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Cassie Ventura to resume testimony in Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs sex-trafficking trial

Former girlfriend says she endured years of physical abuse, control and violence at music mogul’s hands

Cassie Ventura on the witness stand in court on Tuesday. Photograph: Jane Rosenberg/Reuters

Cassie Ventura on the witness stand in court on Tuesday. Photograph: Jane Rosenberg/Reuters

Singer Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, a former girlfriend of Sean “Diddy” Combs and a key witness in the federal sex-trafficking and racketeering trial of the music mogul, will return to the witness stand on Wednesday morning, as the high-profile trial enters its third day.

Ventura, who is eight and a half months pregnant, testified on Tuesday that during her decade-long on-and-off relationship with Combs, she endured years of physical abuse, control and violence, and detailed drug-fueled sexual encounters involving male escorts that she said were directed by Combs.

She described Combs as having control over nearly every aspect of her life and testified that arguments would sometimes turn violent, telling the court that Combs would “mash my head, knock me over, drag me, kick me”.

Ventura, 38, filed a lawsuit in 2023 against Combs, accusing him of physical and sexual abuse. Though the two settled that lawsuit for an undisclosed sum, it prompted a federal investigation that led to Combs’s arrest in September 2024.

Combs faces charges including racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. He has pleaded not guilty and denied all allegations.

Over the course of her several-hour testimony on Tuesday, Ventura became emotional at moments, pausing to take deep breaths or to cry. She dabbed her eyes with a tissue and periodically rested her hands on her pregnant belly.

Ventura recounted the multiday drug-fueled sex sessions, known as “freak-offs”, which she claimed Combs directed and “choreographed”.

Ventura testified that she did not wish to engage in the encounters that involved a male escort, and that each time she would take drugs, often MDMA, or ecstasy, that she said Combs supplied, which would help her stay awake and also allow her to “disassociate”, she said.

The “freak-offs”, Ventura told the jury, made her feel “horrible”, “worthless” and “humiliated”. But she said that she was young and in love with Combs, and felt obligated to participate in them because she didn’t want to make Combs “angry”.

“I wanted to make him happy,” she said. “I didn’t know what ‘no’ could turn into.”

At one point during testimony, she told the court: “Make the wrong face, and the next thing I knew, I would get hit in the face.”

Ventura also recounted when she first met Combs in 2005 when she was 19, describing him as a “larger-than-life entrepreneur, musician”. She told the court how she went on to sign a 10-album deal with Combs’s record label, Bad Boy Records, but only ended up releasing one album.

Just before Tuesday’s court session adjourned, prosecutors began questioning Ventura about a critical piece of evidence in the case: a 2016 hotel hallway surveillance video showing Combs kicking and dragging her.

Ventura testified that she, Combs and a male escort had been engaged in a “freak-off” in the hotel room when at some point Combs hit her, and so she grabbed her things and left the room.

Ventura will continue her testimony on Wednesday, with cross-examination to follow.

The trial, expected to last at least eight weeks, is not being televised.

If convicted, Combs, who has been jailed since his arrest last year, could spend the rest of his life in prison.

Author: Anna Betts in New York

Source: The Guardian

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