18 August 2022

Woman tells court of frequent sex with R Kelly before she was 18

18 August 2022

A woman who has been central to R Kelly’s legal troubles for more than two decades has testified that the R&B singer had sex with her “hundreds” of times before she turned 18 years old, starting when she was just 15.

Jane — the pseudonym for the now 37-year-old woman at Kelly’s trial on child pornography and obstruction of justice charges — told jurors that in the late 1990s when she was 13, she asked the Grammy award-winning singer to be her godfather because she saw him as an inspiration and mentor.

She said within weeks, Kelly would call her and say sexual things.

She said he first touched her breasts and other parts of her body when she was around 14 at a Chicago recording studio, and that around that time, he “started penetration” at his home at his North Side Chicago home.

She told jurors she was 15 when they first had intercourse.

Asked by a prosecutor how she would know what to do sexually, Jane answered: “He would tell me what to do.”

Asked how many times they had sex before she turned 18, she answered quietly: “Uncountable times… hundreds.”

The best videos delivered daily

Watch the stories that matter, right from your inbox