The "vile, disturbing and disgusting" sex video with an underaged girl, allegedly produced and starred by R&B star R. Kelly, is the focus of a much-discussed trial.

Lawyers defending the Grammy Award-winning artist said the 26-minute tape shows neither Kelly nor his alleged victim, and video origins remain a mystery.

"Robert Kelly is not on that tape," said defense lawyer Sam 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."

R.Kelly faces trial on 14 counts of videotaping, producing or soliciting child pornography.

If convicted of all charges, the 41-year-old performer, whose given name is Robert Kelly, could be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison.

"You will see the sex acts he commands her to do," Shauna Boliker of the Cook County state's attorney's office told the jury. "Vile, disturbing and disgusting sex acts, actions that were choreographed, produced and starred in by Robert Kelly."

"The case will unfold before you frame by disgusting frame," she added, with the girl "doing what she's told. There's no feeling in her face. It is clear she is an underaged girl" whom Kelly met when she was 12.

Boliker told the jury the girl -- now in her 20s -- will not testify for the prosecution. She has said it is not her on the tape and refused to testify against Kelly, but she may be called as a defense witness, court records indicate.

The tape, which prosecutors say was made between January 1998 and November 2000 when the girl was 13 or 14, was played in the courtroom.

The man's face is visible only a few times but he can be seen handing the girl money and heard giving her commands.



(SOURCE: REUTERS)