There’s a damaging allegation making rounds across international news sites involving R&B legend, Robert Sylvester Kelly popularly known as R.Kelly. The world famous singer also known as The Pied Piper has been accused of running “an abusive cult” where he holds young ladies “against their will” and engages in sexual activities with them.

That R.Kelly holds the ladies “against their will” is hugely debatable as the police and other law enforcement authorities have declared that they are unable to take action against Kelly because the ladies are over the age of consent and are insisting they are happy with the music star.

The most recent development in the matter that was first publicized in an extensive report by Buzzfeed News on Monday is a brief interview with an alleged captive, 21-year-old Joycelyn Savage whose parents revealed in a news conference, has been away from home for 2 years and is being held as a sex slave of Kelly.

In the interview with TMZ, Joycelyn said “I’m in a happy place with my life, I’m not being brainwashed or anything like that. I want to tell the world that I’m doing fine, I’m happy where I’m at and everything is okay with me”. She however refused to disclose details of her location or if she has other roommates.

Joycelyn’s claims are very contrary to all her parents, Jonjelyn and Timothy Savage have said so far. According to Buzzfeed’s report, Joycelyn and her mother, Jonjelyn met R.Kelly backstage after a performance in May, 2015. Joyce had a musical career that was in need of a boost and getting the legend, R.Kelly to listen to her CD was a big deal and maybe even the breakthrough she craved. R.Kelly liked her music, paid for her flight to one of his concerts and things went awry from there.

Joycelyn’s parents claim to have spoken with her only a few times in the last two years and last saw her in December 2016. Her mother said of the occasion, “It was as if she was brainwashed. She looked like a prisoner — it was horrible. I hugged her and hugged her. But she just kept saying she’s in love and Kelly is the one who cares for her. I don’t know what to do. I hope that if I get her back, I can get her treatment for victims of cults. They can reprogram her. But I wish I could have stopped it from happening.”

But Joycelyn’s family is not the only ones who have expressed their worries and deep regrets for trusting their daughter with the legendary singer.

Theresa, the mother of an unnamed 17-year-old upcoming professional singer, said she assumed her daughter was in a music relationship with Kelly and she trusted him because he had been cleared of the 14-count charge of making child pornography in 2008.

That R.Kelly has been accused of having illicit affairs with underage girls in the past is a known fact. He married late singer, Aaliyah in 1994 when she was only 15 and too young to be married under the laws of the state of Illinois. Kelly was 20 at the time and Aaliyah’s music writer and producer. He made and released an album for her and titled it “Age ain’t nothing but a number”. From the early 2000s to 2008 when he was finally acquitted, several charges involving sexual misconduct, emotional abuse and underage sex were levelled against Kelly.

Theresa said although she and her husband had received occasional messages from their daughter to say she was fine, they were still worried she would not be the same when she returns if forcibly removed from Kelly’s watch. Other people who know of her say she’s absolutely in love with the 50-year-old and she’s his favourite too.

On hand to corroborate the allegations made by these parents are three ladies who claim they are former “captives” of the singer. Cheryl Mack, Kitti Jones, and Asante McGee said “six women live in properties rented by Kelly in Chicago and the Atlanta suburbs, and he controls every aspect of their lives: dictating what they eat, how they dress, when they bathe, when they sleep, and how they engage in sexual encounters that he records.” One of them added, “You have to ask for food. You have to ask to go to the bathroom. Kelly is a master at mind control. He is a puppet master”. She also said that although he’s the sweetest person one can meet, he is also a devil

According to the ladies, Kelly controlled their use of social media, never allowed them take photos in the house, made them wear jogging suits so they would be unappealing to other men, filmed his sexual activities with the girls and showed to other men and verbally and physically “punished” them when they broke the rules.

R.Kelly’s lawyer, Linda Mensch has released a statement denying the claims. It reads in part, “Mr Robert Kelly is both alarmed and disturbed at the recent revelations attributed to him. Mr Kelly unequivocally denies such allegations and will work diligently and forcibly to pursue his accusers and clear his name”, The Telegraph reports.