Rapper R Kelly gets 30 years in prison for sex, other offences.
Singer-songwriter R Kelly, who is undergoing a sex trafficking trial, is reportedly engaged to one of his victims – Joycelyn Savage.
In a letter to a judge and recently obtained by E! News, aspiring singer Savage shared that she and the R&B singer are engaged and asked the court to hand down a more lenient prison sentence in his case.
The letter was filed by Kelly’s legal team ahead of his sentencing, reports eonline.com.
“My name is Joycelyn Savage, and I'm Robert Kelly’s fiancée,” she began in letter.
“I'm writing this letter in support of Robert in advance of his sentencing, so I can explain to the court that I'm not the victim that the government has portrayed me to be.”
Savage went on to describe her relationship with Kelly as “amazing” and called the star, who was found guilty of all the nine charges he faced, including racketeering, bribery, coercion, enticement and sex trafficking, the “best thing that's ever happened to me”.
“We have a very special connection and are deeply in love,” she penned in the letter.
“Robert is not the monster that the government has described him to be. The Robert I know is very sweet, gentle and kind.”
Savage continued of Kelly: “He's very determined and focused on his goals, and the things that have been said about him, with me and other women being held against our will is absolutely untrue.”
The 26-year-old also wrote that “it breaks my heart that the government has created a narrative that I'm a victim”.
“I'm a grown woman, and can speak for myself which is why I wanted to provide this letter to the court,” she added.
“(Kelly) is a great man, with a great heart and deserves to be home with his loved ones who are ready to support him.”
Kelly's highly publicised trial, which ended last September after six weeks of courtroom proceedings, saw dozens of witnesses testify and accuse the Ignition artist of grooming them for sex while they were underage. The accusations spanned from at least 1992 to 2017.
While Kelly has denied any wrongdoing and previously pleaded not guilty to all counts against him, he was ultimately sentenced to 30 years in prison on June 29, almost two weeks after Savage penned the letter.
In addition, he received five years of supervised release and a $100 000 fine as part of his sentencing.
Back in 2019, Savage appeared on CBS This Morning alongside Azriel Clary, another one of Kelly's live-in girlfriends, to deny allegations that they were being held against their will.
“This is all f****** lies for money and if you can’t see that, you're ignorant and you’re stupid as f*** because you want to be all because that's the world we live in,” Clary said during the interview.
“Negativity sells, gossip is what sells, rumours are what sell.”
Savage added: “Exactly”.