The family of alleged R. Kelly cult victim Joycelyn Savage returned to interview with TMZ on Thursday, July 20, in an effort to clarify what they believe are misconceptions the public has about the case. The family rejects Joycelyn's claim that her father Tim actually introduced Kelly and his daughter and gave initial blessings for her to stay with him. Tim vehemently denied that any meeting happened at all, before addressing the notion that Joycelyn was already of legal age to leave home and live with whom she pleased.
"It's not about being a consenting adult. Some of these girls he met when they were 17. It's a known fact," Mr. Savage said. He then suggested that skeptics making the case out to be one involving sexual exploitation to get their heads out of the gutter, saying, "some of these things that we're talking about, it's not about sexual."
Tim Savage has been pursuing R. Kelly since December when he claims he last saw Joycelyn. Over that time he's posted numerous messages directed towards the singer on YouTube but has gotten nothing but silence from Kelly. After news of the allegations broke earlier this week, Kelly finally spoke out to reject the claims and threaten a lawsuit should Tim Savage continue to defame his name in the press. Savage has welcomed the suit, saying that he believes it would only help get all of the details about the case out.
According to the BuzzFeed report responsible for helping Savage's claims go mainstream, several sources, including a former Kelly employee attest to witnessing certain abuses take place involving up to six girls in the singer's homes in Atlanta and Chicago. He is accused of replacing their cell phones with ones exclusively for communication with him and of restricting their movements in the home and dictating whether or not they may leave the home. The report also said that Kelly determines what and when they eat, when they shower and when they sleep, with one source alleging that he is exercising mind control over the pack.
"You know, you can have a relationship with anybody when you get of age. But it's the abuse that we're talking about. It's almost like slavery. And you can't allow women to go through what we're going through, especially our daughter," Savage told the TMZ audience.
Source: YouTube
