R. Kelly, who has photographed himself having sex with under-aged girls, videotaped himself having sex with under-aged girls, married an under-aged girl, and been accused by about a half-dozen other under-aged girls of having sex with them, is supposed to go on trial beginning this Friday on child-sex charges stemming from that pesky videotape.

The latest news from Chicago—which the Chicago Sun-Times touts as an exclusive this a.m.—is complicated. The paper reports that a woman will testify in the case that she had sex with Kelly …

a) …when she was underage
b) …with another girl, who was both underage and…
c) …the mysterious woman at the center of the case, who appeared in the original tape that got Kelly in all the trouble.

I say mysterious because, while the girl (now woman) has not been heard from publicly, she has been named in the Chicago papers and been identified by relatives. But it has also been reported that she denies that it is she on the tape. From the S-T:

[…T]he prosecution’s new witness could undermine that defense, since she will identify the girl, sources with knowledge of the matter told the Chicago Sun-Times. In addition, the witness is expected to say the girl was underage at the time of their encounter.

“She was involved in a threesome with [the girl] and R. Kelly,” one source said.

Prosecutors and defense lawyers declined to comment, citing a gag order in the case.

One hates to make light of a case like this, which seems to involve a sexual predator who in the end may be revealed to have damaged many lives. But one has to note that there can’t have been many child sex cases whose prosecution can bring forth a witness with quite so up-close-and-personal an, ah, experience in the case.

And for those keeping score, with or without Hitsville’s own exclusive R. Kelly Sexfacts™, note that this brings to two the number of Kelly’s alleged threeways with under-aged girls.*

For him, it’s just all stuff to tell the grandkids about.

The story says the woman’s testimony was one of the matters the judge in the case deemed worthy of closing the court to discuss. He ultimately ruled in favor of the prosecution and will allow the testimony, the paper said, citing unnamed sources. Local news organizations in Chicago are suing to open the hearings and unseal the transcripts of the discussions.

* Indeed, the original Chicago Sun-Times story exposing Kelly’s alleged predilections (a year before the videotape came out) featured at its centerpiece two named women who said that Kelly had had sex with them at the same time when they were under-age.

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Previously in Hitsville:

Tribune, Sun-Times protest closed hearings in R. Kelly case

Secret hearings in the R. Kelly case

The Godfather Who Shagged Me: The complete R. Kelly SexFacts™
Everything you ever wanted to know about the R. Kelly case

R. Kelly’s Publicist: He slept with my daughter!