This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A Pennsylvania man was cleaning out an old videotape collection when he found what he thought was a recording of R&B singer R Kelly in concert, but instead turned out to show a man who appeared to be Kelly sexually abusing girls, he and his attorney said on Sunday.

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The man then turned the tape over to law enforcement, according to attorney Gloria Allred.

She and her client, Gary Dennis, would not discuss the specifics of the tape during a news conference in New York on Sunday afternoon. Allred said it appears to show a separate incident from the 10 counts of aggravated sexual abuse Kelly faces in Chicago, though she acknowledged she could not be “100% certain” that the man in the tape is Kelly.

Steve Greenberg, an attorney for Kelly, noted that lack of certainty.

“It is not him,” Greenberg said. He also said the 52-year-old singer “denies that he is on any tape with underaged girls”.

Dennis, an assistant at a nursing home, said he was cleaning out a box of old VHS tapes in his home when he found the footage. He said he has never met Kelly and does not know how the tape came to be in his possession. He said that because the tape also has a sports game on it, he believes it may have come from a friend.

It is not him. Steve Greenberg, attorney for R Kelly

“To my shock and surprise, R Kelly appeared to be on the tape but not in concert,” Dennis said. “Instead he was sexually abusing underaged African American girls.

“I was disgusted and horrified when I saw that.”

Allred said they assume the girls in the video were underage because they appeared to be prepubescent.

Greenberg said the question being asked should be “what are these people doing possessing what they obviously believe is child pornography in their VHS collection and what the authorities are going to do”.

The charges Kelly faces in Chicago are in connection to three girls and one woman. Prosecutors have said they have video of Kelly abusing one of the girls.

Greenberg said it was “now just open season” on Kelly.

The singer has been trailed for decades by allegations he victimized women and girls. He was acquitted of child pornography charges in 2008, related to a tape prosecutors said showed him having sex with a girl as young as 13.

He and his attorneys have repeatedly denied allegations of sexual misconduct, and he has pleaded not guilty to the charges filed in Chicago.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Gary Dennis speaks at a news conference with attorney Gloria Allred, left, in New York. Photograph: Don Emmert/AFP/Getty Images

In an interview that aired this week on CBS This Morning, Kelly pleaded with viewers to believe he never had sex with anyone under age 17 and never held anyone against their will.

Allred, who represents women who say they were abused by Kelly, said the tape from Dennis was turned over to law enforcement in the federal eastern district of New York. She did not say why it went to that venue. That office did not immediately return requests for comment.

Allred encouraged anyone who was in possession of similar tapes to come forward, either to her or to law enforcement.

A Chicago police spokesman referred questions about Allred’s news conference to the prosecutors handling the case. That office did not immediately return a call seeking comment.