R Kelly on stage at the FOX Theater, 27 December 2016 in Atlanta Georgia

R Kelly on stage at the FOX Theater, 27 December 2016 in Atlanta Georgia

US R&B STAR R Kelly has been charged with 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse.

Cook County prosecutors in Chicago were appearing before a judge this afternoon to sign off on an arrest warrant for Kelly, the Chicago Sun Times reported.

His first court date is listed as 8 March.

Earlier, reports emerged of two more women claiming R Kelly had sexually assaulted them as teens.

Latresa Scaff, 40, and Rochelle Washington, 39, told journalists in New York they met Kelly at a show’s after-party in Baltimore in the 1990s, giving them alcohol and drugs before cornering them in his hotel room and demanding sex.

Their accusations come six weeks after a Lifetime documentary series – Surviving R Kelly – took another look at old sexual misconduct allegations against the R&B star.

They were unable to pinpoint the year of the concert but said it was either 1995 or 1996, adding Kelly’s security picked them out of the arena’s crowd.

At the after-party they were given cocaine, marijuana and alcohol and invited to Kelly’s hotel room, according to Scaff, who said a man with a walkie-talkie told them:

R Kelly is getting ready to enter the room. Pull up your dresses.

The artist, now 52, then came in wearing a shirt and jeans but with his genitals exposed.

Washington refused his advances and hid in the bathroom, but Scaff gave him oral sex and then had intercourse with him, “even though I did not have the capacity to consent,” she said.

Washington said that now she’s a mother, she feels she was taken advantage of by Kelly.

“I just want justice for anyone that was hurt or violated,” she said. “I want victims to know it’s not their fault.”

As Latresa Scaff, right, and Rochelle Washington, left, look on as attorney Gloria Allred holds up a picture of them as teenagers on the night they claim they became victims of musician R Kelly's sexual advances during a news conference in New York Source: Seth Wenig via PA Images

The pair, represented by high-powered feminist lawyer Gloria Allred, were scheduled to speak with the US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York later Thursday.

Scaff said she decided to speak out “because of all of the other victims,” and encouraged others to come forward.

Allred is representing a number of women who have made allegations against Kelly.

Michael Avenatti – the lawyer representing porn star Stormy Daniels in her legal battle with US President Donald Trump – is also defending multiple clients with ties to the artist.

Without providing further detail, Allred said some women she is representing fear video or audio recordings of their relations with Kelly may be circulating.

For decades the artist – real name Robert Sylvester Kelly – has faced lawsuits and accusations over child pornography, sex with minors, operating a sex cult and sexual battery.

“You have nowhere to run and nowhere to hide,” Allred said, referring to Kelly.

“You have been able to get away with your predatory misconduct for far too long.”

Kelly’s lawyer, Steve Greenberg, has said his client never knowingly had sex with an underage woman. An email was left with Greenberg seeking comment about Scaff’s and Washington’s allegations.

In 2008 the singer was acquitted of child pornography charges stemming from a sex tape he allegedly made with an underage girl.

With reporting from AP, Seán Murray

- © AFP 2019