R Kelly Found Innocent

Rapper acquitted of child porn charges

14 June 2008 - A Chicago jury has acquitted R Kelly of all child pornography charges.


The R&B star was found not guilty of videotaping, producing or soliciting child pornography.

R Kelly has consistently denied charges that he taped himself having sex with a female as young as 13.

Yesterday a 12-person jury reached their verdict after just seven-and-a-half hours of discussion. 

There were tears from Kelly as the verdict was read out. And soon afterwards he headed home to his family.

Outside the court there were no celebrations and Kelly's lawyer Sam Adam Junior spoke on his behalf:

"He is overwhelmed with the motion and he told me that he wanted the jury to know and hear that he loved everything that they did."

It has been six years since R Kelly was first charged. During the trial Kelly's defence team argued he'd been wrongly accused.

They insisted he was not the man who appears in the video tape at the centre of the case because that man did not have a mole on his back when R Kelly does.

They said the tape had been doctored and implied that Kelly was the victim of an extortion plot.

"He is overwhelmed with the motion."  Sam Adam Junior - Defence Lawyer

Kelly never took the stand in the case, nor did his goddaughter, who witnesses testified was the young female in the tape.

The prosecution's chief witness was a woman who said she had had three-way sex with R Kelly and the alleged victim from the video, Associated Press news agency reported.

The defence attempted to discredit the witness, saying she had tried to extort money from Kelly. 

An FBI expert told the court the tape was not faked but that it was a copy which had been duplicated several times.

During the trial, some relatives of the alleged victim testified that the girl on the tape was not their family member. Other relatives said they recognised the girl.

Kelly could have faced up to 15 years in prison.

Elizabeth Alker