The second witness in R&B star R Kelly’s sex-trafficking trial said that the singer beat her, abused her and knowingly infected her with herpes. R Kelly has been accused of sexually abusing women and girls. He was acquitted in a 2008 child pornography case in Chicago and years later after the #MeToo campaign gained steam, more victims have come forward. 

Identified as Jane Doe No 5, the woman said that she was in a relationship with Kelly for five years, starting in 2014 when she was 17 years old. She said he ordered her to have an abortion. She said that the superstar sexually abused her on his tour bus and in hotel rooms. She was an aspiring singer. 

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“This man purposely gave me something he knew he had. He could have controlled the situation,” she said, as per the Guardian report, talking about herpes. 

When asked about her age repeatedly. “I was 17 years old,” she responded. 

The witness, 23, said that she met Kelly while he was performing on his Black Panties tour. As per reports, she testified that she had had no romantic interest in Kelly.

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“I just wanted to sing. I genuinely wanted his input,” she said. 

As per the Guardian, Kelly offered her an audition but said he needed to ejaculate before it would happen, the woman said. They were regularly having sexual encounters, which Kelly videotaped. He, according to Jane Doe’s statement, assaulted her. 

When she revealed she was underage, the singer slapped her across the face but kept her in his life, she said. Kelly made her adhere to a strict set of rules, she claimed, as per BBC reports. If she did not obey, the singer ‘chastised’ her – sometimes spanking her hard enough to make her “skin tear”, she told jurors.

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Kelly’s lawyers denied all allegations. The witness is due to face cross-examination on Tuesday. 

The first witness, like this one, claimes she was a minor when she started a sexual relationship with Kelly. Both of them have claimed that the R&B singer made them refer to him as ‘Daddy’. 

  The victims’ stories got wide exposure with the Lifetime documentary “Surviving R. Kelly.” The series explained how Kelly was protected by his supporters and how he silenced his victims for decades. This would prompt him to land in jail in 2019 in a federal racketeering conspiracy case.