STAR prosecution witness broke down in tears yesterday as she described alleged three-way sexual encounters with R&B superstar R Kelly.

Lisa Van Allen, 27 - who claimed Kelly videotaped some of the alleged trysts - was the last witness before prosecutors rested their case.

She told jurors that Kelly had offered her $250,000 to recover one of the tapes.

During cross-examination, a defence attorney accused Van Allen of plotting to extort money from the singer, a claim she denied.

Under further questioning she admitted she once stole Kellys $20,000 diamond-studded watch from a hotel.

"Van Allen is an admitted thief and liar who wouldnt know the truth if she tripped over it," Kellys business manager, Derrel McDavid, said in a statement.

Kelly, 41, faces as many as 15 years in prison if convicted of child pornography on suspicion of videotaping himself having sex with a female who prosecutors say was as young as 13.

Videotaping

 

He has pleaded not guilty and both he and the alleged victim, now 23, deny being on the video - which is separate from those Van Allen testified to being on.

The defence will begin presenting its case on Wednesday.

Van Allen told jurors on Monday she first had sex with Kelly and the alleged victim in 1998.

Kelly would have been around 30-years-old at the time, Van Allen about 18 and the alleged victim would have been 14, according to prosecutors estimates.

Van Allen said Kelly told her at the time that the alleged victim was 16. The age of legal consent in Illinois is 17.

The three-way sex took place in the same home on Chicagos North Side where prosecutors say the sex tape at the centre of the case was made, Van Allen told jurors.

She said she began crying during a second sexual encounter in 1999 with Kelly and the alleged victim, causing an upset Kelly to pick up the video camera and leave the room.

"I started crying ... because I didnt want to do it," Van Allen testified.

She said Kelly complained that her crying ruined the footage and that he never kept tapes during which she cried.

A final three-way encounter took place in a trailer during a video shoot in Chicago in 2000, Van Allen said. When someone came to the trailer door, the alleged victim "had to run into the bathroom naked" because Kelly did not want others to see her there, she told jurors.

Van Allen portrayed Kelly as obsessed with videotaping his sexual exploits, testifying that he even carried around a duffel bag with his homemade sex tapes in it.

"He carried it everywhere with him," she said.

"Wherever he was at, the bag would follow him."

Van Allen said she first met Kelly at the making of a music video in Georgia about ten years ago