R.Kelly's victim testified at the Everett M. Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in downtown Chicago. Image Source: HipHopDx

More information on R. Kelly’s legal troubles.

R. Kelly's primary accuser testified under oath at the Everett M. Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in downtown Chicago. She said that the singer began having relationships with her when she was just 15 years old and that he had sex with her nearly "hundreds" of times before she turned 18.

During R. Kelly’s trial for child pornography and obstruction of justice, a woman who goes by the pseudonym Jane testified on Thursday. She told the jury that when she was 13 years old in the late 1990s, she asked R. Kelly to be her godfather because she looked up to him as a mentor and someone who inspired her greatly. However, within weeks, things started to change when R. Kelly would call her up and say sexual things.

When Jane was 14 years old, she was at a Chicago recording studio when the singer began touching her breasts and later moved on to other parts of her body. At the same time, he allegedly began penetration at his North Side Chicago home. Jane further claimed that the singer gave her champagne, told her to refer to her genitalia as "14 years old," and then urinated on her. Jane acknowledged that when they first had sex, she was 15 years old. When questioned, Jane responded that R. Kelly would advise her and claimed that the two had intercourse countless times before she turned 18.

The Grammy Award winner is accused of conspiring to obstruct justice by allegedly rigging a 2008 trial on state child pornography charges resulting from the alleged video of him and Jane engaging in sex. This is one of the most serious accusations the Grammy Award winner is facing in the federal trial. In addition, Kelly is on trial for making child pornography and seducing kids. After the 2008 trial, which involved state charges, some jurors said that they were forced to exonerate the R&B singer because the girl—by that time an adult—refused to testify. On the witness stand on Thursday, Jane acknowledged lying to the grand jury before the trial about not being the person in the video.

Jane lied to the grand jury to protect R. Kelly at his 2008 trial. Image Source: Complex 

Jane claimed that she lied out of concern for the singer's safety and out of fear that her parents would find out because she was afraid that something horrible would happen to him. When Jane was questioned about why R. Kelly had given her the cash visible in the video, she responded that it was a precaution against anyone accusing him of child abuse if the film were ever obtained by the authorities. If someone views the tape, she claims that R. Kelly wanted her to come across as a prostitute.

She also recalled how, in the early 2000s, her parents confronted Kelly about whether or not he was having sex with their daughter. Jane said that Kelly knelt and asked for her parents' pardon. She claimed that in addition to her, her mother and father were crying. Later, she claimed, she begged her parents not to do anything that would put Kelly in jeopardy while announcing her love for him.

A conviction in Chicago could lengthen the 30-year jail term he was already given by a federal judge in New York this year after being found guilty of using his notoriety to sexually assault other teenage followers. Various accusers gave testimony throughout that trial.

According to the prosecution, between 1998 and 2000, when Jane was as young as 13, Kelly allegedly recorded the footage of her in a room with a log cabin theme at his house on Chicago's North Side. The girl can be heard calling the man "daddy" in it. In his houses, recording studios, and tour buses, she and Kelly allegedly had hundreds of sexual encounters throughout several years. Kelly allegedly ordered the parents and Jane to depart Chicago and paid for their flights to the Bahamas and Cancun, Mexico. Prosecutors allege that after they left, Kelly moved Jane around to other hotels to isolate her. Jane, her mother, and her father all denied being in the video when called before a state grand jury investigating it.

R. Kelly was sentenced to 30 years in prison in June. Image Source: Vanity Fair 

According to court documents, R. Kelly carried a duffle bag full of sex tapes everywhere he went for years before the 2008 trial, but some of the tapes eventually vanished. The United States saw the appearance of bootleg copies of various videos in the 2000s. The aunt allegedly provided the parents with a copy of a tape in the early 2000s that she claimed showed their daughter having sex with Kelly. According to a government document, Kelly informed them when they confronted him, "You're with me or against me." The parents interpreted it as a danger.

Later on in the trial, four more women are anticipated to testify that R. Kelly sexually assaulted them when they were young. Derrel McDavid and Milton Brown, two of R.Kelly's associates who are being tried concurrently with him, are accused of trying to locate the tapes that were missing. Both men entered a plea of not guilty, and their attorneys contend that while they were performing their duties, they were not aware that R. Kelly was assaulting minors.

After being found guilty on nine charges in a Brooklyn federal court, including racketeering and Mann Act breaches, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison in June. At the trial in 2021, numerous victims gave testimony as the prosecution portrayed Kelly as a "predator" who preyed on his young admirers and sexually assaulted them for years.