Disgraced R&B singer R. Kelly videotaped himself having sex with multiple children — including in vile footage where he repeatedly referred to his goddaughter’s “14-year-old” anatomy, prosecutors alleged Wednesday in opening statements of his federal trial in Chicago.
Jurors are expected to see parts of three videotapes allegedly depicting Kelly having sexual contact with his then-14-year-old goddaughter, Jane, over the course of the trial, Assistant US Attorney Jason Julien told the court.
“The defendant, Robert Kelly, had sex with multiple children,” Julien said. “He made videotapes of himself having sex with children.”
The prosecutor described the Grammy-winning superstar as a serial predator who had sex hundreds of times with minors and went to “extraordinary lengths” to cover it up, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Another videotape allegedly showing child porn will not be played for jurors because Kelly and his co-defendants, Derrel McDavid and Milton Brown, allegedly covered it up, but witnesses will testify about it, Julien said.
Julien told jurors the “I Believe I Can Fly” singer had “a hidden side, a dark side, that he — with the help of McDavid and Brown — did not allow the world to see.”
“This trial is about Kelly’s hidden side,” Julien said.
Meanwhile, Kelly’s attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, urged jurors not to believe prosecutors’ portrayal of her client as “a monster.”
“When the government wants to paint him as a monster … you remember we are talking about a human being,” she said.
“It is true that Mr. Kelly is imperfect,” she said. “On his journey from poverty to stardom, he stumbled along the way.”
But she said she believed jurors would ultimately find Kelly not guilty on charges of enticing of minors for sex, producing child pornography and rigging his 2008 pornography trial.
During prosecutors’ opening remarks, Kelly shook his head slightly and he nodded when Bonjean told jurors he was not expecting special treatment.
Jurors acquitted Kelly in his 2008 child pornography trial but some later explained that they felt they had no choice because the victim did not testify.
The woman, who is now in her 30s and referred to in court papers as “Minor 1,” will now be the government’s star witness.
Kelly, 55, was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison in June after his conviction in Brooklyn federal court on nine counts, including racketeering and violations of the Mann Act.
A host of victims testified at the 2021 trial, where prosecutors painted Kelly as a “predator” who preyed on his young fans and sexually abused them for decades.
With Post wires
