On Friday, the jury in R. Kelly’s child pornography federal trial was shown footage of him allegedly abusing a minor.
The alleged victim is Kelly’s goddaughter, who used the pseudonym Jane in the trial. She identified herself as the person on the tapes and told the jury she was 14 when they were filmed. In the video, Jane can be heard talking about her “14-year-old” body and pointing out her genitalia. In total, 17 clips from three tapes were played out in court.
In one clip, Kelly is telling her to turn around and “get on her knees.” “Daddy, do you still love me?” she says in another. Meanwhile, in another of the 17 clips, Kelly tells her, “don’t move”, and that “I’ll hit you really hard on your ass.” Elsewhere, she can be heard apologising to him in the videos and saying “I’m sorry” multiple times.
Some of the clips played on Friday were previously mentioned in Kelly’s 2008 child pornography trial. The musician was acquitted, and jurors in that trial later claimed it was Jane not testifying that led to the acquittal.
When they played the tapes, U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber refused to clear the courtroom of the public and media on the basis that the tapes were allegedly child pornography. However, he did instead block the video screens depicting the videotapes from the public and media’s view so only jurors and the legal teams could watch.
The trial is set to continue.
