R&B hitmaker R. Kelly faces the possibility of a quarter century or more in prison when he is sentenced on Wednesday in a federal sex trafficking case in New York.
This is coming nearly a year after he was convicted of leading a decades-long effort to recruit and trap teenagers and women for sex.
Prosecutors have urged the court to put the I Believe I Can Fly artist behind bars for at least 25 years, saying he still “poses a serious danger to the public”, while the defence says a sentence of 10 years or less is all he deserves.
Report says the outrage over Kelly’s sexual misconduct with young women and children was fueled in part by a widely watched docuseries which gave voice to accusers who wondered if their stories were previously ignored because they were Black women.
U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly is set to impose the sentence at a federal court in Brooklyn after hearing statements from victims and possibly Kelly himself.
Several accusers testified that Kelly subjected them to perverse and sadistic whims when they were underage.
Kelly, born Robert Sylvester Kelly, used his “fame, money and popularity” to systematically “prey upon children and young women for his own sexual gratification,” prosecutors wrote in their own filing earlier this month.
