Testifying for a second straight day at Sean “Diddy” Combs’ sex trafficking trial on Wednesday, Cassie Ventura detailed years of alleged abuse.
The music mogul’s former partner ran through a litany of altercations, initimidation and alleged rapes that she suffered through over more than a decade. She also detailed so-called “Freak Off” parties, group sex sessions that were allegedly orchestrated by Combs between women and hired male escorts. Prosecutors allege that Combs would masturbate to these elaborate orgies and recorded the parties on several ocassions and recorded material from the parties was shown to jurors.
“The Freak Offs became a job where there was no space to do anything else but to recover and just try to feel normal again,” Ventura shared, saying that Combs blackmailed her. “He told me about videos that he had that he was going to release.”
Ventura said Combs’ controlling nature went far beyond threats, telling jurors the story of the first time that he hit her in their relationship. She said Combs struck her without warning while they were leaving a dinner, noting that she “fell to the floor of the car.”
“I was just shocked, and I didn’t necessarily understand what happened and why he was so angry,” she said.
The threats and violence continued throughout their relationship and after their separation, with Ventura saying she was too “ashamed” to reach out for help. She said that shortly after their split she began keeping a knife in the handle of her front door to deal with “unannounced visits from Sean where he was really angry.”
Ventura also accused Combs of sexually assaulting her after a dinner that she assumed was a “closure conversation.” Ventura said that Combs raped her in her living room
“I just remember crying and saying ‘no,’ but it was very fast,” she told the court.
Ventura is the star witness in the case against Combs, who is facing charges of sex trafficking and racketeering. The rapper and record label head has pleaded not guilty and his defense has called the charges “baseless.”
