Sean “Diddy” Combs’s former girlfriend Cassie has informed his sex-trafficking trial that “freak offs” with male escorts grew to become like a job, because the music mogul allegedly abused and sexually exploited her for years.
The musician and mannequin, whose full identify is Casandra Ventura, didn’t have a look at Combs as she took to the witness stand in courtroom in Manhattan, New York.
Over about six hours, the 38-year-old, who’s eight months pregnant along with her third baby with husband Alex Positive, at occasions grew to become emotional as she alleged she was degraded by her former companion throughout their 10-year on-off relationship.
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs trial: Day 2 – Because it occurred
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Combs made a coronary heart gesture to members of the family in courtroom. Pic: Reuters/Jane Rosenberg
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Ms Ventura grew to become emotional at occasions. Pic: Reuters/Jane Rosenberg
Combs, 55, has pleaded not responsible and strenuously denied allegations of sexual abuse. His legal professionals argue that though he could possibly be violent, he by no means veered into intercourse trafficking and racketeering, and that each one sexual encounters have been consensual.
Ms Ventura, who’s the central witness within the prosecutors’ case, started by telling the jury how Combs was violent to her over the course of their relationship, giving her black eyes and bruises.
The hip-hop star grew to become more and more controlling, she stated, and was allegedly abusive over the smallest perceived slights. “You make the wrong face, and the next thing I knew I was getting hit in the face,” she stated.
Ms Ventura was 19 when she signed to his label, Unhealthy Boy, she stated, and 22 when, through the first 12 months of their relationship, Combs first proposed a “freak off” – a sexual encounter with a 3rd occasion. Her “stomach churned”, she stated, and he or she was “confused, nervous, but also loved him very much” and needed to please him. She described him as “charming” however “polarising”.
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Combs’s household arrive for Day 2
‘There was no area to do the rest’
All through her time on the stand, she gave graphic particulars of those drug and drink-fuelled encounters with male escorts, saying Combs would watch and masturbate, and infrequently report the encounters and watch the movies again.
They might final for hours and even days, she stated – telling the courtroom the longest went on for 4 days. They ended up changing into weekly occasions and took precedence over her music profession, jurors heard. Whereas she had hits with singles Me & U and Lengthy Approach 2 Go in 2006, and signed a 10-album cope with Unhealthy Boy, jurors heard she solely launched one album.
“Freak-offs became a job where there was no space to do anything else but to recover and just try to feel normal again,” Ms Ventura stated. Every time, she added, she needed to recuperate from lack of sleep, alcohol, medication “and other substances”, and “having sex with a stranger for days”.
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Combs and Cassie pictured in 2017. Pic: zz/XPX/STAR MAX/IPx 2017/AP
Alleged violence detailed in courtroom
Ms Ventura informed the courtroom she started feeling as if she couldn’t say no to Combs’s calls for as a result of “there were blackmail materials to make me feel like if I didn’t do it, it would be held over my head in that way or these things would become public”.
She was additionally frightened about potential violence, she informed the courtroom. When requested in courtroom how steadily Combs grew to become violent along with her, Ms Ventura responded: “Too frequently.”
The rapper “would mash me in the head, knock me over, drag me, kick me”, she stated. “Stomp me in the head if I was down”.
Ms Ventura additionally informed the courtroom that Combs stored money, jewelry, weapons and “sometimes tapes from cameras” in safes at a number of properties in New York, Los Angeles, Miami and Alpine, New Jersey.
“The guns came out here and there. I always felt it was a little bit of a scare tactic,” she informed the courtroom.
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This footage from 2016 was made public in 2024. Pic: CNN through AP
In the direction of the top of her first day of proof, a surveillance video made public final 12 months, which confirmed Combs allegedly beating Ms Ventura at a Los Angeles lodge in 2016, was performed to jurors in courtroom for a second time.
“How many times has he thrown you like that before?” prosecutor Emily Johnson requested her.
“Too many to count,” Ms Ventura replied.
On Monday, prosecutors of their opening assertion informed the courtroom that whereas Combs’s public persona was that of a “charismatic” hip-hop mogul, behind the scenes he was violent and abusive.
His defence legal professionals argued that the case is basically about nothing greater than the rapper’s sexual preferences, which they stated ought to stay personal, and don’t make him a intercourse trafficker.
The trial is to final about eight weeks.
Ms Ventura is ready to proceed giving proof on Wednesday.
