A former R. Kelly employee told a federal grand jury on Thursday (May 30) that the disgraced singer regularly recorded himself sexually abusing underage girls and kept the videos as trophies, TMZ reports.
According to a source, the unnamed employee told a federal grand jury in the Northern District of Illinois, the R&B singer paid him "a large sum of cash" to hand over one of the tapes. However, the tape in question ended up in the hands of Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx. The insider said the former employee testified to giving the feds several other child sex abuse tapes featuring Kelly.
The ex-employee also claimed Kelly's team was well aware of his sexual abuse, and even aided him in the procuring of young girls rather than reporting his illegal and perverse behavior to authorities. The former employee's claims back testimony given by Kelly's alleged victims last week, who claimed the 52-year-old singer's inner circle transported them across state lines for sex when they were underage at Kelly's request.
In response to the unnamed employee's claims, Kelly's attorney, Steve Greenberg, told TMZ, "This seems to be the same claims that were made in the state case. We will address them in court."
On Thursday Kelly, who was already facing 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, was charged with 11 additional felony counts of sexual abuse. As previously reported, the new charges include four counts of aggravated criminal sex assault, three counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a victim between the ages of 13 and 16, two counts of criminal sex assault by force and two counts of aggravated criminal sex abuse, per CBS Chicago. Some of the charges carry a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.
The R&B singer is scheduled to appear in court on June 6.
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