R. Kelly faces new sexual assault charges

Chances of embattled American R’n’B singer, Robert Sylvester Kelly popularly known as R.Kelly getting cleared as a free man from charges against him bordering on sexual abuse and assault suffered on the a major set back as he has been slammed with new 11 count charges in Illinois for abuse and sexual assault.

According to reports, an Illinois grand jury indicted the entertainer on 11 new charges in his sexual assault and sexual abuse case.

The charges include five counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, four counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault and two counts of criminal sexual assault, including four new felonies with maximum penalties of 30 years in prison.

US-based entertainment news platform, TMZ reported that the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office filed the new charges on the I Believe I Can Fly crooner on Thursday, May 30.

According to the documents released, R. Kelly is been accused of forceful penetration of his victim back in 2010. He’s also accused of forcing contact between his penis and the alleged victim’s mouth.
The singer will reportedly be back in court next week to be arraigned on the new charges, as two additional women came forward on Thursday at a news conference in New York organized by their lawyer, Gloria Allred, to accuse Kelly of sexual abuse and misconduct when they were minors.

The women, Latresa Scaff, 40, and Rochelle Washington, 39, said they met the singer after a concert in the mid-1990s when they were 16 and 15; they said he asked for a threesome and had sex with Scaff.

Earlier in the year, the Happy People/You Saved Me singer, was charged in Chicago with 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse. The alleged victim is said to have been 18 as at the time of the incident and so were the three other alleged victims who were between 13 and 16.

The music superstar, who has been trailed by accusations of sexual misconduct for two decades, has been under renewed scrutiny since the documentary Surviving R. Kelly was broadcast on Lifetime in January.

Celebrity lawyer Michael Avenatti said last week that he had obtained a video showing Kelly having sex with a 14-year-old girl, and give it to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office in Chicago. He has said that Kelly and the girl refer to her age multiple times in the video, which is more than 40 minutes long.