R&B singer and song-writer R. Kelly will be back in a criminal court on Wednesday for the opening statements in his long-anticipated federal trial on allegations that he sexually abused women and girls.
The anonymous jury is made up of seven men and five women and the trial, which has suffered several delays due to the pandemic, will unfold under coronavirus precautions. This will mean that the press and general members of the public will not be allowed into the building.
The opening statements come years after countless women accused the former star of harrowing acts of sexual abuse, imprisonment, and coercion.
Kelly was acquitted in a 2008 child pornography case in Chicago.
Prosecutors in Brooklyn, New York are said to have lined up multiple female accusers - mostly referred to in court as “Jane Does” - as well as cooperating former associates who have never spoken publicly before about their experiences with the singer.
They’re expected to offer testimony about how his managers, bodyguards and other employees helped him recruit women and girls - and sometimes boys - for sexual exploitation.
They say the group selected victims at concerts and other venues and arranged for them to travel to see Kelly in the New York City area and elsewhere, in violation of the Mann Act, the 1910 law that made it illegal to “transport any woman or girl” across state lines “for any immoral purpose.”
When the women and girls arrived at their lodgings, a member of Kelly’s entourage would set down rules about not speaking to each other, including how they should dress and how they needed permission from Kelly before eating or going to the bathroom, prosecutors say.
Defence lawyers have hit back, saying Kelly's alleged victims were ‘groupies ‘who turned up at his shows and made it known they "were dying to be with him".
The women only started accusing him of abuse years later when public sentiment shifted against him, they said.
