*A woman testified at R. Kelly’s federal trial in Chicago that the singer sexually abused her daughter starting when she was age 14.
The woman, who used the pseudonym “Susan” in court, told jurors Monday that when she was questioned before a state grand jury 20 years, she lied about her daughter’s sexual relationship with R. Kelly because she and her husband felt threatened by the artist, ABC News reports.
“Susan” said she and her husband confronted Kelly over the alleged abuse at a hotel in the early 2000s, and the singer’s response to the concerned parents was “You are with us or against us.”
According to the ABC report, “Susan” testified that she took that to mean “that they were going to harm us if we didn’t do what they wanted us to do.”
READ MORE: Singer Sparkle Reacts to Claims That She Allowed R. Kelly to Sexually Groom Her Niece | Video
The woman claims “they had to lie that their daughter was not in a child pornography video and that they had to leave the country immediately for several weeks, she testified,” ABC News writes.
“We were very, very frightened,” she told jurors.
“Susan” said she and her husband lied to the grand jury “because we feared for our lives” and the well-being of their daughter.
We reported previously that the woman’s daughter, using the pseudonym “Jane,” has been a pivotal witness in R Kelly’s legal troubles for more than two decades. She testified on Aug. 18 that the singer sexually abused her “hundreds” of times between the ages of 15 and 18.
The now 37-year-old woman told jurors that she also lied to the grand jury prior to Kelly’s 2008 trial when she said she was not the 14-year-old girl in a pornographic video with Kelly.
“Jane” told jurors that she was first introduced to R. Kelly by her aunt, famed R&B singer Sparkle, in the mid-1990s when she was 13 years old. According to “Jane,” her aunt was romantically linked to Kelly at the time. “Jane” testified that her Grammy award-winning aunt told her that Kelly should be her godfather, CNN reports.
Kelly is on trial in Chicago on charges that include the production of child pornography. In June, the R&B hitmaker was sentenced to 30 years in prison for his 2021 convictions on racketeering and sex trafficking charges in New York.
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