CHICAGO >> For the first time after two decades of swirling allegations, R. Kelly’s former goddaughter has taken the stand as a prosecution witness in a case against the disgraced singer.
The woman, now 37 and testifying at Kelly’s federal trial in Chicago under the pseudonym “Jane,” told the jury she had sexual contact with Kelly for the first time at 14.
After testifying calmly for nearly two hours, Jane’s voice grew quieter and began to break as she was asked to describe sexual encounters that Kelly recorded.
One of the videos, expected to be played for jurors, showed Jane and Kelly having oral sex in the living room of his Lakeview home, she said. He could be seen giving her champagne and telling her to refer to her genitalia as 14 years old, she said. Then he urinated on her, she said.
On another video from about the same time, Jane testified, Kelly appeared to hand her money before they have sex.
When a prosecutor asked why he gave her money, Jane started to cry audibly, saying after a long pause: “Because if anybody saw the tape or if it was released for some reason he wanted it to appear as if I was a prostitute.”
Their sex acts escalated to intercourse when she was 15, she said. Asked by a prosecutor how she knew her exact age, Jane calmly responded, “Because that’s when I lost my virginity.”