Artist News Legal

Video reportedly showing R Kelly having sex with underage girl handed to authorities

By | Published on Friday 15 February 2019

R Kelly

New video evidence reportedly showing R Kelly having sex with an underage girl has been handed to the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office in Chicago.

Attorney Michael Avenatti said in a statement yesterday that, since April last year, he has been providing free legal assistance to “multiple clients in relation to allegations of sexual assault of minors” by R Kelly.

Included in evidence gathered during this time, he writes, “is a VHS videotape of Mr Kelly engaging in multiple sexual assaults of a girl underage”. A further statement and corroboration by CNN says that the girl is repeatedly referred to as being fourteen years old in the recording.

Confirming that this is a different tape to the one which previously saw Kelly taken to court on criminal charges of child abuse, Avenatii goes on: “This tape, which is clear, is approximately 45 minutes in length and has never previously been publicly disclosed or, until recently, provided to law enforcement”.

The tape has now been handed over to Cook County State Attorney Kim Foxx, he says. Foxx recently called for alleged victims of Kelly to come forward, in order to build a criminal case against the musician. A spokesperson for her office said that they “cannot confirm or deny [that] an investigation” is underway relating to the new evidence.

Meanwhile, Kelly’s attorney Steve Greenberg told CNN: “We are unaware of any new information involving Mr Kelly. We have not been contacted by anyone. We have not been informed about any new information by anyone and we have not been contacted by law enforcement”.

Allegations of sexual abuse against Kelly have persisted for many years now, of course, and came under more scrutiny recently, firstly following reports that he is operating a “sex cult”, and then after the screening in the US of a new documentary about the abuse claims.

Of the many civil actions launched against him over the years alleging abuse, Kelly has settled the majority out of court. Though on that one occasion criminal charges were brought against him – based on other video evidence – he was acquitted after his legal team argued that the identity of the girl in the footage could not be proven conclusively.



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