A US federal appeals court upheld R. Kelly's 20-year prison sentence for child pornography and other crimes, rejecting the singer's claim that the case was filed too late. Kelly was sentenced in February of last year, but his lawyers claimed the statute of limitations had expired by the time he was charged, a defence that the Chicago court rejected on Friday.
"For years, Robert Sylvester Kelly abused underage girls. By employing a complex scheme to keep victims quiet, he long evaded consequences," judge Amy St. Eve wrote in the ruling by the three-panel bench.
"Those crimes caught up with him at last. But Kelly -- interposing a statute-of-limitations defense -- thinks he delayed the charges long enough to elude them entirely. The statute says otherwise, so we affirm his conviction."
Kelly, 56, is already serving a 30-year sentence he received after a Brooklyn jury in a separate federal trial convicted him on racketeering and sex trafficking charges.
The two sentences would be served concurrently, with all but one year taken at the same time, adding up to a maximum of 31 years in jail.
His lawyer Jennifer Bonjean told US media that Kelly would appeal the decision before the Supreme Court.