The R&B singer, Robert Sylvester Kelly popularly Known as R Kelly, was convicted last September in New York of racketeering and sex trafficking crimes.
He had faced years of allegations and the judge on Wednesday said he had an “indifference to human suffering”
According to his lawyers, the will file the motion for appeal irrespective of his sentence.
Prosecutors had asked the judge to sentence R Kelly to more than 25 years behind bars, while his defense attorneys asked for 10 or fewer, saying prosecutors’ request was “tantamount to a life sentence.”
Survivors of Kelly’s abuse held hands and prayed as US District Court Judge Ann Donnelly began reading his sentence. Kelly — who wore a tan prison uniform, dark-rimmed glasses and a black mask at the hearing in federal court in Brooklyn — showed no emotion.
In deciding the sentence, Donnelly said she considered Kelly’s own traumatic childhood, during which his attorneys said he was repeatedly sexually abused by a family member and a landlord.
“It may explain, at least in part, what led to your behavior,” the judge said. “It most surely is not an excuse.”
Until the appeal is done, this will see R Kelly behind bars for 30 years.
