R Kelly loses appeal, 20-year prison sentence for child abuse upheld

R Kelly loses appeal, 20-year prison sentence for child abuse upheld

R Kelly was correctly sentenced to 20 years in prison on a child sexual abuse conviction in Chicago, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.

The Grammy award-winning R&B singer, born Robert Sylvester Kelly, was convicted in 2022 of three counts of producing child abuse images and three counts of enticing a minor.

Kelly argued in his appeal that Illinois’ former, shorter statute of limitations on criminal prosecution of child abuse should have applied to his Chicago case rather than current law that allows for charges while the accuser is still alive.

He also insisted that the charges involving one accuser should have been tried separately from the charges tied to the other three accusers because of the video evidence that was the focus of the Chicago trial.

The accuser, known only as Jane, testified for the first time that she was 14 when the video was taken.

A three-judge panel from the US Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals based in Chicago said in Friday’s ruling that jurors acquitted Kelly of seven of the 13 charges against him “even after viewing the disgusting tapes”.

Despite Kelly’s appeal, Judge Harry Leinenweber ordered him to serve 20 years from the Chicago case concurrently with the New York sentence.

Kelly has separately appealed the New York sentence.