NEW YORK: R. Kelly, the disgraced R&B superstar, was sentenced Wednesday to 30 years in prison for using her fame to sexually abuse young fans, including some who were just children, in a systematic scheme that lasted decades. Through tears and anger, several of Kelly’s accusers told a New York City court, and the singer himself, that he had deceived and despised them. “You made me do things that broke my spirit. I literally wanted to die because of the bass you made me feel,” said an unnamed survivor, addressing Kelly directly, who kept her hands folded and eyes downcast. “Do you remember that?” she asked. Kelly, 55, made no statement and showed no reaction to hearing his sanction, which also included a $ 100,000 fine. He has denied any wrongdoing and plans to appeal his sentence. The Grammy-winning, multiplatinum songwriter was found guilty last year of extracting and sex trafficking in a trial that gave voice to accusers who had previously wondered if her stories were being ignored because they were black women. The victims “are no longer the predated individuals we were,” another of his accusers said in the sentence. “There was not a day in my life, until that moment, that I really believed the judicial system would do. It goes through black and brown girls,” she added out of court. A third woman, sobbing and sniffing as she went to court, also said Kelly’s conviction renewed her faith in the legal system. The woman said Kelly victimized her after going to court. concert when he was 17 years old. “I was scared, naive and didn’t know how to handle the situation,” he said, so he didn’t comment at the time. “Silence,” he said, “is a very lonely thing.” place. ” Kelly’s lawyer, Jennifer Bonjean, said she was “devastated” by the sentence and saddened by what she had heard. “He’s a human being. He feels what others feel. But that doesn’t mean he can accept responsibility in the way the government would want him and other people to like him. Because he doesn’t agree with the characterizations that are they’ve done it on him, ”he said. The sentence ends with a slow-motion drop by Kelly, who is known for her work as the 1996 hit “I Believe I Can Fly” and the cult classic “Trapped in the Closet,” a multi-part story about the sexual betrayal and intrigue. He was adored by legions of fans and sold millions of albums even after allegations of his abuse of young girls began circulating publicly in the 1990s. He won child pornography charges in Chicago in 2008, when a jury acquitted him. Widespread outrage over Kelly’s sexual misconduct did not arise until the #MeToo calculation, which reached a crescendo after the premiere of the documentary “Surviving R. Kelly.” “I hope this sentence serves as your own testimony no matter how powerful, rich, or famous your abuser or the little one makes you feel: justice only hears the truth,” the Brooklyn U.S. prosecutor said Wednesday , Breon Peace. A Brooklyn federal court jury convicted the singer, born Robert Sylvester Kelly, after learning that he used his entourage of managers and aides to meet girls and keep them obedient, an operation that prosecutors said was tantamount to a company criminal. Several prosecutors testified that Kelly subjected them to perverse and sadistic whims when they were minors. Prosecutors alleged that they were ordered to sign confidentiality forms and that they were subjected to threats and punishments such as violent beatings if they violated what was called “Rob’s rules.” Some said they believed the videotapes he filmed of them having sex would be used against them if they exposed what was happening. According to the witness, Kelly gave herpes to several accusers without revealing that she had an STD, coerced a teenager into joining him for sex with a naked girl who came out from under a boxing ring in his garage and he recorded an embarrassing video showing an insulting victim. stool in his face as punishment for breaking his rules. “The horrors your victims suffered,” U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly said as she sentenced him. “No price was too high to pay for your happiness.” Lizzette Martinez was an aspiring singer at age 17 when she met Kelly at a Florida mall. She was promised mentoring, but quickly ended up being “a sex slave,” she said Wednesday out of court. When asked if Kelly’s 30-year sentence was a sufficient punishment, he paused before answering. “I personally don’t think that’s enough,” he said, “but I’m happy with it.” At trial, evidence was also presented on a fraudulent marriage plan devised to protect Kelly after she feared she had permeated the R&B Aaliyah phenomenon in 1994 when she was just 15 years old. Witnesses said they married matching jogging suits with a license that falsely listed their age. com 18; he was 27 at the time. Aaliyah worked with Kelly, who wrote and produced her 1994 debut album, “Age Ain’t Nothing But A Number”. He died in a plane crash in 2001 at the age of 22. Kelly did not testify at his trial, but his lawyers then portrayed his accusers as brides and groupies who were not forced to do anything against his will and stayed with him because he enjoyed the benefits of the their lifestyle. His current lawyers had argued that he should not spend more than 10 years in prison because he had a traumatic childhood “which involved serious and prolonged sexual abuse during childhood, poverty and violence.” As an adult with “literacy deficiencies,” the star was “repeatedly defrauded and financially abused, often by people who paid to protect him,” his lawyers said. The Associated Press does not name people who claim to have been sexually assaulted or abused. , unless they demonstrate publicly, as Martinez has done. Several women who spoke at Kelly’s sentencing were identified only by names or pseudonyms. Kelly has been jailed without bail since 2019. He still faces charges of child pornography and obstruction of justice in Chicago, where a trial is scheduled to begin on August 15.