R Kelly in court in October 2019 / ABC
R Kelly has been hospitalised in North Carolina after suffering an overdose while in prison.
The 58-year-old former rapper – known for hits including ‘I Believe I Can Fly’ and ‘Ignition (Remix)’ – is several years into a 31-year jail sentence for charges including child sexual abuse.
In a series of court filings, Kelly’s lawyers allege that he was transferred to solitary confinement at the federal correctional institute in Butner, NC, on June 10.
They then claim that he was provided with anxiety medication with instructions to take it, followed up by another increased dose which led to him collapsing.
“These people did overdose him,” said lawyer Beau B Brindley in the filings. “They did leave him with blood clots in his lungs and remove him from a hospital that sought to do surgery to remove them.
“And they did it within days of his exposure of a plan to kill him set forth by Bureau of Prisons officials.”
Government attorneys described the claims as “repugnant”, adding: “Kelly has never taken responsibility for his years of sexually abusing children, and he probably never will.
“Undeterred, Kelly now asks this Court to release him from incarceration indefinitely under the guise of a fanciful conspiracy. Kelly’s motion makes a mockery of the harm suffered by Kelly’s victims.”
Kelly is now believed to be back in prison following his discharge from hospital.
