When we learn new things about how R. Kelly allegedly keeps women in a sex cult and trains them as “pets,” the new information is never pleasant.
This time, it’s no exception.
One of R. Kelly’s exes has come forward to reveal that, by his own admission, the singer allegedly began “training” at least one woman when she was as young as 14.
R. Kelly is infamous for his long history of reports of sexual misconduct, interest in minors, and the reports that he keeps women in a “sex cult.”
At this point, the fact that he ever makes music is sort of an afterthought
Multiple women have come forward with horror stories about how R. Kelly allegedly grooms and abuses women, sometimes beginning when they are minors.
He offers them money to quit their old lives, using his charisma and fame to seduce them into wanting a life with him.
From there, things get a lot scarier.
R. Kelly reportedly uses physical violence and other abuses, such a the use of starvation as a punishment and cutting off any access to the outside world.
The idea of this happening to adults is a nightmare. But one of the women who has now escaped from R. Kelly’s world says that he begins this treatment on some “pets” when they are still children.
In a new BBC3 documentary, one of R. Kelly’s exes who has bravely come forward with her horrifying story describes how his alleged grooming begins when girls are very young.
The woman, Kitti Jones, describes when she realized this.
“I saw that she was dressed like me, that she was saying the things I’d say, and her mannerisms were like mine.”
She says that there was much more to it than R. Kelly just having a type.
“That’s when it clicked in my head that he had been grooming me to become one of his pets. He calls them his pets.”
Kitti says that R. Kelly had this woman “crawl on the floor towards me and perform oral sex on me, and he said, ‘This is my f–king pet, I trained her.’”
She says that he eventually bragged to her that he had “trained” this girl since she was just 14.
The shocking accusations about R. Kelly surfaced in 2017, but have so far come from adult women — and from their concerned families.
Abusers and cult leaders alike know that it’s important to isolate their victims from their families as much as possible and to encourage total dependence upon them.
That’s one of many factors, in addition to gradual grooming, that helps them maintain control.
That is precisely what R. Kelly is accused of doing. Unfortunately, sometimes law enforcement feels that their hands are tied when victims are adults, because they are likely to tell police that they’re there of their own free will.
Yes, even if they’re being starved as punishment for some perceived slight.
However, the victimization and sexual exploitation of minors might be easier for law enforcement to address … but, like everything else that R. Kelly is accused of doing to these women, may be very difficult to prove after-the-fact.
But this is not in any way the first stomach-churning story that the world has heard about R. Kelly and underage girls.
R. Kelly illegally married Aaliyah in 1994, when she was only 15. He had met her when she was only 12.
Then, in 2002, a video surfaced that allegedly showed R. Kelly having sex with and then urinating upon an underage girl.
When his property was searched by authorities, they recovered multiple images of an underage girl on a camera that was stashed away.
In at least some of the images, R. Kelly was allegedly engaged in sex acts with this underage girl. It was reported that this young woman was the same who appeared in the video tape that had surfaced.
Ultimately, the charges were dropped, as it was determined that the search warrants had lacked probable cause, rendering all of the findings fruit of the poisonous tree in the eyes of the courts.
And, in the end, R. Kelly was found not guilty over charges from the original video.
Will any of these charges against R. Kelly be proven?
It’s hard to say. The more people who come forward, the better the chances are.
It’s worth noting that when the sex cult accusations first came out during the summer of 2017, this was months before the #MeToo movement.
Perhaps the positive cultural shift against victim-blaming has opened people’s eyes enough that sex monsters can be brought to justice.
But it’s hard to imagine how someone groomed to be a sex slave since she was just 14 years old could ever truly recover.
