R Kelly denies allegations about holding women in an abusive “cult”

R Kelly has responded to the allegations that surfaced yesterday via Buzzfeed News about the r’n’b artist holding women in an abusive and controlling sex cult across locations in Chicago and Atlanta.

Linda Mensch, lawyer for R Kelly, has put out a statement defending the singer in response to the Buzzfeed News article.

Writing to the The Telegraph, she said: "Mr Robert Kelly is both alarmed and disturbed at the recent revelations attributed to him.

"Mr Kelly unequivocally denies such allegations and will work diligently and forcibly to pursue his accusers and clear his name."

Women formerly in the alleged cult and concerned parents of daughters who first approached R Kelly hoping to progress their music careers spoke to Buzzfeed News.

Among the allegations made against Kelly are controlling the womens’ phone and social media use, and having a 31-year-old “den mother” train new girls on how he liked to be pleasured sexually. Kelly has also been accused of filming these sexual encounters and showing them to men in his circle.

Police have investigated the allegations, but one parent revealed her daughter, who she hasn’t seen since December 2016, claimed she is in love with R Kelly, and since she is over the age of consent the police cannot intervene.

“It was as if she was brainwashed. [She] looked like a prisoner — it was horrible,” said the parent, speaking about the interaction she had with her daughter last December.

R Kelly personally suffered sexual abuse from men and women, including relatives, between the ages of seven to 15.

He also married Aaliyah when the late singer was aged 15 and he was 27, fraudulently putting her age as 18 on the marriage certificate. In 2008 he was cleared of child porn charges following a six year court battle.

[Via: The Telegraph and Buzzfeed News]

Patrick Hinton is Mixmag's Digital Staff Writer, follow him on Twitter