People do strange things for love and money. And rarely stranger and more disturbing, a New York court has been told over seven draining weeks, than to take part in drug-fuelled, days‑long sex marathons with male prostitutes for the titillation of the music superstar boyfriend who was filming them.
That was the essence of rapper and producer Sean Combs’s extraordinary defence against sex trafficking charges in the biggest showbusiness trial since Michael Jackson fought child sexual abuse allegations 20 years ago.
In a case that has exposed the dark heart of one of the world’s most celebrated music moguls, the 55-year-old star once known as Puff Daddy – and later P Diddy, or just Diddy – admitted he had a drug problem, that he hit women and that he enjoyed the prolonged orgies he called ‘freak-offs’.
However, his lawyers insisted, it had all been consensual and his accusers were nothing but over-zealous prosecutors and greedy women.
They added that the sex videos, some of which were shown to shocked jurors, proved that the ‘freak-offs’ were ‘beautiful’ and that Combs was ‘not the only man in America making homemade porn’.
And, on Tuesday, their defence proved at least a partial success, when a jury in Manhattan sensationally found him not guilty of sex trafficking his ex-girlfriends through a decades-long criminal enterprise and also cleared him of two other charges.
But he was convicted on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution.
His qualified victory in court came despite a horrifying hotel security camera video, played and replayed to the jury.
Cassie Ventura, left, and Sean Combs, right, who was found not guilty of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking
He was convicted on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution.
Sean “Diddy” Combs drags ex-girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura in a still image from a March 5, 2016 surveillance video taken in the hallway of a Los Angeles hotel, where a towel-clad Combs threw Ventura to the ground and began to kick her
Diddy’s ecstatic family privately celebrated their father’s stunning courtroom victory
Recorded in 2016, it showed singer Casandra Ventura – Combs’s on-off girlfriend for a decade and one of his two principal accusers at the trial – fleeing what turned out to have been a ‘freak-off’ in a Los Angeles hotel suite.
While she was waiting for a lift, Combs – wearing only a towel and socks – rushed down a corridor and savagely attacked her.
Grabbing her by the back of the head, he threw her to the floor and then twice kicked her viciously as she lay motionless.
He then dragged her back to his room, the video showing him later throwing a glass vase in her direction.
The trial heard how Combs paid a hotel security guard $100,000 cash for the video, wrongly believing it was the only copy.
And this was a relationship – the one between Combs and Ventura – that defence lawyers had cynically told jurors was ‘a great modern love story’.
They were ‘swingers’, the court heard, but there was no law against that.
Sean ‘ Diddy ‘ Combs was on trial for racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking. He was found not guilty of both charges
Christian ‘King’ Combs is seen leaving his hotel on the way to Manhattan Federal Court as the jury deliberated this morning
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ mother Janice Combs (pictured in NYC Wednesday) shared her delight at news her rapper son had been cleared of the most serious charges he was facing
Diddy (center) reacts after hearing his verdict in court on July 2. His attorneys are seen embracing and smiling, while he sits his head in his hands (court sketch)
An expression of relief rushes over Diddy’s face after finding out his verdict on July 2
Prosecutors insisted Combs –estimated to be worth $400 million (£290 million) – was a control freak who ‘would not take no for an answer’, relying on power, fear, violence and a cohort of underling accomplices to force his girlfriends to take part in humiliating sex acts over two decades.
It was a hardly a straightforward case. Legal experts warned that prosecutors had been overly ambitious in the five charges, which included racketeering – an offence that requires proving that Combs’s employees knowingly helped him to cover up his crimes.
But Combs’s refusal to take the stand allowed his accusers – ‘Cassie’ Ventura and a single mother testifying under the court-approved alias of ‘Jane’ – to dominate the trial with haunting testimony about his violently controlling and abusive treatment of them.
Ventura described how Combs micro-managed every detail of the freak-offs, which were usually held in five-star hotels, deciding on the lighting, costumes and when to apply body oil. She would have to wear lingerie and white nail polish (a favourite, incidentally, of Combs’s mother, Janice, who attended the trial).
Ventura said she initially participated willingly in the freak-offs as she just liked spending time with Combs.
But later, after he started beating her, she simply felt worthless. Combs once got so drunk at a freak-off that he punched her in the face, giving her a black eye.
Jane described the sex sessions, which often went on for days, as ‘a shameful dark secret of mine’. In a text message shown to the jury, she told Combs: ‘Please stop drugging and using women for your fetish nights.’
The rapper (left) looks back at the court and gives a fist bump as the verdict is read aloud
In this courtroom sketch, Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs reacts to his verdict on July 2
However, the two women were hardly the usual desperate, vulnerable victims of sex trafficking cases, and the defence – citing their friendly text messages with Combs – had some success in portraying them as opportunists who stayed with him for the money and even because they loved him.
Jane admitted it was complicated, telling jurors: ‘He’s just so good at showering me with love and affection with all the sexual exploitation in between.
It’s just so confusing.’ Ventura echoed her sentiments, saying: ‘I worried for my safety, I worried for my career. But I also was in love with him, so I worried that he wouldn’t want to be with me any more.’
However, others who testified about Combs’s oppressive behaviour were less vulnerable to defence sniping.
A string of former employees told the court about the music mogul’s deeply twisted secret life.
One ex-assistant said that Combs also threatened them and they watched him attack his girlfriends.
They, too, were able to attest to his violent, hair-trigger temper and super-demanding behaviour.
They described working all hours and having to buy industrial quantities of baby oil, the energy drink Gatorade and drugs for Combs’s beloved freak-offs.
Janice Combs (C), Diddy’s mother, gives a thumbs up as she departs with her smiling children and family members at Manhattan’s Federal Court on July 2
A Diddy supporter celebrates outside court after hearing the verdict
Former Combs assistant David James told the court his boss could even lose his temper if his minions forgot that the British version of Heinz ketchup – which he loves – was not the same as the US one.
Combs apparently forced his staff to take lie detector tests. Capricorn Clark, another longtime PA, told the jury she was once forced to undergo five days of grilling over accusations she’d stolen expensive jewellery.
The man testing her warned that ‘they’re going to throw you in the East River’ if she failed.
The darkness of Combs’s private life that came out at his trial was in stark contrast to the public image of the star who loved to wear white and threw lavish ‘white parties’ (where everyone wore white) and equally extravagant birthday celebrations.
They were heaving with stars –such as Beyonce, Justin Bieber, Leonardo DiCaprio, Mariah Carey and even Salman Rushdie – while the likes of Donald Trump and Martha Stewart sent birthday video tributes.
Some of the parties boasted up to a thousand guests. After all, the uber-narcissistic Combs felt there was so much to celebrate.
The Harlem-born Combs, the son of a murdered drug dealer, became a highly successful businessman, who went from launching his own music label, Bad Boy Records, to lucrative ventures in fashion, food and TV. But his rise was not without controversy.
In 1991, a report commissioned by the New York mayor criticised the then 22-year-old radio station intern for organising a celebrity basketball game at a gym where tickets had been oversold and nine people were killed when the crowd stampeded.
Cassie and Capricorn attend Sean Combs’ October 2008 L’Uomo Vogue music issue cover celebration at 1OAK in New York City
Three years later, he started his record company and – although he notched up a few hits of his own such as his 1997 song I’ll Be Missing You, which sampled The Police single Every Breath You Take – he achieved more success producing music for myriad other performers.
His early speciality was gangsta rap with stars who rhapsodised crime and drug dealing. In 1997, the most famous of his proteges, Biggie Smalls, was killed in a drive-by shooting.
The shadow of violence continued to hang over Combs. In 1999, record producer Steve Stoute claimed Combs and his bodyguards beat him savagely with a champagne bottle, telephone and chair in a row over a music video.
Combs faced up to seven years in prison, but Stoute asked prosecutors to drop the charges after his attacker apologised. Later that same year, Combs made headlines again when two people were injured by gunfire in a nightclub where he was with his then girlfriend Jennifer Lopez.
Various witnesses testified Combs had been holding a gun. He was charged with gun possession and bribery but found not guilty.
Lopez, who was with him from 1999 and 2001, has credited Combs with mentoring her music career, but later said he’d cheated on her.
The actress and singer is one of myriad celebrity friends, who, after years of enjoying his hospitality and generosity, have been conspicuous by their silence since he was charged.
Despite knowing he was coming to New York to face arrest, Diddy still had numerous bottles of baby oil, astroglide lubricant and mood lighting in the room
There were pieces of AR-15 assault rifles which had the serial numbers removed, a handgun and boxes of 7 inch stiletto heels, which were apparently used during Freak Offs
He also had $9,000 in cash and bags of pink powder which tested positive for MDMA and ketamine
Allegations that Combs had a violent streak re-emerged in 2015, when he was charged with assault with a deadly weapon, making terrorist threats and battery after an altercation with an American football coach at UCLA, the Los Angeles university where Combs’ son played the sport. Prosecutors decided not to press charges.
However, as a revered icon of the music industry and party king, Combs – who clearly loved the comparisons that were made to F.
Scott Fitzgerald’s gregarious fictional millionaire Jay Gatsby – celebrated his success by blowing millions on diamonds and a yacht, even splashing out nearly £330,000 on Krug champagne for a single party.
But, for every celebrity guest serenely sipping Krug champagne, there was a topless model writhing around with the host and his seedy cronies in the swimming pool.
It was hardly a secret that these bacchanals took on a far more debauched tone when midnight struck and the more respectable guests went home.
‘I think half the people there were butt-naked,’ commented reality TV star Khloe Kardashian in 2014.
When Combs appeared on her TV show two years later, she gushed: ‘Well, I know you’re known for the parties. When you think of a party or a good time, you think of Puff.’
Ventura is seen making her way to court on May 16
The star witness for the defense was Cassandra ‘Cassie’ Ventura, who dated Diddy for more than a decade and testified while eight-and-a-half months pregnant
Cassie is seen with a gash on her eyebrow in evidence photo
Cassie is seen with bruises on her body in evidence image
However, the white-clad Combs started to look distinctly grubby in 2023 when Ventura, who was signed to his record label, sued him for $20 million for rape and repeated physical abuse over a decade.
Ventura testified that she was 19 and desperate to succeed in showbusiness when she met Combs, who was 37. She described how he inflicted a pattern of control and abuse on her that involved drugs, beatings and forcing her to have sex with an ever-changing array of male prostitutes while he filmed them.
She said that, in 2018, Combs – who denied all her allegations – had forced his way into her home and raped her. A day after she filed the lawsuit, they reached an out-of-court settlement.
But it was too late for Combs, as her claims encouraged others to come forward. Within a week, he was accused of sexually assaulting another woman, Joi Dickerson-Neal, in 1991. She said she’d been a college student when Combs drugged her in New York, later raping her and recording the abuse.
Combs again denied the claims, only to face a third lawsuit, this time from a woman who said he and two other men had raped her in a New York recording studio when she was 17. She claimed they had plied her with drugs and alcohol, taking it in turns to rape her in the studio’s lavatory and leaving her lying on the floor in agony.
Combs again denied the ‘awful things being alleged’.
Then, in 2024, Combs – star of a rap world long accused of homophobia – faced arguably the most embarrassing accusation when his latest alleged victim turned out to be a man.
Music producer Rodney Jones Jr, aka Lil Rod, sued him for sexual assault, claiming Combs subjected him to continual ‘groping’ – touching his genitals – and tried to ‘groom’ him into having sex with another man.
Kid Cudi told the court how his $140,000 Porsche was blown up after Diddy found out he had been seeing his girlfriend
The rapper’s car is seen charred after it was lit on fire
Combs once again rejected the allegations, but suspicions of bisexuality were fuelled by an ex-drug dealer who told the New York Post that when he was once summoned to Diddy’s Hamptons home during one of his big parties, the star led him to a bedroom where he was astonished to see male rappers having sex with each other.
In March last year, heavily-armed federal agents raided Combs’s homes in LA and Miami. Six months later he was arrested in a New York hotel and charged with sex trafficking and racketeering spanning two decades.
Ever since, he’s been an unhappy guest of the grim Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. Unfortunately for Combs, despite escaping racketeering convictions that could have led to a life sentence, he still has dozens of outstanding lawsuits, which include allegations from both men and women that he drugged and raped them, as well as sentences of up to ten years apiece for the two counts on which he was found guilty.
