Sean “Diddy” Combs’s former girlfriend gives evidence at his criminal trial, telling jurors she felt she had no choice but to participate in the “freak-off” sex parties central to the case.<\/p>\n
With sentencing set for Friday, defence attorneys are asking that he be given no more than 14 months in prison.<\/p>\n
In July, Combs was convicted of two charges for violating the Mann Act<\/a>, which outlaws interstate commerce related to prostitution, for arranging the paid sexual encounters between his girlfriends and male sex workers. Each count carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.<\/p>\n The same jury acquitted the Bad Boy Records founder of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking charges that could have resulted in a life sentence.<\/p>\n Last week, the defence submitted its pre sentence arguments, saying Combs has suffered enough during his nearly 13 months behind bars<\/a> and that he should be freed soon.<\/p>\n They wrote that he became a changed man in a Brooklyn federal lock-up, where he has been under constant suicide watch.<\/p>\n He has learned to react calmly to threats rather than violently, they say, even when a fellow prisoner confronted him with a shiv.<\/p>\n \u00a0The Bad Boy Records founder has remained jailed since his July conviction. (Reuters: Lucas Jackson\/File)<\/p>\n They said Combs had realised that his overuse of drugs, including some prescribed by doctors, had contributed to violent acts he participated in.<\/p>\n ‘He is not the victim’<\/p>\n Prosecutors say Combs is now trying to cast himself as a victim.<\/p>\n “He is not the victim,” they wrote. “The Court should focus on the very real effects that the defendant’s conduct had on the lives of the actual victims, his victims.”<\/p>\n At trial, two of Combs’ former girlfriends testified that they felt forced to participate in the drug-fuelled sex marathons with male sex workers as Combs watched and sometimes filmed.<\/p>\n R&B singer Casandra “Cassie” Ventura described being beaten by Combs when she displeased him during their decade-long relationship.\u00a0<\/p>\n Loading…<\/p>\n Another ex-girlfriend, testifying under the pseudonym “Jane,” said she felt pressured<\/a> to perform sexually with male sex workers.\u00a0<\/p>\n She testified that an enraged Combs once put her in a chokehold and punched her in the face.<\/p>\n In a letter accompanying the prosecutors’ submission, Cassie wrote that she testified while nine months pregnant during Combs’ trial “in front of a packed courtroom<\/a> about the most traumatic and horrifying chapter in my life”.\u00a0<\/p>\n “I testified that from age 19, Sean Combs used violence, threats, substances, and control over my career to trap me in over a decade of abuse,” she said.<\/p>\n Cassie says she still suffers from nightmares<\/p>\n Cassie wrote that Combs controlled her like a puppet.<\/p>\n “These events were degrading and disgusting, leaving me with infections, illnesses, and days of physical and emotional exhaustion before he demanded it all again. Sex acts became my full-time job, used as the only way to stay in his good graces,” she said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n