The news of R. Kelly being charged with 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse sent shockwaves through Twitter on Friday.
The singer, real name Robert Kelly, is set to appear in a Cook County court on the charges March 8, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. There are four victims, who were between the ages of 13 and 16 when the alleged sexual abuse occurred between 1998 and 2010, according to the Chicago Tribune. Kelly will appear in court Saturday.
This development comes just weeks after the airing of the Lifetime docuseries “Surviving R. Kelly,” which shed light on alleged sexual and emotional abuse by R. Kelly.
Shortly after the six-part series aired, the Fulton County District Attorney's Office opened an investigation into the claims of abuse made by women in metro Atlanta. Just last week, a never-before-seen video emerged that allegedly featured Kelly and an underage girl engaging in sex.
In the aftermath of the docuseries, several celebrities, advocates and others had been calling for Kelly’s arrest. On Friday, many of those commentators took to the platform where the allegations against Kelly had been most discussed, Twitter, to recognize that the calls for action had seemingly been answered.
Some did find issue with what they considered to be a delay in justice. Since the current charges deal with cases of alleged abuse from the late 1990s.
Others connected the news of Kelly’s charges to the other prominent Chicago celebrity case this week, actor Jussie Smollett’s charge of disorderly conduct for allegedly faking his attack last month.
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