Rap mogul Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs forced women into drug-fuelled “freak off” sex parties which lasted for days and violently attacked those who tried not to take part, a court has heard.
The 55-year-old music star is accused of running a “criminal enterprise” across two decades where victims were trafficked for sex while his entourage helped to cover up the abuse.
Combs is accused of arson against a rival’s car, beating up a string of women including dangling one from a balcony, kidnapping, bribery, and obstruction of justice, in a trial set to play out over the next two months at a New York courthouse.
The rapper denies the charges, but through his lawyers he admitted “horrible, dehumanising and violent” conduct towards some of his girlfriends.
His former partner Cassie Ventura is set to be a star prosecution witness, after Combs was caught on camera brutally attacking her and throwing her around like a “rag doll” in a hotel corridor.
The R&B singer says Combs forced her to take drugs and have sex with male escorts, and is expected to detail his notorious ‘freak off’ parties which sometimes lasted for days and involved extreme sexual behaviour.
“This is Sean Combs”, said prosecutor Emily Johnson. “To the public, he was Puff Daddy or Diddy, a cultural icon, a businessman, larger than life.
“But there was another side to him, a side that ran a criminal enterprise.
“During this trial, you are going to hear about 20 years of the defendant's crimes. But he didn't do it alone, he had an inner circle of bodyguards and high-ranking employees who helped him commit crimes and helped him cover them up.
“Kidnapping, arson, drugs, sex crimes, bribery and obstruction. These are just some of the crimes the defendant and his inner circle committed again and again.”
Combs’ lawyer Teny Geragos, in her opening statement, told the Manhattan jury they should “cancel the noise” which has surrounded the criminal case since the rapper’s arrest last year.
They might think Combs is a "jerk" and may not condone his "kinky sex", but "he's not charged with being mean. He's not charged with being a jerk", she argued.
She said he admits “horrible, dehumanising and violent” behaviour towards women, but insisted that does not amount to a sex trafficking conspiracy and claimed the allegation are driven by jealousy and too many drugs.
At the height of his fame, Combs was worth almost $1 billion, he was the founder of Bad Boy Records, and is credited with discovering artists including Mary J Blige, Usher, and the Notorious B.I.G.
Ms Johnson told the trial that witnesses “will tell you about some of the most painful experiences of their lives. The days they spent in hotel rooms, high on drugs, dressed in costumes to perform the defendant's sexual fantasies.”
Ms Ventura is set to testify that she was once left “feeling like she was choking” when Combs allegedly made an escort urinate in her mouth during a sex party.
A key part of the prosecution case is a notorious video, from CCTV inside the InterContinental Hotel in Los Angeles, which captured part of a 2016 incident when Combs chased and then attacked Ms Ventura.
“When he finally found her, he did what he had done countless times before”, said Ms Johnson. “He beat her brutally, kicking her in the back and flinging her around like a rag doll.”
Israel Florez was working as a security guard that night, and told the court he was called out to investigate a report of a “woman in distress”.
On the sixth floor, he said he found Ms Ventura on the floor and covering her face while Combs sat in the corner wearing just a towel and with a “devilish stare” across his face.
“She was scared”, he told the court. “She was in the corner, hood on, covered up.”
Mr Florez, who is now an LA police officer, said he used his phone to film the CCTV of the attack in order to show his wife, saying he did not think she would otherwise believe him.
Mr Florez says Combs tried to “bribe” him after the incident, presenting him with a “stack of money” but he says he declined the cash.
When the footage first emerged publicly last year, as Ms Ventura pursued a civil claim against Combs, he released a statement apologising and calling the incident “rock bottom”.
The prosecution’s second witness was 41-year-old Daniel Phillip, the manager of a male stripper group, who says he was paid up to £4,500 to take part in ‘freak off’ parties which could last up to ten hours.
He said he was paid multiple times to have sex with Ms Ventura while Combs watched, and the first time he met the couple he initial thought he had been hired to strip at a hen party.
However, he found just Ms Ventura, dressed in lingerie, who said it was her birthday and “her husband wanted to do something special for her”.
“She asked me if I would mind rubbing baby oil on her and giving her a massage and wherever things went from there it went based on how comfortable it was”, he said.
Mr Phillips claimed he once saw the rapper assault his girlfriend by dragging her into a bedroom, hearing screaming and “what sounded like him slapping her”.
“I didn’t know what to do, I was shocked”, he said. “In my mind, it was going through my head if I tried to do something, I might lose my life.”
Mr Phillip said Combs filmed some of the sexual encounters, which happened between 2012 and 2014, and he said he was once instructed to urinate on Ms Ventura.
He said he did not report the assault on Ms Ventura to police because he believes Combs had “unlimited power”, and he also told jurors that he enjoyed taking part in the parties due to excitement “to be in this world”.
Combs was supported in the court on the first day of the trial by his mother Janice and all six of his adult children.
Ms Johnson told jurors they will hear about a night when Combs allegedly kidnapped an employee, and alleged threats to Ms Ventura that he would release videos of her having sex with escorts.
They were "souvenirs of the most humiliating nights of her life", she said.
Another woman, identified only as Jane, says she endured years of ‘freak offs’ in dark hotel rooms while he took other lovers on date nights and trips around the globe.
Ms Geragos said that Combs and Jane had a "toxic and dysfunctional relationship" and she willingly engaged in the sex parties because she wanted to spend time with him.
Combs' company paid for the ‘freak offs’, held in hotel rooms across the US and overseas, and his employees staged the rooms with his preferred lighting, extra linens and lubricant, Ms Johnson said.
Ms Geragos claimed Combs' accusers were motivated by money. She told jurors that Cassie demanded 30 million dollars (£23 million) when she sued him, and another witness will acknowledge demanding 22 million dollars (£17 million) in a breach of contract lawsuit.
"I want you to ask yourself, how many millions of reasons does this witness, swearing to tell the truth and nothing but the truth, have to lie?" she said.
Combs denies a racketeering conspiracy, two charges of sex trafficking and two charges of transportation to engage in prostitution. The trial continues.
