R Kelly trial: Day 17

Closing arguments were delivered in R Kelly's child pornography case today (June 12), with prosecutors saying the R&B star is a sexual predator and his defence team insisiting he has been wrongly accused and is not the man who appears in the video tape at the centre of the case.

The Chicago jury was shown the sex tape a second time today. The defence contends that the man in the tape could not be their client because he does not have a mole on his back, as R Kelly does.

They have also argued that Kelly may be the vicitm of an extortion plot.

"That's what this is about — money, money, money," defence attorney Sam Adam Jr said.

The defence has also insisted that the girl on the tape was not the teenager in question. The girl has denied appearing in the tape, but friends and family have testified that it is her on the tape, and that she may have been as young as 13 at the time the tape was made.

Adam showed the jurors a modest photo of the girl and stated, "If you convict R Kelly, you're calling her a whore."

The explicit tape shows a couple engaged in oral sex and shows the male urinating on the female.

Prosecutor Robert Heilingoetter said Kelly preyed on young girls and was clearly the man on the videotape, reports the Associated Press.

"The opportunity to hold him responsible…will never come again," he told jurors.

Kelly is charged with 14 counts of videotaping, producing or soliciting child pornography. If convicted of all charges, he could face up to 15 years in prison.

--By our Los Angeles staff.
Find out more about NME.