Singer R. Kelly pleaded guilty yesterday to decades of sexual abuse and blackmail against women, boys and girls. Kelly used a network of friends and employees in his inner circle to control the actions of victims and facilitate sexual abuse.
One of his victims was R&B singer Aaliyah. Kelly illegally married the late singer, who died in a plane crash at the age of 22, in a hotel room in Chicago in 1994, when she was 15 years old. A former Kelly manager, Demetrius Smith, testified in August that he bribed a Chicago area welfare office employee to make a fake ID for Aaliyah, showing her age as 18 Kelly was 27 at the time.
Prosecutors allege that Kelly, who feared Aaliyah was pregnant, married her in an attempt to avoid criminal charges of having sex with a minor and preventing her from testifying against him for abuse.
Sipas The Daily Beast, Nathan Edmond, tani 73 vjeç, dëshmoi se ai kreu dasmën klandestine si një nder për një mik dhe nuk e dinte kush ishte çifti që po martonte.
"Unë nuk mendova se ishte dikush i veçantë dhe nuk e kuptova fare," tha Edmond në gjyqin e Kelly-t.
Ish-menaxheri i turneve të Kelly-t, Demetrius Smith i tha gjykatës muajin e kaluar se marrëdhënia e të pandehurit me Aaliyah filloi pasi ai e menaxhonte atë në fillim të viteve '90 dhe prodhoi albumin e saj debutues, i cili në mënyrë të dyshimtë u titullua "Age Ain’t Nothing but a Number” (Mosha nuk është asgjë tjetër veçse një numër).
"I just thought they were very playful, very friendly ... he was seducing her," Smith said, adding that the marriage eased Kelly's concerns that he would go to jail if she was pregnant. "It should not have happened. It was wrong! ”
Finally, an accuser named "Addie" reportedly testified that she was sexually assaulted by the singer, just 2 days after his marriage. She was 17 at the time and said the attack took place after a concert in Miami, where she went in hopes of seeing Aayliah.
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