Musician R. Kelly sentenced to 30 years in prison

Musician R. Kelly was sentenced this Wednesday to 30 years in prison for running a network of human trafficking and sexual abuse for decades.

The singer-songwriter was convicted last year of racketeering and sex trafficking in a trial that gave voice to victims who previously thought their stories were ignored because they were black women.

Today’s verdict ends the slow fall of the now 55-year-old author of the worldwide hit “I Believe I Can Fly” who continued to idolize legions of fans even after rumors of his abuse of underage girls surfaced in the 1990s.

A federal court jury in Brooklyn, New York convicted Kelly after hearing accusations that he used his team of advisers and agents to date young girls and silence them.

He allegedly used his “fame, money and popularity” to systematically “prey on children and young women for his own sexual gratification,” prosecutors accused in a written letter earlier this month.

Several accusers testified that R. Kelly subjected them to evil and sadistic whims when they were minors.

R. Kelly has been in jail without bail since 2019 and is also charged with distribution of child pornography and obstruction of justice in Chicago in a trial due to begin August 15.