The anti-climax that has beclouded the stardom of ‘I Believe I can Fly’ singer, R. Kelly, on Wednesday culminated in 30 years imprisonment.
It is the penalty for a streak of sex crimes whose revelation has continued to leave many of his fans shocked.
He was hauled into prison specifically for recruiting and trapping teenagers and women for sex.
According to reports, although Judge Ann Donnelly of the Brooklyn federal court acknowledged the fact that the abuse Kelly himself suffered as a child might have affected his disposition, he nevertheless found his offences severely punishable.
“The verdict is in: R. Kelly has been sentenced to 30 years,” the US attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York said in a tweet.
You left in your wake a trail of broken lives,” Donnelly told Kelly, whose full name is Robert Sylvester Kelly.
In deciding the sentence, Donnelly said she considered Kelly’s own traumatic childhood, during which his attorneys said he was repeatedly sexually abused by a family member and a landlord.
“It may explain, at least in part, what led to your behavior,” the judge said. “It most surely is not an excuse.”
