Everybody knew the allegations against R Kelly – so why has it taken 30 years to get justice?
R Kelly’s trial was the culmination of decades of accusations, pointing to a predator hiding in plain sight.
Rumours and allegations about the now disgraced R&B singer date back to almost the beginning of his career – and yet, he rose to become a chart-topper, a Grammy winner, an artist who filled arenas and collaborated with huge stars; at his height, one of the biggest recording acts in the world.
The criminal details of his marriage to Aaliyah in 1994, when she was 15 and he was 27 – now detailed in open court, a former tour manager admitting he bribed an official to get a fake ID in order for the ceremony to go ahead – had always been a well-known secret. And in 2002, Kelly was charged with 21 counts of making indecent images of children. After years of delays to his trial, the singer was acquitted, but the allegations never went away.
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R Kelly ‘will appeal’ sex abuse charges
Claims made over the years were silenced and brushed over, by an industry that wanted to keep the money rolling in, and fans who did not want to believe Kelly could have committed the crimes he was accused of. The world wanted to hear his music, so his unknown accusers were easy to ignore.
In the end, it was a documentary series, Surviving R Kelly, released in 2019, that became the catalyst for the singer’s trial in New York, and ultimately led to him being found guilty of all nine charges brought against him – one charge of racketeering and eight counts of violating a law which prohibits transporting people across state lines for prostitution.
For Jim DeRogatis, a journalist and music critic who wrote his first investigative report on Kelly for the Chicago Sun-Times in December 2000, with details of an allegation made against the singer dating back to 1991, it has been a long time coming.
“I always felt like I was late to the story when my partner at the Sun-Times, Abdon Pallasch, and I did the first investigative report,” he tells Sky News. “It had been going on already for nine years. We never thought when that paper came out… that this would still be ongoing in 2021.”
Just over a year later, DeRogatis was anonymously sent a videotape. “There was a manila envelope with a VHS cassette,” he says. “No markings on either.” The contents of the tape, he says, were horrifying. “Twenty-six minutes and 39 seconds showed Kelly very clearly having sexual contact with a 14-year-old girl, urinating in her mouth at one point.”
The tape led to the 2002 charges and the delayed trial in 2008. But Kelly was acquitted and continued to prey on young girls.
“He thought he was untouchable,” says DeRogatis. “There was a hubris, an ego there… He was silencing victims with money.” The most shocking thing about the case, he says, is the timeframe, and how Kelly was allowed to get away with what he was doing because of his fame.
R Kelly was once one of the biggest music stars in the world
“During that time, he’s selling 100 million albums – of his own, and [records and songs] he produced for everyone from Whitney Houston and Celine Dion to Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber. This was a cash machine for the music industry that was well aware of his behaviour and never actually acted to stop it.”
DeRogatis never stopped his reporting, helping to tell the stories of 48 different accusers over the past 21 years. But it was Surviving R Kelly that finally got people listening, he says.
“There were police officers who valiantly tried to stop his predatory behaviour. But, you know, until Surviving R Kelly brought these women into people’s living rooms in America, and they saw woman after woman after woman; 12 different women appeared on camera, telling their stories. They cannot all be liars.”
So why did justice take so long?
Kenyette Tisha Barnes, the co-founder of the #MuteRKelly movement – launched in 2017 to make calls to boycott the singer’s music and shows, and “hold accountable those who allowed this behaviour to go on for so long” – says the answer is simple: “Because these were young black girls from inner-city Chicago.”
It has taken movements such as #MeToo and Time’s Up, as well as #MuteRKelly, to get to this point, she says.
“I was a big R Kelly fan many years ago, in the ’90s. And I remember the stories. I started to hear about Aaliyah and the other young ladies, and they were always young black girls.
“I was a black girl, I’m a black woman in this country. And I’ve watched the way the entertainment industry, our whole community, maligned these young women for years. And enough was just enough.”
R Kelly is also facing sex abuse charges brought in Illinois and Minnesota – to which he has also pleaded not guilty
DeRogatis agrees it was a “problem of race”, saying: “What the 48 women whose stories I’ve told in the last 21 years have all said to me is that nobody matters less in America than young black girls. They are simply not believed, and women in general are not believed about a sexual abuse story. But black girls in particular.”
For Kelly, who last released a studio album in 2016, the guilty verdict in New York is not the end of his legal troubles; he is facing further sex abuse charges brought in Illinois and Minnesota – to which he has also pleaded not guilty.
So if the trials go ahead, there could be more allegations against the singer to come. And thanks to this first trial in New York, the spotlight is now also firmly on those who at best turned a blind eye; at worst, enabled him.
Charging the singer with racketeering meant prosecutors set out to show him as the leader of “an enterprise” where “managers, bodyguards, drivers, personal assistants and runners” were all complicit in recruiting women and girls for sex with him.
DeRogatis says there are others who should be facing charges and Barnes agrees that while Kelly was “at the top of the pyramid”, there is still “a lot of blame to go around”.
“Number one, it’s R Kelly,” she says. “Number two, it’s the people who enabled it. It’s the producers, the promoters, the runners, the people in his camp who were more interested in being aligned with a superstar than actually protecting black girls.
“And then we go further: it’s the black community. We’re all complicit. If you’ve ever played an R Kelly song, you’re complicit. If you’ve ever watched that videotape, you’re complicit. I think we have to unpack that reality that we all allowed this man to just move in the most predatory ways.”
“The racketeering statute is generally used against mob bosses and drug kingpins,” says DeRogatis. “We only have one person indicted. How are you a criminal enterprise if no one else in your alleged enterprise is being held to account?”
A US passenger plane made a dramatic plunge minutes after take-off to dodge another aircraft – injuring two cabin crew and causing passengers to shoot out of their seats.
The Southwest flight had just taken off from Burbank in California when the pilot received an alert about a nearby plane.
Data from FlightAware shows the aircraft dropped by 91m (300ft) in just 36 seconds. Those on board said they felt panicked, and some feared the plane was about to crash.
Comedian Jimmy Dore posted on X: “Pilot had to dive aggressively to avoid mid-air collision … myself and plenty of people flew out of their seats and bumped heads on ceiling, a flight attendant needed medical attention.”
Stef Zambrano saw a woman who wasn’t wearing her seatbelt thrown out of her seat, who then said: “I want to get off this plane. I want to be on the ground.”
Another passenger, Steve Ulasewicz, told NBC Los Angeles that it felt like the plane was in freefall for 10 seconds.
“People were screaming. You know, it was pandemonium. People thought the plane was going down,” he added.
The aircraft was able to continue to its destination of Las Vegas, where it safely landed without any further incident.
It is believed the Boeing 737 was in the same vicinity as a Hawker Hunter Mk. 58, a British fighter jet.
Southwest is now working with the Federal Aviation Administration “to further understand the circumstances” of the event.
Read more US news:
Trump issues warning as he arrives in Scotland
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January: Footage of Washington plane crash
This is the second time in a week that a passenger plane has had to make abrupt flight manoeuvres to avoid a potential mid-air collision.
Concerns have been raised about aviation safety in the US following a series of recent incidents.
In January, a mid-air collision in Washington DC killed 67 people.
Donald Trump likes a wall. And now he has his very own 10ft-high metal barrier creating a fortress as he tees off for a weekend of politics, play and precision in Scotland.
An almost surreal contrast now exists in the tiny Ayrshire village of Turnberry.
On one side, the stunning coastline and luxury hotel that bears the president’s name. And on the other, an armed buffer zone with sniper teams and road checkpoints.
This visit is unlike those that have gone before.
The threat level and associated security on display is unprecedented following the attempted assassination of Trump at a campaign rally in the US.
“It would be inappropriate for me to plan an operation and not bear in mind what has happened,” the senior officer in charge of this weekend’s policing efforts told me.
Military trucks are part of a security effort that comes just a year after an attempted assassination
A ‘counter terror’ firm was spotted near the area, which is ringed by a 10ft fence
Turnberry, and its population of about 200 people, have this week witnessed a never-ending stream of Army trucks, terrorist sweeps, road checkpoints, airspace restrictions, sniper positions being erected and Secret Service agents roaming around.
It is the most extensive security deployment in Scotland since the death of the late Queen in 2022.
It is estimated around 5,000 officers will be on the streets, with teams coming from across the UK to assist.
The spectacle primarily centres on Donald Trump coming to play golf before the arrival of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer for talks, likely on Monday.
The president, whose mother was born on the Scottish island of Lewis, is then scheduled to travel to his Aberdeenshire resort where a new golf course is set to open.
Police on buggies are patrolling near the course on Scotland’s east coast
Police have even taped off a clothes recycling bin near the course
‘Trump is a decent boss’
Stephanie Campbell and Leanne Maxwell live in Turnberry and used to work at the Trump-owned resort, like many other locals.
The pair told Sky News the very first lesson staff at the resort are given is not in fine service or guest etiquette, but in how to respond to a bomb threat.
It is claimed there are posters above the landline phones in the hotel with instructions on the worst-case scenario.
Stephanie Campbell and Leanne Maxwell say staff are trained in dealing with bomb threats
Stephanie told Sky News: “I had no issues working for him, he is a really decent boss.
“The last time he came there was an element of excitement, I think this time there comes with an added element of concern.
“It brings a lot higher threats and security and it’s much more difficult for everybody in the area.”
Mr Trump at Turnberry in 2018 – he will also visit his Aberdeen course on this trip. Pic: AP
File pic: Reuters
Echoing her concerns, Leanne told Sky News: “Security is obviously being bumped up. It’s quite worrying. He’s quite a man, ain’t he?”
Sweeps of the rooms are carried out by US Secret Service agents after housekeeping staff complete their duties and Trump’s meals, they say, are prepared by a personal chef to avoid the risk of poisoning.
To the outside world, these measures seem standard for a US president. But to those who live in Turnberry, it’s far from normal when they have a date with the commander-in-chief.
Marine One is in place awaiting the president’s arrival
File pic: Reuters
Awkward encounters
Prestwick Airport has become something of an American airbase in recent days.
The infamous armoured limousine, known as “The Beast”, has been spotted being wheeled out of a US military plane as the presidential motorcade prepares for his arrival tonight.
Greeting the president at the doors of Air Force One will be the secretary of state for Scotland, Ian Murray, who previously supported a motion alleging Trump was guilty of “misogynism, racism and xenophobia”.
Another awkward encounter could come in the form of Scottish First Minister John Swinney’s showdown with Mr Trump next week.
Read more from Sky News:
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Trump says US will ‘win’ AI race as plan unveiled
The SNP leader, who publicly backed Kamala Harris in the presidential race, called for September’s state visit to be scrapped after the Ukrainian president’s visit to the White House descended into a shouting match live on TV earlier this year.
Demonstrations are planned throughout the weekend, with marches and protests announced in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen.
Kirsty Haigh, from Scotland Against Trump, claims the president uses Scotland to “cleanse his image” and he should not be able to use the country as an “escape” from his views.
She told Sky News: “He should not be welcomed by us, by our leaders.
“We want to see a Scotland that is very different than [the] America that’s being created.”
US
Ghislaine Maxwell answered justice department questions ‘about 100 different people’, her lawyer says
Ghislaine Maxwell answered “every single question” from the US justice department, her lawyer has said.
The imprisoned former girlfriend of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein answered questions “about 100 different people” during one-and-a-half days of questioning in the federal courthouse in Tallahassee, Florida, her attorney David Oscar Markus said.
A senior administration official has confirmed to Sky News’ US partner, NBC News, that Maxwell was granted limited immunity, meaning the information could not be used against her in any future cases or proceedings.
Mr Markus said Maxwell “answered those questions honestly, truthfully, to the best of her ability” when she met with deputy attorney general Todd Blanche.
“She never invoked a privilege. She never refused to answer a question, so we’re very proud of her,” Mr Markus added.
Undated picture of Ghislaine Maxwell with Jeffrey Epstein. File pic: US Department of Justice
Maxwell, who was jailed in 2022 for luring young girls to massage rooms for Epstein to abuse, is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence.
Epstein, 66, was found dead in his cell at a Manhattan federal jail in August 2019 as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges. His death was ruled a suicide.
His case has generated endless attention and conspiracy theories due to his and Maxwell’s links to famous people like royals, presidents and billionaires, including Donald Trump.
Mr Trump is facing ongoing questions about the Epstein case. He denied prior knowledge of Epstein’s crimes and claimed he cut off their relationship long ago.
Trump and Epstein at a party together in 1992
The deputy US attorney general, Mr Blanche, announced earlier this week that Maxwell would be interviewed because of Mr Trump’s directive to gather and release any credible evidence about others who may have committed crimes.
Maxwell’s lawyer, Mr Markus, praised Mr Blanche’s approach.
“The deputy attorney general is seeking the truth. He asked every possible question, and he was doing an amazing job,” he said.
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‘The truth will set you free’: Why is Maxwell meeting with the US government?
Maxwell’s immunity from future proceedings is “limited” because it only covers her if she tells the truth. Typically, prosecutors will consider the defendant’s cooperation in an investigation when recommending a lighter sentence as part of a plea deal.
But since Maxwell has already been convicted, it is not clear how she might benefit from the immunity.
Mr Markus said Maxwell did not receive anything in return for answering the questions, but he acknowledged that Mr Trump could pardon her. “We hope he exercises that power in the right and just way,” Mr Markus said.
Ghislaine Maxwell. Pic: US Department of Justice
When asked whether he had thought about a pardon or clemency for Maxwell, Mr Trump claimed he had not considered it.
“I’m allowed to do it, but it’s something I have not thought about,” he told reporters outside the White House.
He later shut down another question, saying: “I don’t want to talk about that.”
Read more from Sky News:
Analysis: Trump hopes to escape Epstein controversy
Scots divided as Trump heads to Turnberry
Meanwhile, Maxwell’s family have suggested the disgraced British socialite could use “government misconduct” to challenge her imprisonment.
Her family have frequently claimed she “did not receive a fair trial”, but legal appeals against her sex trafficking convictions have been rejected by the courts.
Ghislaine Maxwell with Jeffrey Epstein. Pic: US Department of Justice
Judges previously dismissed arguments from Maxwell’s lawyers that she “should never have been prosecuted” because of a “weird” agreement drafted more than 15 years ago.
The family argue that Maxwell should have been protected under an agreement Epstein had entered with the US Department of Justice in 2007, which agreed not to prosecute any of his co-conspirators.
During her trial in 2021, Maxwell was described as “dangerous” by prosecutors, who told jurors about how she would entice vulnerable girls to go to Epstein’s properties for him to sexually abuse.
In a statement, her family said: “Our sister Ghislaine did not receive a fair trial. Her legal team continues to fight her case in the courts and will file its reply in short order to the government’s opposition in the US Supreme Court.”
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