Violence, humiliation, forced sexual relations … Invited to testify in federal court in Brooklyn (New York, United States) where R. Kelly is tried for extortion, sexual exploitation of a minor, kidnapping, corruption and forced labor between 1994 and 2018, an alleged victim of the American singer read, Thursday, August 19, his diary of the time.
Now 28, Jerhonda Pace was just 16, below the age of consent in the United States, when she had sex over a six-month period with the musician known for his title I Believe I Can Fly and already winner of three Grammy Awards at the time.
In front of the jury, she cried while reading passages from her diary, where she says that the singer slapped her: “If I lie to her again, next time it won’t be a little slap.” ” She also recounted an episode where the singer strangled her during an argument until she passed out, before having sex.
The defense qualifies the victims as “groupies”
According to his story, he asked her to wear scout outfits or to tie braids to better satisfy his fantasies during frolics he was filming. But one day after another and last sexual encounter, she had it. “Had enough”. “I went home and told it all”, she explained.
During his cross-examination, one of the defense attorneys attempted to portray Jerhonda Pace as a “Groupie who harassed” the singer after their relationship ended, which she denied. The victim, one of the six in the trial, also accuses R. Kelly of having transmitted to her at the time a genital herpes without warning her that he was affected by this sexually transmitted disease. An accusation confirmed by the doctor of the singer of 54 years, Kris McGrath, who confirmed that he had prescribed him a treatment in 2007.
If found guilty on all counts by the jury, R. Kelly faces between ten years in prison and life imprisonment.
