American R&B singer, R. Kelly, has been accused of forcing his former girlfriends to write fake blackmail letters. According to them, he requested this so he could use the letters to defend himself in case he got charged with sexually abusing them. This was stated in a testimony by one of his accusers on Wednesday, at his New York City trial.
The witness, testified as a “Jane Doe” in federal court in Brooklyn. She read for the jury parts of one letter. In the letter, she told Kelly that if he tried to break up with her, “I’m going to tell everyone you raped me. … I’m going to say you raped me since I was a minor.”
Her notes to him also warned that she would hit herself really hard, hard enough to leave bruises. This was so she could accuse him of beating her.
Following the defense’s confrontation , 23 year old woman insisted the abuse was real and that the writings were a plan set up by Kelly “to protect him in a trial like this from very serious charges.”
Previously, the alleged victim detailed how she was groomed and exploited by Kelly from 2015, as a 17-year-old aspiring singer. The defense sought to discredit her with the letters.
54 year old R. Kelly, has denied accusations that he sexually assaulted several women during a 30-year career.
His lawyers have argued that his accusers are only groupies who are lying about their relationships with him.