A former employee of R. Kelly testified Tuesday that she was “110 percent sure” the Grammy-winning R&B singer appeared with an underage girl on a sex tape at the center of his child pornography trial.
Lindsey Perryman, who said she worked as a record producer and personal assistant to the singer and his family off and on from 2000-2007, told jurors that she first saw the tape in December 2007, after being approached by prosecutors.
She said she then was sure it was Kelly; she also identified the alleged victim, who had visited Kelly’s studio.
Kelly, 41, is charged with 14 counts of child pornography for allegedly videotaping himself having sex with an underage girl. He has pleaded not guilty and faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted.
Two other witnesses on Tuesday testified that the female participant on the graphic 27-minute videotape was the same person prosecutors say was as young as 13 at the time. Prosecutors claim the tape was made between Jan. 1, 1998, and Nov. 1, 2000, and that the young female in the tape was born in September 1984.
Within hours of their opening statements last week, prosecutors entered the VHS tape into the record as “People’s Exhibit No. 1” and played it in court. Also last week, several witnesses, including a relative of the alleged victim, testified that they recognized her in the videotape.
