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– Judge ruled singer will serve this at the same time as the current 30-year sentence

R Kelly has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for child sex crimes.

A federal judge ruled he will serve this sentence at the same time as the 30 years he is currently serving. As a result of the new sentencing, he will serve an extra year in prison.

R. Kelly (Getty images)

On Thursday (23 February), the sentencing was announced after a jury in Chicago found the singer guilty of six of the 13 charges brought against him in September 2022.

These included three counts of coercing minors into illegal sexual activity as well as three counts of creating pornography that showed him abusing a minor.

R Kelly is currently serving 30 years in prison for racketeering and sex trafficking charges.

Prosecutors argued that R Kelly’s sentence should be added on top of the current sentence he is serving, with Jeannice Williams Appenteng stating in court: “The only way to ensure he will not reoffend is to impose a sentence that will keep him in prison for the rest of his life.”

However, the singer’s lawyer, Jennifer Bonjean, said that the 56-year-old was “likely to die in prison either way”. Bonjean, who is ppealing the conviction, said that if he was still alive at the end of his sentence, he would not pose a threat in old age.

R Kelly was acquitted of two further counts of enticing minors into having sex and one related to an obstruction of an earlier investigation into the abuse of the goddaughter he has been found guilty of abusing.

The “I Believe I Can Fly” singer has faced consistent allegations of sexual abuse and misconduct throughout his career, which he has denied.

In 1994, then aged 27, Kelly married 15-year-old singer Aaliyah at a secret ceremony in Chicago. The marriage was later annulled after the teenager was found to have lied about her age on the marriage certificate.

Kelly faced further accusations of having sexual relations with underage women in 1996, 2001 and 2002.