R Kelly accused of sexual exploitation by a man after similar testimonies by women

The R Kelly sex trafficking trial saw a man taking the witness stand on Monday in a New York City court to say that he was sexually exploited as a high school student, after several days of testimony from women claiming they were groomed and sexually abused by the R&B star.

The witness, taking the witness stand in federal court in Brooklyn without using his real name, told a jury how Kelly lured him to his Chicago-area home in 2007 with false offers of helping him with his fledgling music career, The Associated Press reported.

According to the alleged victim who was 17 at that time, Kelly asked him what he was willing to do for music. The victim replied, “I will carry your bags. Anything you need, I will be willing to do.”

“That’s not it. That’s not it,” he said Kelly responded before asking him if he ever fantasized about having sex with men. He described how Kelly then “crawled down on his knees and proceeded to give me oral sex,” even though, “I was not into it”, AP reported

The victim said that he was told to keep it to him only.

On another occasion, Kelly “snapped his fingers three times” to summon a naked girl from where she was hiding under a boxing ring to give Kelly and the witness oral sex, the man told the jury.

The victim said that he kept seeing Kelly after that because “I really wanted to make it in the music industry”.

Kelly, 54, has repeatedly denied accusations that he preyed on victims during a 30-year career highlighted by his 1996 mega-hit “I Believe I Can Fly.” His lawyers have portrayed his accusers as groupies who are lying about their relationships with him.

Earlier on Monday, a woman testified that Kelly sexually assaulted her at age 17 following a performance in Miami in 1994. The witness, also testifying without using her real name, claimed that Kelly’s cronies took her and a friend to his dressing room after the show before he pulled down her shorts and forced her to have unprotected sex, she said.

“I was in complete shock. I did not know what to say at all. I basically went blank,” she said.

Afterward, she and her friend “unlocked the door and ran out of there,” she said.

On cross-examination, defense attorney Deveraux Cannick pressed the witness on why, after someone allegedly “raped you,” she waited more than two decades to contact law enforcement.

“Because I didn’t want to feel more shame and trauma,” she said.

(With AP inputs)