Jurors at R. Kelly’s child pornography trial watched graphic clips from three sex tapes of the singer sexually assaulting his goddaughter when she was only 14.
Although the visuals of the late 90s tapes were obscured from view for the rest of the courthouse, audio could be heard of the young victim, going by the pseudonym ‘Jane,’ speaking to Kelly about her genitals, the Chicago Tribune reported.
‘Get on your knees,’ the teen is instructed by a man alleged to be Kelly.
‘Daddy, do you still love me,’ the victim responds.
The man then gives ‘sexually explicit instructions’ to the young girl as he warns her to follow directions as she apologizes.
Friday’s tapes are at the center of the federal case against Kelly, a convicted pedophile, who faces new allegations of enticing minors for sex, producing child pornography, and rigging his 2008 pornography trial.
A Chicago jury watched clips of three separate sex videos of convicted pedophile R. Kelly (pictured at a Chicago holding cell in 2019) having sex with his then 14-year-old goddaughter
Kelly allegedly shot the tapes between 1998 to 2000, as the R&B singer enjoyed national fame. In one of the videos, the man alleged to be Kelly could be heard giving the teen sexually explicit instructions as she referred to him as ‘daddy’. He is pictured at the 1998 Grammy Awards in New York City
Kelly’s lead attorney Jennifer Bonjean (left) also cross-examined the victim, ‘Jane,’ showing off text messages between her and the singer. Jane hit back at Bonjean, saying she contacted Kelly because she was finally going to come forward with her true testimony
After the tapes were shown, Kelly’s defense had not directly contested whether it was the singer in the videos, instead saying that their authenticity couldn’t be verified.
Prosecutors have said Kelly shot the videos of Jane in a log cabin-themed room at his North Side Chicago home between 1998 to 2000.
The defense also failed to give jurors an alternate version of Jane’s story relating to the tapes, only reiterating her decades-long denial that it was her in the graphic videos.
The attorneys also echoed claims that Kelly was previously acquitted for conduct related to the tapes back in 2008, but the singer and his two co-defendants are accused of threatening Jane and bribing others to change their testimony in that trial.
Earlier on Friday, Kelly’s lead attorney Jennifer Bonjean cross-examined the victim, now 37, who spent four hours on Thursday describing the alleged abuse she suffered as a young teenager at the hands of Kelly.
Bonjean showed the court a series of text messages between Jane and Kelly from 2018 to 2019, revealing that the two appeared to have a friendly relationship, with Jane inviting the disgraced singer to a birthday party at one point.
The woman also appeared to send Kelly a message of support following the premier of the damning ‘Surviving R. Kelly’ documentary, which detailed the singer’s decades of sexually abusing young women.
‘I love you, don’t let the devil win,’ the text read.
Kelly responded with ‘yeah, I was on a major breakdown but now I’m on a major buildup.’
‘He wasn’t trying to influence you to do anything, you were just commiserating,’ Bonjean said, to which Jane confirmed.
Jane said she repeatedly tried to contact him in 2019 for advice as she pondered whether to speak to authorities at length about Kelly for the first time after officials said they were in possession of more tapes of the two.
She told jurors: ‘I felt comfortable enough to reach out to him because I was afraid.’
She said she decided shortly thereafter to speak to investigators.
‘I no longer wanted to carry his lies,’ she said.
R Kelly is standing trial in his hometown of Chicago on charges of producing child pornography and enticing minors for sex. He is pictured here at a hearing in 2019
Milton ‘June’ Brown (pictured on Wednesday) is serving as a co-defendant in the trial, accused of helping Kelly fix a child pornography trial in 2008
Derrel McDavid, center, is also accused of helping Kelly fix the 2008 trial
Kelly, who denies any wrongdoing, is serving a 30-year prison sentence following his conviction in a New York federal court last year for using his fame to sexually abuse fans.
At his current trial in his hometown of Chicago, he faces charges of child pornography and conspiring to rig his 2008 trial by intimidating and paying off Jane to ensure she didn’t testify.
According to prosecutors, Kelly told Jane and her parents to leave Chicago, paying for them to travel to the Bahamas and Cancun, Mexico.
He also faces four counts of enticement of minors for sex at the Chicago trial – one each for four other accusers. They, too, are expected to testify.
Two Kelly associates, Derrel McDavid and Milton Brown, are serving as co-defendants.
Both are charged with one count of conspiracy to receive child pornography, while McDavid also faces two counts of receiving child pornography and one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice in the 2008 trial.
Prosecutors say Kelly and those in his inner circle paid out hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years in an effort to track down the videotapes and prevent them from seeing the light of day.
But like Kelly, McDavid and Brown deny any wrongdoing.
R. Kelly was previously acquitted of all counts of child pornography at a 2008 trial, famously crying in front of cameras after leaving court. Prosecutors now say he paid off a victim to prevent her from testifying at the time
On Thursday, Jane said publicly for the first time that the girl in the videotape that was central to that 2008 trial was her and that the man was Kelly. She said she was about 14 years old at the time it was shot.
Some of the 2008 trial’s jurors said afterward that they had no choice but to acquit Kelly because the girl – by then an adult – didn’t testify.
On the stand Thursday, Jane conceded that she lied to a grand jury in 2002 when she said it wasn’t her in the video. She said she did so because she was afraid ‘something bad would happen’ to Kelly and because she was ashamed.
Jane said she grew up in a musical family in a Chicago suburb and was home-schooled because she was in a touring musical group that she joined when she was about 12.
She said she met Kelly through an aunt who worked with him, and that she asked him to be her godfather when she was 13 because she viewed him as an inspiration and a mentor.
Jane said within weeks, Kelly would call her and say sexual things. She told jurors she was 15 when they first had intercourse.
She described her parents confronting Kelly in the early 2000s about whether he was having sex with their daughter.
Kelly dropped to his knees and begged her parents to forgive him, Jane testified. She said she later implored her parents not to do anything to get Kelly in trouble, telling them she loved him.
Kelly, who rose from poverty on Chicago’s South Side to become a star singer, songwriter and producer, knew a conviction in 2008 would effectively end his life as he knew it, and so prosecutors say he conspired to fix that trial.
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