American singer-songwriter Robert Sylvester Kelly aka R.Kelly, has been convicted of racketeering and sexual and psychological abuse and was sentenced to 30 years of imprisonment on Wednesday, 29 June.
A fine of USD 100,000 was also imposed as a punishment for the singer.
The R&B legend was sentenced for sexually abusing women and underage girls and misusing his stardom to entice them into his sex orbit.
His punishment has come after a long time of being charged with sexual misconduct allegations for decades.
The sentencing was done in Brooklyn by Judge Ann Donnelly, which marks the completion of a shocking downfall for the 55-year-old superstar hitmaker known as the king of R&B, whose musical journey has become tangled with his inappropriate behaviour.
The singer faced seven of his accusers in court yesterday, who presented victim impact statements recalling their experiences with the singer.
Public officials have asked to give him imprisonment of over 25 years to protect the public from the singer.
Last September, he was convicted on nine cases which included one racketeering and eight other counts of Mann Act violations.
Defence attorneys who were representing R.Kelly are still hoping that details disclosing their client’s own abuse when he was a child will move the judge to provide the singer with a lesser prison sentence.
They have asked for a sentence of 10 years or less, stating that anything more than that would be considered as unjustifiable.
The attorneys have argued that the prosecution’s wish to lock the legend singer for over 25 years is “equivalent to a life sentence.”
Kelly has been in custody since July 2019, when he was indicted by federal prosecutors in New York and Chicago.
His three years in prison have been awful, including a beating from a fellow prisoner in 2020, and he also acquired COVID-19 earlier this year.
The singer is due to face further legal action in August when he will go on trial in Chicago concerning with child sex images and obstruction charges.
He is also set to face sex abuse charges in courts in Minnesota and Illinois.
