R. Kelly, a US musician, was given a 30-year prison term for using his fame to further a plan to molest minors and women.
The 55-year-old R&B performer was found guilty of racketeering and sex trafficking by a New York jury in September.
Robert Sylvester Kelly, the singer’s real name, says he will appeal, according to his attorneys.
On Wednesday, survivors said that he had ridiculed and insulted them.
A few women testified in front of Kelly before his sentencing to confront him about his long history of abuse.
A woman only known as Angela referred to the performer as a Pied Piper who “increased in evil” with each new victim, while other unnamed witnesses claimed he had crushed their spirits.
One said, “You literally made me want to die from the way you made me feel.”
Kelly, who was wearing prison khakis and thick glasses, chose not to respond.
The superstar, according to US District Judge Ann Donnelly, had used sex as a weapon, compelling his victims to do awful things and burdening them with terminal illnesses.
She remarked, “You taught them that love is enslavement and brutality.
At his six-week trial in Brooklyn, the Brooklyn jury heard testimony about how he trafficked women between various US states with the help of managers, security personnel, and other members of his entourage.
The court also learned how, in 1994, when Kelly was 15 years old and seven years before the singer Aaliyah died in a plane crash, she had gotten marriage licences in violation of the law.
Aaliyah’s age was given as 18 on the certificate at the time it was leaked. A few months later, the marriage was dissolved.
Given the nature of Kelly’s crimes and “the need to safeguard the public from further crimes,” federal prosecutors had suggested that he get a sentence of at least 25 years in prison.
However, his attorneys requested a sentence of 10 years or less, which is the mandatory minimum for his crime.
They presented Kelly as growing up in a violent home and being subjected to sexual abuse at an early age.
Since July 2019, when he was charged by federal prosecutors in Chicago and New York, Kelly has been detained.
His three years in prison have been dramatic, with a fight with Covid-19 earlier this year and a beating by a fellow prisoner in 2020.
In August, the singer will go on trial once more—this time in Chicago—on allegations of obstruction and child sex imagery.
He will also be charged with sexual abuse in courts in Minnesota and Illinois.
