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Artist News Legal
Jury in R Kelly trial hear from third accuser
By Chris Cooke | Published on Friday 27 August 2021
A third woman who accuses R Kelly of sexual abuse began her testimony in the musician’s ongoing criminal trial in New York yesterday.
Referred to in court simply as Stephanie, this latest witness revealed that she had a months long relationship with Kelly in 1999 when she was seventeen. Her account of that relationship echoed many of the claims made by the two previous alleged victims of the musician who have already testified during the trial.
Stephanie told the court that her first encounter with Kelly happened when she was just sixteen in a McDonalds in Chicago. The musician was in the fast food restaurant at the time and had an employee approach her with his phone number. But Stephanie discarded the number and didn’t make contact.
However, a year later, it was the witness who made the first approach when the musician took part in an event at a Nike store in the city. She had a friend who was an aspiring singer, and she thought that Kelly might offer some support that could help that friend’s career. Kelly again gave Stephanie his phone number during that encounter, and this time they began a relationship.
The witness quickly learned, she told jurors, that Kelly had two sides to his personality. One, she said, was “nice, charming and jovial”, while the other was “controlling and intimidating”.
She then described various incidents that occurred while she was in a relationship with the star, including how she was pressured and coerced into sexual acts, including in front of others. Like other witnesses, she said that Kelly often videoed their sexual encounters. At one point she asked the musician to destroy the videos, but he refused.
Both the previous accusers who have testified during the trial admitted that they initially told Kelly they were eighteen or older, although, they added, the musician knew they were actually younger than that before their respective relationships turned sexual. Stephanie, meanwhile, told the court she was honest about her age from the start, and that Kelly wasn’t bothered at all that she was just seventeen.
She also recalled a conversation she overheard in which Kelly asked two associates why it was such a “big deal” that he “liked young girls”. He then compared himself to Jerry Lee Lewis – who famously married his thirteen year old cousin, of course – remarking “he’s a genius, I’m a genius… we should be allowed to do what we want – look at what we give to the world”.
In cross-examination, defence lawyer Nicole Blank Becker continued with the line that all of Kelly’s accusers were free to end their relationships with the star at anytime, but they chose not to.
Like the other witnesses, Stephanie countered that – while in theory that was true – at the time it felt like she didn’t have any choice but to continue complying with Kelly’s requests.
The relationship occurred during a difficult time in her life, she explained. She had experienced sexual trauma and abuse from family members and other men prior to meeting Kelly and, it’s basically alleged, the musician exploited that in order to control the witness.
“That was the lowest time of my life,” she added. “I have never been treated like that before or since”.
The trial continues.
