R&B STAR R KELLY has been taken into custody again for failing to pay child support, just weeks after he was detained on sex abuse charges.

The singer was unable to come up with the $161,000 (€142,344) he owes in payments to his ex-wife and their three children.

Subsequently, a judge in Chicago, where Kelly lives, ordered him to be arrested. 

This is the latest legal setback for 52-year-old Kelly.

On 25 February, he pleaded not guilty to 10 counts of aggravated criminal sex abuse against four victims, three of them minors. 

Kelly’s representatives say he is having financial difficulties at the moment. 

Over the past number of month, he has also been the target of a boycott campaign amid mounting allegations of sexual abuse. 

Kelly was prepared yesterday to pay $50,000 to $60,000 of what he owed, according to his publicist.

However, the judge required the full amount. 

“We were coming expecting that he was gonna come and make an arrangement, but they wanted the entire amount,” his publicist told reporters at the courthouse. 

Kelly was “expecting to leave”, he said. 

Instead, he was taken into custody and escorted from the courtroom by a police officer. 

It is expected he will remain in jail until his next court hearing next Wednesday, 13 March. 

“The reason he can’t pay, as you know, he hadn’t worked in a long time. He can’t book shows he can’t do anything,” Johnson said. 

Kelly spent three nights in jail last month after being arrested on the criminal sex abuse charges. 

He initially was unable to arrange payment of a $100,000 (€88,396) bail.

At the time, his lawyer said that Kelly’s finances were “a mess”.

‘This not me’

Hours before yesterday’s hearing, CBS aired an interview with the musician – his first public comments since being indicted last month on the sex assault charges.

During the interview, Kelly denied allegations that he sexually abused women and girls.

The sex acts in the criminal case are alleged to have occurred between May 1998 and January 2010.

“I didn’t do this stuff. This isn’t me,” Kelly told CBS This Morning, saying he was “fighting” for his life.

 “Whether they’re old rumours, new rumours, future rumours, not true,” said Kelly.

He became upset at times during the interview.

In January, a six-part documentary called Surviving R Kelly was released. It claimed he had engaged in sexual, mental and physical abuse of girls and women.

Includes reporting by - © AFP 2019

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