I hate to sound like an apologist for this kind of disgusting behavior, but it bothers me that singer R. Kelly can be prosecuted for videotaping himself having sex with a possibly underage girl without being prosecuted for statutory rape. As I linked to before, it's unclear when the tapes were made.
By alleging that the illegal acts happened between November 1997 and February 2002, Kelly's attorneys argue, the girl could be anywhere from 13 to 17 years old. If she was 17 at the time, she would have been old enough to consent to sex.Old enough to consent to sex, but not old enough to consent to being photographed having sex. So the statutory rape charges (and some child pornography charges) have been dropped since they can't be proven, but other child porn charges in his home state of Illinois are still pending -- he's in trouble for videotaping himself doing something that can't be proven to be illegal.
(More of my thoughts on this topic here.)
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