Once a celebrated hit-maker in the R&B music world, singer R. Kelly was convicted Wednesday in an Illinois federal courtroom on multiple counts in a child pornography case in which his own goddaughter, referred to in the case as "Jane," testified against him, as the Chicago Tribune reports.
At issue in the case were allegations related to video recordings made by Kelly two decades ago in which he was seen engaging in sexual abuse of the aforementioned female victim, who was 14 years old at the time.
Kelly's federal conviction comes 14 years after he received an acquittal in Cook County, Illinois, on similar charges, in a case in which the same victim declined to cooperate with prosecutors, according to the Tribune.
In addition, the federal jury convicted Kelly on three of five counts connected to allegations of enticement of the minor female at the center of the case and of two additional victims who provided testimony against the disgraced performer.
Notably, however, Kelly and a pair of co-defendants were acquitted on charges of conspiring to recover incriminating recordings and to pressure the singer's young victim to lie to police about their interactions ahead of his 2008 trial in state court.
In the federal case, Kelly, 55, was not so lucky, in that Jane decided to recant earlier denials of the singer's abuse, saying, according to the Washington Examiner, "I became exhausted living with these lies."
This week's federal conviction subjects Kelly to at least 10 years in prison, as the Tribune noted, with additional charges still pending in other courts.
As the Associated Press reported earlier this year, Kelly was sentenced in federal court in New York City back in June to 30 years in prison for leveraging his fame to engage in sexual abuse of minor fans in a scheme that prosecutors argued persisted for decades.
Following Kelly's sentencing in that case, U.S. Attorney Breon Peace declared that the outcome should serve "as its own testimony that it doesn't matter how powerful, rich or famous your abuser may be or how small they make you feel – justice only hears the truth." Given that Kelly will, as Fox News noted, not be eligible for release until he is 80 years of age, that does appear to have been the case – at least in this instance.
