Jury clears R Kelly in child porn trial

American R&B star R Kelly was acquitted of all charges in his child pornography trial today.

The jury came to their verdict after less than a day, ending a six-year ordeal for Kelly.

Kelly dabbed his face with a handkerchief and hugged each of his four lawyers after the verdict – not guilty on all 14 counts – was read.

The Grammy award-winning singer had faced 15 years in prison if convicted.

Minutes later, surrounded by bodyguards, he left the courthouse without comment. Dozens of fans screamed and cheered as he climbed into a waiting 4x4.

Prosecutors had argued that a videotape posted to the Chicago Sun-Times in 2002 showed Kelly engaged in graphic sex acts with a girl as young as 13 at the time.

Both Kelly, 41, and the now 23-year-old alleged victim had denied they were the ones on the tape. Neither testified during the trial.

The prosecution’s star witness was a woman who said she engaged in three-way sex with Kelly and the alleged victim.

Defence lawyers argued the man on the tape did not have a large mole on his back; Kelly has such a mole.

The month-long trial centred on whether Kelly was the man who appears on the 27-minute videotape at the heart of the case, and whether a female who also appears on it was underage.

Over seven days presenting their case, prosecutors called 22 witnesses, including several childhood friends of the alleged victim and four of her relatives who identified her as the female on the video.

In just two days, Kelly’s lawyers called 12 witnesses. They included three relatives of the alleged victim who testified they did not recognise her as the female on the tape.

Kelly won a Grammy in 1997 for I Believe I Can Fly, and is known for such raunchy hits as Bump N’ Grind, and Ignition.

Of the 12 jurors, nine were men and three were women; eight were white and four were black.

Despite his legal troubles, Kelly – who rose from poverty on Chicago’s South Side to become a star singer, songwriter and producer – still retains a huge following, and his popularity has arguably grown in recent years.

The singer has released more than half a dozen albums, most of them selling over a million copies.

Kelly, always meticulously dressed in a suit and tie, appeared tense at times during the trial, furrowing his brow. He seemed particularly ill at ease when prosecutors played the sex tape in open court after opening arguments.

The issue of whether there was or was not a fingernail-sized mole on the man’s lower back was a subject of hours of testimony. A defence witness told jurors there was no mole on his back, proving it’s not Kelly, who has such a mole.

But a prosecution witness displayed freeze frames of the video where a dark spot seemed to appear as the man turns to take off his trousers.

One surreal moment came when a defence expert played a segment of the tape he doctored showing two headless bodies engaging in sex. The defence said that backed their argument that Kelly’s likeness could have been computer-generated.

Cross-examination was often heated. Several witnesses cried on the stand.

The star prosecution witness, Lisa Van Allen, became teary eyed as she told jurors she engaged in several three-way sexual encounters with Kelly and the alleged victim, including once on a basketball court. Kelly videotaped the trysts, she said.

Ms Van Allen also claimed Kelly used to carry a duffel bag stuffed full of his home-made sex tapes.

The defence called several witnesses in a bid to discredit Ms Van Allen, accusing her of trying to extort money from Kelly.

Under cross-examination, Ms Van Allen admitted she once stole Kelly’s 20,000 dollar diamond-studded watch from a hotel.