
He was sentenced in New York by federal Judge Ann Donnelly, who spoke at length before issuing the sentence. At one point, she quoted a victim impact statement from a woman known in court as Stephanie, who told Kelly, “No price was too high for someone else to pay for your happiness.”
“This case is not about sex,” the judge said. “It is about violence, cruelty and control.”
Judge Donnelly commented further by acknowledging points made by defense, including that Kelly endured a very difficult childhood, with sexual abuse at the hands of his sister and a landlord. However, she added, “You are a person who had great advantages — worldwide fame and celebrity, untold money.”
R. Kelly’s History of Abuse
The abuse Kelly’s defense spoke of was detailed in one of the most telling interviews ever in GQ.com. Back in 2016, Kelly shared where his warped behavior might come from. The R&B superstar R. Kelly peeled back the curtain and delivered a detailed, and sometimes disturbing, account of his journey to stardom, his setbacks, and where he’s headed in the future.
In the interview, he confirms excerpts from his 2013 book, Soulacoaster: The Diary of Me, where he describes a number of premature sexual experiences, including an approach by a trusted family friend, a man, who he says tried to persuade Kelly to masturbate him for money, which Kelly says he rebuffed. “It was a crazy weird experience. But not a full-blown experience, because it didn’t go down. Contact sexual—no. A visual—absolutely. A visual from him showing me his penis and all that stuff.”
He then describes the full-blown sexual abuse that lasted for several years, from age seven until Kelly was nearly 15. It was at the hands of, as Kelly describes, a female family member. It started one day when Kelly fell asleep in front of the TV and was awakened from “a crazy dream about Three’s Company” to find a woman playing with him:
“I tried to push her away, but she wouldn’t stop until she was finished. When she was done, she said, ‘You better not say shit to no one or else you gonna get a terrible whupping.’”
“I remember it feeling weird,” Kelly recounts. “I remember feeling ashamed. I remember closing my eyes or keeping my hands over my eyes. I remember those things, but couldn’t judge it one way or the other fully. Over time, I remember actually, after a couple of years, looking forward to it sometimes. You know, acting like I didn’t, but did.”
“It became a regular thing. Every other day, every other week.”
What the Victims Said
Victims who addressed the court on Wednesday said they barely had any will to live during their time under Kelly’s control.
“You degraded me, humiliated me and broke my spirit,” said a woman, who went by Jane Doe No. 2. “I wished I would die because
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