A childhood friend of the alleged victim in R. Kelly's child pornography case identified her longtime friend as the one in the explicit video at the center of the trial, according to reports.

The R&B singer is accused of videotaping himself having sex with a girl as young as 13. His attorneys claim that Kelly is not on the tape and the alleged victim, who is now 23, also denies that she is in the video.

After screening the entire video following opening statements Tuesday, prosecutors spent yesterday trying to prove that Kelly and the alleged victim are indeed in the video, reports the Associated Press.

Simha Jamison, 24, testified that she and the alleged victim were best friends for about 10 years until their junior year in high school — and that she is very familiar with the physical features of her friend's face. She said that she and her friend visited Kelly at his recording studio and at a Chicago basketball court dozens of times starting when they were around the age of 12.

Her friend first introduced her to Kelly as "her godfather," Jamison said, adding that the singer frequently gave her friend cash gifts — "no less than $100 and no more than $500." She said the two also visited the home where authorities say the sex tape was filmed. Jamison said she saw the tape in 2002 and again just before testifying.

Under intense cross examination by defense attorney Sam Adam Jr., Jamison was grilled about her memory, her previous testimony and her ability to discern doctored video footage.

According to reports, Jamison stood her ground against Adam Jr.'s aggressive questioning. Jamison conceded that in the hundreds of times she had seen Kelly and the alleged victim together, she never saw any sexual contact between them. And though she conceded her former best friend of 10 years never told her about a relationship with the R&B star, that didn't mean nothing ever happened between them.

"There were things I wouldn't tell her as I'm sure there were things that she wouldn't tell me," she told the court.

In earlier testimony, Jamison said she recognized her friend in the sex tape from the mullet hairstyle they were sporting at the time. She said both girls had the same haircut when they were 13 or 14.

But Adam Jr. then showed a series of photos of the alleged victim dating back to early 1997. (In pretrial hearings the prosecution had initially said the tape was made as early as 1997, but the judge narrowed the time frame after Kelly's lawyers said it was too broad for mounting a defense.)

"Now that is the very same year you may have seen the mullet on that video, right?" asked Adam Jr. He then suggested the tape could have been doctored, given the disparity between the alleged victim's body in the 1997 photos and those of the female in the sex tape. Adam Jr. asked Jamison if it was possible it had been superimposed onto a more mature body.

She said it was entirely possible.

He then brought up to Jamison the 2006 movie "Little Man," a feature film where an adult actor's face is superimposed on an infant body using advanced computer technology.

It looked pretty real, didn't it? asked Adam Jr.

Not really, responded Jamison, drawing laughs from the courtroom.

Adam said the reason the alleged victim never told the witness she was having a sexual relationship with Kelly was because there wasn't one and "because it's not her on the tape."

"Are you asking or telling me?" Jamison shot back.

Kelly, 41, has pleaded not guilty to 14 counts of child pornography and faces up to 15 years if convicted.

Also on Wednesday, the Chicago Tribune's sketch artist, Cheryl Cook, was stripped of her press credentials for allegedly violating the judge's order barring the media from reproducing the likeness of any jurors.

The judge had instructed the artists not to reproduce the faces of any jurors and to leave them as ovals without any features. Cook's reproduction, printed Wednesday in the Tribune, showed vague facial characteristics on some of the jurors. Her credentials were stripped by Cook County Judge Vincent Gaughan Wednesday morning.