Tape ‘showing R Kelly sexually abusing girls’ handed to police

A video tape allegedly showing singer R Kelly sexually abusing underage girls has been handed over to US authorities.

Gary Dennis, a nursing home assistant from Pennsylvania, said he found the footage in a box of old VHS tapes.

He said he had no personal connection to R Kelly and did not know how the tape came to be in his possession.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

“To my shock and surprise, R Kelly appeared to be on the tape, but not in concert... instead he was sexually abusing underage African-American girls,” Dennis said.

“He was telling them what to do and what to say and it appeared he was in control of the camera,” he added.

Gloria Allred, the lawyer representing alleged victims in an abuse case against the musician, said the tape appeared to show a separate incident from the 10 counts of abuse the singer is already facing, Sky News reports.

However, she admitted she could not be “100% certain” that the man in the tape is R Kelly, it adds.

The R&B artist denied appearing in the video, as well as the separate abuse charges. His lawyer, Steve Greenberg, said the tape proved that “it is obviously now just open season on R Kelly”.

“It is irresponsible to continue to take the speculation of every Tom, Dick and Harry, and report it as if it is fact,” he added.

The 52-year-old - full name Robert Sylvester Kelly - has been charged with ten counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse against four women, three of whom were minors at the time.

If convicted, he faces three to seven years in prison for each crime.

In a heated interview earlier this month, R Kelly responded to the accusations for the first time, telling CBS This Morning: “I didn’t do this stuff. This is not me.”