R. Kelly sexual abuse trial begins

In the mid-1990s, there was no getting around R. Kelly. The songwriter and producer helped music greats such as Michael Jackson, his sister Janet and Whitney Houston to worldwide success.

With hits such as "I Believe I Can Fly" and "Ignition," he sang his way into the hearts of young African American girls in particular.

But then he was accused of having forced several young girls to engage in sexual activities, reportedly approaching them in front of schools, in shopping malls or after concerts, and getting them to submit by letting them hope that they, too, would make it big someday.

Members of his staff were also reportedly involved in repeatedly and systematically procuring girls for him. The girls said they were blackmailed and forced to have sex.

R. Kelly denies accusations

Reports of abuse by the now-54-year-old musician have been around for more than a quarter of a century. He is even said to have operated a sex cult.

In 2008, he was charged with producing material depicting sexual abuse of children. But the case was dropped for lack of sufficient evidence.

In other cases, the R&B star settled out of court with the plaintiffs.

Now Robert Sylvester Kelly faces trial again; opening statements will be heard on August 18.

Of the six alleged victims at the center of the trial, several were minors at the time of the events.

The prosecution has also decided to hear from about 15 other witnesses who claim to have been sexually or physically abused, tortured or threatened by R. Kelly.

Key witness: Aaliyah

The trial also centers on his relationship with the late singer Aaliyah, aka Babygirl.

In 1993, Kelly took the 14-year-old under his wing and produced her debut album, Age Ain't Nothing But A Number. In the ballad of the same name, written by Kelly, Aaliyah sings about a young girl who dreams of an older lover.

The album was released in May 1994, and rumors were already circulating at the time that Kelly was more than just a mentor for  the underage singer.

This speculation was confirmed when MTV published the two musicians' marriage certificate. According to the indictment, Kelly had paid an Illinois state official to get Aaliyah a fake ID so he could marry the 15-year-old.

When her parents learned of the marriage, they immediately had it annulled. Identified in court documents as Jane Doe #1, Aaliyah, who died in a plane crash in 2001, posthumously serves as a key witness in the new R. Kelly trial.

Not the exception, but the rule

Aaliyah's case "is one of many," Kathy Iandoli, the author of an upcoming Aaliyah biography, told AFP news agency. "When the trial happens, we're going to see how she wasn't the exception, she was the rule," she added.

"For the first time, the marriage is being seen as exactly what it was: a piece of a very violent puzzle," Iandoli said, adding that the union was long "sanitized, and made to seem like some cutesy love story."

#MuteRKelly

After enjoying more than a decade of popularity following his 2008 acquittal, R. Kelly's status quickly changed with the broadcast of the Lifetime documentary series Surviving R. Kelly in early 2019.

The docuseries picked up on accusations detailed in an investigation by music journalist Jim DeRogatis, first published by BuzzFeed News in 2017. Revelations included that the police had been informed by worried parents that the singer was detaining young girls in a "sex cult."

From then on, calls for a boycott initiated by the #MuteRKelly movement started growing on social media.

For Surviving R. Kelly, filmmaker Dream Hampton managed to get John Legend and Wendy Williams on camera to speak out about the accounts of abuse.

In the film, the survivors' detailed accounts of their experiences are particularly haunting: A backing singer recounts how Kelly's second ex-wife, Andrea Kelly, nee Lee, had to ask her husband for permission every time she wanted to leave the room.

Another recalls Kelly having sex with an underage girl in his studio in front of everyone.

Kitti Jones, a US presenter, speaks about how Kelly tried to break her and other women. 

Other witnesses recall violent excesses and being forced into group sex that was filmed.

The image that emerges is that of an unscrupulous, ruthless man who exploits women sexually and has so far got away with it.

"Activists, mostly Black women activists, have been calling for his accountability for decades," Kenyette Barnes, co-founder of the #MuteRKelly movement, told AFP. She believes that Kelly's impunity can be attributed to his fame, but also to the fact that the voices of the victims — usually Black women — were silenced.

Since the last trial, the #MeToo movement has changed perceptions surrounding abuse, and fame, and money probably won't protect Kelly from impunity this time around.

Kelly awaits trial in jail

Kelly and his management reject the charges, calling the accusers "troublemakers and liars" seeking "profit and fame."

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, on the other hand, takes them seriously and has asked possible witnesses and victims to come forward.

Half a year after Surviving R. Kelly was broadcast, the R&B artist was arrested while walking his dog in Chicago, indicted on charges of sex trafficking and racketeering.

The trial was scheduled to begin in New York City in 2020, but was postponed by a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Grammy Award winner also faces trials in Illinois and Minnesota. If he is found guilty, R. Kelly could face decades in prison.
 

This article has been translated from German by Dagmar Breitenbach.