NEW YORK: Prosecutors at Sean “Diddy” Combs’ sex trafficking trial showed over the past six weeks ample evidence the hip-hop mogul physically abused his former girlfriends and directed them to have sex with paid male escorts, but Combs’ defence is likely to highlight instances where the women participated willingly in making its own case to the jury, legal experts said.

Prosecutors are expected to rest their case against Combs, who founded Bad Boy Records and is credited with popularising hip-hop in American culture, on Tuesday in Manhattan federal court. The defence is expected to put on its own case this week. Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of sex trafficking as well as charges of racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution. The sex trafficking counts carry the highest potential prison sentence if convicted — a mandatory minimum of 15 years, and a possible life sentence. To convict Combs of sex trafficking, prosecutors must prove the sex acts were commercial in nature, and that Combs used force, threats, fraud or coercion to compel his girlfriends to take part. The defence argues that both former girlfriends, the rhythm and blues singer Casandra Ventura and a woman known in court by the pseudonym Jane, were willing participants in the sex acts.

“There’s got to be a linkage between the force, fraud and coercion and the participation in the sex act,” said Sarah Krissoff, a former federal prosecutor in Manhattan. “There is some murky testimony and evidence in there regarding that, and the defence is certainly going to hammer that.” Prosecutors say that for nearly two decades, Combs forced Ventura and Jane into ecstasy-fueled, days-long sexual performances, sometimes known as “Freak Offs” with male prostitutes in hotel rooms while he watched and sometimes filmed.

Published in Dawn, June 24th, 2025