Second Accuser Says R. Kelly Coerced Her to Lie About Him During Gayle King Interview

Tuesday marked the second day of testimony in the ongoing criminal trial of R. Kelly and the fifth day of the trial overall. The singer—who has faced sexual abuse allegations often involving teenage girls for more than two decades, per BBC News—stands accused of “racketeering and with inducing women to travel across state lines for the purpose of committing sex crimes,” The New York Times reports.

A second accuser took the stand today, following Jerhonda Pace’s “searing” testimony last week. The 23-year-old woman, who testified under a pseudonym, met Kelly when she was 17 years old. She describes how he controlled the news she consumed when she lived with him, specifically instructing her and other women and girls who lived at his residence to change the channel when various media about the allegations against him aired. The accuser says that Kelly also coerced her to lie about his treatment of her during a televised interview with Gayle King. If she or any other person Kelly allegedly abused disobeyed him, the penalties were said to be harsh. Per the Times:

She had broken one of R. Kelly’s rules, and as her punishment, the singer directed her to freshen up at a hotel, “put on something skimpy” and have sex with someone he called “Nephew,” the woman told jurors on Tuesday, her second day of testimony at Mr. Kelly’s trial.

“He wanted me to please ‘Nephew’ the same way I would please him,” the woman, who testified under a pseudonym, said of Mr. Kelly on the fifth day of his criminal trial in Brooklyn. “He basically talked us through every single thing to do.”

Mr. Kelly recorded the sex between the two on an iPad — and he instructed her to have sex with the other person on several other occasions, she said, sometimes with Mr. Kelly naked in the room or joining in.

Asked by a prosecutor on Tuesday if she wanted to have sex with the person Mr. Kelly called “Nephew,” the woman responded, “Never.”

Read more at the Times.