R Kelly allegedly demanded that a 16-year-old girl dress up like a Girl Scout while he videotaped their sexual encounters, a court has heard.
The singer’s criminal trial continued on Thursday (19 August) in New York City.
A key accuser in the case returned to the witness stand, telling the court Kelly sometimes demanded she wear pigtails and “dress like a Girl Scout” during sexual encounters that Kelly often videotaped, The Associated Press reported.
Jerhonda Pace has spoken out against Kelly publicly, appearing in a documentary and participating in media interviews.
Thursday was Pace’s second day of testimony. On Wednesday (18 August), Pace had told jurors she was 16, a virgin, and a member of Kelly’s fan club when he invited her to his mansion in 2010.
While there, Pace alleged that she was told to follow “Rob’s rules” — edicts restricting how she could dress, who she could speak with and when she could use the bathroom, AP wrote.
Defence attorney Deveraux Cannick, who represents Kelly, challenged Pace on cross-examination. He sought to show that Pace allegedly hid her true motivations regarding Kelly and deceived him by lying about her age.
"You were in fact stalking him, right?" Cannick asked at one point.
"That is not right," she responded.
Pace had testified earlier that she told Kelly she was 19 when they met but had informed him she was only 16 by the time he sexually abused her.
Cannick also brought up a lawsuit settlement she signed indicating she agreed she never revealed to Kelly that she was a minor. She said it was in exchange for hush money.
Kelly, 54, has denied accusations that he preyed on Pace and other victims during his 30-year career. Pace is the first witness to speak at his trial, which is expected to stretch for several more weeks in Brooklyn.
As part of the federal case in New York, Kelly has been charged with racketeering, “predicated on criminal conduct including sexual exploitation of children, kidnapping, forced labour and Mann Act violations involving the coercion and transportation of women and girls in interstate commerce to engage in illegal sexual activity”.
He also faces four counts of violating the Mann Act “related to his interstate transportation of a victim to New York to engage in illegal sexual activity, and his exposure of her to an infectious venereal disease without her knowledge”, authorities announced in July 2019.
If convicted on all counts in New York, Kelly faces 10 years to life imprisonment. Kelly has also pleaded not guilty to sex-related charges in Illinois and Minnesota.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
