R Kelly trial begins with 'vile' video

May 21, 2008, 1:41 GMT

New York - Prosecutors showed the jury a 'vile, disturbing and disgusting' sex tape Tuesday as the child pornography trial of R&B star R Kelly got under way.

The 26-minute tape showed a young girl being ordered to perform sex acts with a man whose face is obscured. Both Kelly and his alleged victim deny they are the people shown on the tape. If convicted on the 14 counts of videotaping, producing or soliciting child pornography the 41-year-old Grammy Award winner faces up to 15 years in jail.

Prosecutors showed the tape after warning the jury in opening arguments about its shocking nature. 'You will see the sex acts he commands her to do,' prosecutor Shauna Boliker told the jury. 'Vile, disturbing and disgusting sex acts, actions that were choreographed, produced and starred in by Robert Kelly.'

The prosecution says the recording was made between January 1998 and November 2000 when the girl was 13 or 14.

But defence attorney Sam Adam said the case was based on mistaken identity and claimed that an FBI review of the tape could not positively identify his client. 'Robert Kelly is not on that tape,' said Adam. 'There isn't an original of this tape. The tape you're going to see here is at best a copy of a copy of a copy of the original.'