'Nobody is telling this story': Woman who accuses R Kelly of deliberately infecting her with herpes speaks out

The singer has previously denied the accusations

A woman who has accused R Kelly of intentionally infecting her with a sexually transmitted disease, has claimed the R&B star “is going around and transmitting STDs to people [and] nobody is telling that story”.

Faith Rodgers has filed a lawsuit against the 51-year-old musician, alleging that he sexually assaulted her, locked her in rooms as punishment for failing to please him, and infecting her with herpes.

“I think the hardest part was coming clean to my family about everything. And you kind of feel bad, you beat yourself up about it. I blame myself a lot,” Ms Rodgers said in an interview with BBC Three, as part of a forthcoming documentary.

She added: “There is another side of the story that this man is going around and transmitting STDs to people, nobody is telling that story. If I knew that I probably wouldn’t even have got involved with him, that’s a big deal. That’s something you just don’t skip over.”

Ms Rodgers said she started her relationship with Kelly when she was 19. It lasted for about a year, during which time he told her to call him “daddy” and introduced her to one of the five women Kelly allegedly said he was “raising”.

“He’s the master and they’re his slaves,” she said.

After the young woman filed the lawsuit in the New York Supreme Court, her lawyer, Lee Merrit, said he believed Ms Rodgers had a strong case. “In New York it is a misdemeanour, punishable for up to one year, for giving someone an STD such a Herpes,” he said in a statement.

Kelly’s representatives did not immediately respond to enquiries. However, last month, when Ms Rodgers filed a police affidavit, the Chicago-born musician issued a statement saying he “categorically denies all claims and allegations”.

Kelly, who has sold 40m albums, has faced a number of accusations of sexual misconduct, making indecent images of children and other offences. Last year, the singer denied allegations he was holding a number of young women in a so-called cult. Despite having faced previous accusations of sexual misconduct, Kelly was never found guilty.

Ms Rodgers said she first met Kelly a year ago after a concert in San Antonio, Texas. They exchanged phone numbers, and Kelly later had her flown to New York.

She said that during her first sexual encounter, Rodgers said she told Kelly she was “not ready to have sex”, but that he ignored her concerns and engaged in “non-permissive, painful and abusive sex”.

She said she only learned later that Kelly had a sexually transmitted disease and that she had been infected with Type 1 herpes. In the BBC interview, Ms Rodgers said another alleged sexual encounter took place at a concert where he allegedly penetrated in front of a mirror. “It was rough. It hurt. I felt violated.”

She said on others occasions, Kelly instructed her to perform sexually while he filmed her on his iPad.

She said: “He turned on all the lights and pulled out his iPad and he told me get naked and he was demanding me to just do stuff on camera that I wasn’t comfortable doing whatsoever.”