Singer R Kelly moved to North Carolina prison from Chicago

Robert Sylvester Kelly was transferred from the Metropolitan Correctional Centre Chicago to the federal correctional institution in Butner, North Carolina, on April 19, Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesperson Benjamin O’Cone said on Monday.

The bureau does not disclose the reasons for inmate transfers due to privacy, safety and security reasons, he said.

In February, a federal judge in Chicago sentenced the 56-year-old Grammy Award-winning R&B singer to 20 years in prison for child pornography and enticement of minors for sex.

He will serve all but one of those simultaneously with a separate 30-year sentence on racketeering and sex trafficking convictions in New York.

Kelly, who has vehemently denied the allegations, rose from poverty in Chicago to become one of the world’s biggest R&B stars.

Known for his smash hit I Believe I Can Fly and for sex-infused songs such as Bump N’ Grind, he sold millions of albums even after allegations about his abuse of girls began circulating publicly in the 1990s.