American singer R. Kelly, a fallen R&B star already sentenced to 30 years in prison for sex crimes, received a 20-year prison sentence on Thursday for child pornography in another case, before a federal court in Chicago.
This sentence will not be added to the previous one, Judge Harry Leinenweber having ordered that he only serve an additional year in prison when he has served his 30-year sentence, pronounced in New York last June.
Robert Sylvester Kelly, 56, had been found guilty by a federal jury in Chicago of production of child pornography and embezzlement of a minor.
Excerpts from videos showing sexual violence committed by R. Kelly on young girls, one of whom was only 14 years old, had been broadcast during the trial.
The singer, on the other hand, was acquitted on charges of obstructing justice. He was accused of having disrupted the course of a previous child pornography trial in 2008, from which he emerged not guilty, by threatening a victim not to testify.
The artist, known worldwide for his tube I Believe I Can Fly and his 75 million records sold, had long reigned over R&B despite suspicions of sexual assault.
He was finally found guilty in September 2021 of having piloted for years a “system” of sexual exploitation of young people, including adolescent girls, and sentenced last June to 30 years in prison by a federal court in New York.
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