R Kelly told to serve extra prison time following latest sex abuse conviction

R Kelly will serve an additional year in prison on top of the 30-year sentence the disgraced singer is already spending behind bars, a judge has ruled.

On Thursday, the 56-year-old was sentenced to 20 years in prison for child pornography and enticement of minors for sex.

However, he will serve all but one of those years simultaneously with the three decade sentence he recieved in June 2022 for sex trafficking and racketeering.

The latest sentence means Kelly will be eligible for release in his mid-80s, although prosecutors were seeking further jail time which would keep Kelly incarcerated for the rest of his life.

In pre-hearing filings, Kelly's lawyer, Jennifer Bonjean, accused prosecutors of offering an "embellished narrative" in an attempt to get the judge to join what she called the government's "bloodthirsty campaign to make Kelly a symbol of the #MeToo movement".

She said in court that Kelly will be lucky to survive his 30-year sentence and that to give him a consecutive sentence on top of that "is overkill, it is symbolic".

Kelly himself spoke briefly at the start of the hearing, when the judge, Harry Leinenweber, asked him if he had reviewed key pre-sentencing documents for any inaccuracies.

He said: "Your honour, I have gone over it with my attorney. I'm just relying on my attorney for that."

Two of Kelly's accusers had asked the judge to punish him harshly.

In a statement read aloud in court, a woman who testified under the pseudonym "Jane" said she had lost her early aspirations to become a singer and her hopes for fulfilling relationships.

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"I have lost my dreams to Robert Kelly," the statement said. "I will never get back what I lost to Robert Kelly… I have been permanently scarred by Robert."

Another accuser, who used the pseudonym "Nia", attended the hearing and addressed Kelly directly in court.

She spoke of how Kelly would repeatedly pick at her supposed faults while he abused her.

"Now you are here… because there is something wrong with you," she said. "No longer will you be able to harm children."

Kelly rose from poverty in Chicago to become one of the world's biggest R&B stars. Known for his smash hit "I Believe I Can Fly", he sold millions of albums even after allegations about his abuse of girls began circulating publicly in the 1990s.