![]() ![]() I’m praying for everyone who had to relive their trauma during testimony. Robert’s behavior is so much worse than even I thought. Hearing the details has been really hard. I read some articles to keep up, but I’ve also tried to keep my peace. This trial spanned five weeks of harrowing testimony, with 11 accusers taking the stand to describe being beaten, raped, and imprisoned by Kelly when they were teenagers. I’m thinking of her first and then of all the others who were affected. Even if she doesn’t feel the same about me. We’re not in contact, but I’m definitely thinking of her and hoping that she’s okay. I was the Lone Ranger at first, and now I have my riders behind me. There’s finally some justice, though we have to wait and see what the sentence is. I hope all the girls, boys, and women affected by him are also breathing a sigh of relief. On the one hand, I think I’m a little sad because Robert was my ex-mentor and what he did was just a punch to my chest. It’s just been a long time for me, dealing with this. She spoke with the Cut about what it’s like to hear a guilty verdict, and how speaking out against someone so powerful has come with great personal loss.Īfter all these years of insisting that Kelly abused your niece, what’s it like to hear he’s been convicted of racketeering and sex trafficking, charges that involve sexually exploiting minors, and could face a life sentence in prison? Finally, the justice system, and the wider culture, has caught up with Sparkle’s clarion call that Kelly be held accountable. She watched comedians and TV shows mock the “pee tape” while bootleg copies were hawked on street corners across America for $10. The music industry wanted nothing to do with her. Her niece’s parents stood by Kelly - who was accused of buying their silence in a recently unsealed federal indictment - and didn’t speak to Sparkle for a decade. But until today’s verdict, it often felt like she was shouting into a void. She later testified in Kelly’s 2008 trial, in which he was found not guilty of child-pornography charges, and told her story once again in the explosive Lifetime documentary Surviving R. She called the police and went public with the allegation in a radio interview the following year. “I needed to act quickly, and that’s what I did.” “I was horrified and disgusted,” she told me. Back then she’d thought, who better to help launch the aspiring tween rapper’s career than the musical genius producing Sparkle’s first album? Four years later, in 2001, she watched a horrifying video that changed her life: It showed Kelly having sex with, and urinating on, her then-14-year-old niece, Sparkle says. Sparkle first introduced her then-12-year-old niece to Kelly in 1997 - a decision that still haunts her to this day. The decades-long crusade cost the 46-year-old her closest relationships and stifled her own music career. For the past 20 years, Sparkle, whose real name is Stephanie Edwards, has been trying to convince the world that Kelly sexually abused her teenage niece. Perhaps no one has waited longer for this news. Kelly had been found guilty of all charges in his federal sex-crimes trial, she covered her eyes and bawled. On Monday afternoon, when Sparkle learned R. Photo: Whitten Sabbatini/The New York Times/Redux
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