The women who have accused R. Kelly of abuse knew exactly what to expect when they started dating him. The singer’s lawyer said this in court on Wednesday during the first session in the trial against Robert Kelly.
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“He didn’t recruit them, they were fans. They came to Mr Kelly themselves,” said Nicole Blank Becker according to the Chicago Tribune. “It was no secret that Mr. Kelly had multiple girlfriends, he was very open about that.” The lawyer also stated that the girls, most of them teenagers when they dated Kelly, “wanted to brag to their friends that they were dating a superstar”.
One of the alleged victims also spoke on Wednesday. She said she initially lied to Kelly about her age, but after they had sex the first time, she confessed that she was only 16 years old. Kelly, then 42, told her to tell others she was 19. The sexual relationship continued for months afterwards.
In many witness statements released over the past two years, alleged victims say they moved in with Kelly and lost nearly all of their freedoms. They had to hand in their phones, ask permission to leave their room and even ask to go to the bathroom. A number of witnesses have stated that they were sometimes forced to urinate in a cup. Kelly’s lawyer claimed in court that that only happened when they were traveling in the musician’s tour bus. “Pee in a cup? You may hear about that, yes. But that is not illegal, ladies and gentlemen.”
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