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His arrest stemmed from a video that was sent anonymously to the Chicago Sun Times earlier in the year. They passed it on to police, who verified its authenticity with help from FBI forensic experts.

The jury eventually concluded they could not prove that the girl on the tape was a minor, and Kelly was found not guilty on all counts. Kelly was charged with a further 12 counts of producing child sexual abuse images in Florida, where he was arrested at his holiday home.

These charges came after police seized a camera during the arrest, which allegedly contained images of the star having sex with an underage girl.

The charges were dropped when a judge agreed with Kelly's defence team that police lacked sufficient evidence to justify a search. A long and detailed Buzzfeed report accused R. Kelly of trapping six women in a sex "cult". The article alleged that Kelly seduced young women when they approached him for help with their music careers, before taking control of their lives - dictating "what they eat, how they dress, when they bathe, when they sleep, and how they engage in sexual encounters that he records".

The star also confiscated the women's mobile phones, the report said, barring contact with friends and family. The allegations came from three former employees and the parents of several women, who said their daughters had all but vanished. Jerhonda Pace broke a non-disclosure agreement to speak about having sex with Kelly while she was underage.

Another woman, Kitti Jones, claimed the star starved her, coerced her into sexual encounters with other women and physically abused her. Ms Pace would go on to testify against Kelly in the trial. Ms Kitti, along with other members of R. One former friend and collaborator, Lovell Jones, said Kelly asked him to scout out women "that looked young" at parties, and claimed that it was "common knowledge" that the singer preferred young girls.

They also targeted concert promoters, ticket sellers and streaming services - with Spotify, Apple Music and Pandora all agreeing to demote Kelly's songs from their playlists a decision that was later reversed.

Around the same time, the star's lawyer, publicist and personal assistant all quit - although attorney Linda Mensch said her departure was "unrelated to any allegations related to Mr Kelly's social life".

Kelly continued to perform live despite protests outside his shows, and was filmed saying the campaign against him was "too late". Meanwhile, the star was sued by a former partner who said he "intentionally" infected her with a sexually transmitted disease. Over the course of six hour-long episodes, Lifetime documentary Surviving R. Kelly presented the most comprehensive look yet at the allegations against the musician. Two weeks after the programme was broadcast, Kelly was dropped by his record company.

Planned concerts in the US and New Zealand were cancelled. In February, celebrity lawyer Michael Avenatti said he had obtained a video showing Kelly having sex with a year-old girl. Weeks later, the star was charged in Chicago with 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse. He pleaded not guilty and gave a histrionic TV interview. Prosecutors later filed an additional 11 charges of sexual assault and abuse against a minor aged between 13 and The charging documents described sex and oral sex with a minor "by the use of force or threat of force".

The accuser was thought to be one of the women featured in Surviving R. Kelly, who said she met the singer during a previous trial. Kelly was hit with two separate federal indictments in Illinois and Brooklyn. Combined, the allegations depicted an organised effort from the star and his associates to recruit and transport underage girls over state lines for illegal sexual purposes, including the production of child sex abuse images, as well as conspiracy to obstruct justice by destroying evidence and bribing or threatening witnesses.

Appearing in court in New York, the star pleaded not guilty , but was denied bail on the grounds that he posed a flight risk. Days later, prosecutors in Minnesota filed prostitution charges against the star, meaning he faced criminal cases in three US states.

The star's application for bail was denied by a federal judge in Brooklyn. Magistrate Judge Steven L Tiscione said he was "extremely troubled" by the potential for witness tampering.

Kelly's Chicago trial was delayed by six months , after prosecutors seized more than electronic devices including smartphones, iPads and hard drives from a storage facility holding the star's tour equipment.

Attorney Jacquelyn Kasulis told reporters. Prosecutors said Kelly took advantage of his fame and charisma to recruit victims, including some plucked from crowds at his concerts, with the aid of people in his entourage. Kelly sits as the jury foreman reads the guilty verdict in Kelly's sex abuse trial at Brooklyn's Federal District Court in a courtroom sketch in New York, U.

Witnesses said some victims had hoped Kelly could jumpstart their careers, only to find he demanded their strict obedience and would punish them if they failed. Trial testimony from the 45 government witnesses portrayed, often in graphic detail, an unseemly side to Kelly's year music career, whose highlights include the Grammy-winning smash "I Believe I Can Fly.

Kelly has repeatedly denied sexual abuse accusations. His alleged victims included the late singer Aaliyah, who Kelly briefly and illegally married in when she was Aaliyah died in a plane crash. Several witnesses testified that Kelly instilled fear if his victims did not fulfill his every need, sexual and otherwise. Jurors heard how Kelly would compel victims to follow "Rob's rules," including that they call him "Daddy" and get permission to eat or go to the bathroom.

Witnesses said Kelly pressed accusers to write "apology letters" to potentially absolve him of wrongdoing, and concealed before intercourse that he had contracted herpes. One witness, who identified herself as Sonja, testified she had hoped to interview Kelly for a radio station where she was interning, when he locked her up for at least two days without food or water and then assaulted her.

Allred alluded after the verdict to Cannick's closing argument where he invoked the civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. Kelly is no Martin Luther King Jr. Kelly did not testify in his defense. Kelly was convicted by a federal jury in September in his sex trafficking trial, where prosecutors accused the singer of exploiting his stardom over a quarter-century to lure women and underage girls into his orbit for sex. Two of his channels, RKellyTV and RKellyVevo, have been removed from one of the world's largest video platforms and the singer will no longer be able to create or own any other YouTube channel, YouTube said in a statement sent late on Monday, following Reuters' request for comment.

The catalog of his music will however be available on YouTube Music, YouTube's audio-streaming service, and the videos uploaded by other YouTube users will continue to be available. Kelly in accordance with our creator responsibility guidelines," a YouTube spokesperson told Reuters in a statement.