She Wouldn't Know The Truth If She Tripped Over It: R Kelly Trial Update

R Kelly

So, another dramatic day at the R Kelly trial in Chicago yesterday as the prosecution's previously reported star witness took to the stand.

Allen cried a little during her three hour testimony, in which she described her encounters with Kelly and the girl, some of which, she allegess, the singer filmed. She claimed to have first participated in a threesome with Kelly and the alleged victim in 1998, when she was 18, the R&B star 30 and the young girl would have been 14. She says Kelly told her the other girl was 16, which presumably seemed acceptable at the time, even though the age of consent in Illinois is 17 (the prosecution had already offered to grant the witness immunity should she say anything self-incriminating during her testimony). The first, and a second, encounter occurred, she claims, at Kelly's North Chicago home, where the sex tape at the heart of the case is alleged to have been filmed. A third threesome took place in a trailer during a pop promo shoot in Chicago, during which the alleged victim had to hide in a bathroom after someone knocked on the trailer door. Kelly often filmed his sexual encounters, Van Allen added, and often carried a duffel bag containing past videos. She told the court: "He carried it everywhere with him. Wherever he was at, the bag would follow him". As the under-age sex allegations against the singer gained momentum, Van Allen says, the singer offered to buy a copy of one tape which he new she had a copy of off her - he offered $250,000 but, she says, she only received $20,000 after handing it over.

Van Allen's testimony is crucial to the prosecution's case, because all other witnesses have just been called on to try and identify the man and woman in the sex tape, a screening of which kicked off the trial last month, whereas Van Allen, assuming her claims are true, is an actual witness to Kelly's alleged sex crimes. Needless to say Kelly's defence team, who had previously tried to prevent the woman testifying at all, are keen to throw doubt on her reliability as a witness. They question why Van Allen only came forward to speak to prosecutors last year, six years after Kelly was first charged, arguing that she only decided to make the allegations about the singer last year in a bid to win a more lenient sentence for a man she lives with who was caught up in a weapons case. They also claimed to have evidence that Van Allen was dishonest, alleging she once stole a valuable watch belonging to Kelly back in 2001.

Speaking after Van Allen's possibly landmark testimony, Kelly's business manager Derrell McDavid further attempted to rubbish her claims, saying in a statement: "Van Allen is an admitted thief and liar who wouldn't know the truth if she tripped over it".

Van Allen was the finale act for the prosecution, who rapped up their case after her testimony. The case for the defence will begin tomorrow. Kelly faces up to fifteen years in jail if found guilty of filming himself having sex with a minor.