Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs: What’s a ‘freak off’, and what are the accusations against him?

Two years in the past, rap musician and mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs threw a lavish 53rd party at his $61m mansion in Beverly Hills.

A bunch of stars lined up to toast his career, with a visitor record that included Jay-Z, Travis Scott, Mary J Blige, Kehlani, Tinashe, Chris Brown and Machine Gun Kelly.

The get together coincided along with his thirtieth yr within the music trade – three many years through which he fashioned his personal leisure empire and altered the sound of hip-hop, each as an artist and a producer for the likes of Mariah Carey, Jennifer Lopez and The Infamous B.I.G.

Quick-forward to 2024, and his profession is on the ropes.

In a case filed in New York, the star has been accused of kidnapping, drugging and coercing women into sexual activities, generally by the usage of firearms and threats of violence.

The identical Los Angeles mansion that hosted his party was raided by police in March. There, officers seized provides that they are saying had been meant to be used in orgies referred to as “freak offs”, together with medication and greater than 1,000 bottles of child oil.

Mr Combs has denied all the costs, getting into a not responsible plea on Tuesday, 17 September.

The court docket case comes after a yr through which the musician has confronted lawsuits from numerous girls.

Right here is how the allegations towards Mr Combs have stacked up.

Casandra Ventura, a singer and mannequin referred to as Cassie, was signed to Mr Combs’ report label and dated him for greater than a decade.

However in a civil lawsuit, she mentioned the mogul had used his place of energy to “set the groundwork” for a “manipulative and coercive romantic and sexual relationship”.

Her lawsuit included graphic descriptions of violent abuse, alleging that Mr Combs “recurrently beat and kicked Ms Ventura, leaving black eyes, bruises, and blood”.

She described events referred to as “freak offs” – drug-fuelled, days-long sexual performances – which Mr Combs allegedly coerced girls into, and filmed for his personal pleasure.

Ms Ventura additionally accused the musician of sexual abuse and rape, and claimed that many of those incidents had been witnessed by his “tremendously loyal community” who “weren’t keen to do something significant” to cease the violence.

The lawsuit additionally alleged that Mr Combs destroyed a automobile belonging to US rapper Child Cudi, to dissuade him from courting her.

Mr Combs strenuously denied the allegations and accused Ms Ventura of extortion.

They settled the case for an undisclosed quantity a day after it was filed in New York, with Mr Combs sustaining his innocence.

Within the weeks after settling Cassie’s lawsuit, Mr Combs was accused of sexual assault courting again to 1991 by a number of girls.

One lawsuit was filed anonymously by a lady who claimed Mr Combs and one other man had coerced her into intercourse.

In a second, Joi Dickerson-Neal accused the star of drugging and sexually assaulting her when she was a university pupil in 1991. She additionally claimed he filmed the assault and confirmed it to different individuals with out her consent.

A 3rd girl, Liza Gardner, filed court docket papers accusing Mr Combs and one other man of raping her and her pal greater than 30 years in the past, when she was 16.

Ms Gardner additionally alleged that Mr Combs had turned violent days after the assault, choking her so onerous that she handed out.

Within the lawsuit, she mentioned Mr Combs had turn out to be irate whereas attempting to trace down her pal, as a result of he was nervous she would inform “the lady he was with on the time”.

The lawsuits all got here shortly earlier than the expiration of the New York Grownup Survivors Act, which quickly allowed individuals who mentioned they’d been sexually abused to file claims, even after the statute of limitations had expired.

Mr Combs denied all of the allegations, and his spokesperson referred to as the lawsuits a “cash seize”.

One other girl sued in December, claiming she was “intercourse trafficked” and “gang raped” by Mr Combs, former Dangerous Boy Information president Harve Pierre and one other man in 2003, when she was 17.

In court docket papers, the girl, identified solely as Jane Doe, alleged she was given “copious quantities of medication and alcohol” earlier than the assault and was left in a lot ache that she may barely stand or keep in mind how she obtained dwelling.

In response, Mr Combs mentioned he “didn’t do any of the terrible issues being alleged”, whereas Mr Pierre mentioned the “disgusting allegations” had been “false and a determined try for monetary acquire”.

On 6 December, Mr Combs responded to the flurry of lawsuits with an announcement on his Instagram web page.

“ENOUGH IS ENOUGH,” he wrote. “For the final couple of weeks, I’ve sat silently and watched individuals attempt to assassinate my character, destroy my status and my legacy.

“Sickening allegations have been made towards me by people searching for a fast payday. Let me be completely clear: I didn’t do any of the terrible issues being alleged. I’ll struggle for my identify, my household and for the reality.”

Music producer Rodney Jones Jr, who produced 9 tracks on 2023’s The Love Album, sued Mr Combs in February 2024, accusing the star of constructing undesirable sexual contact and forcing him to rent prostitutes and take part in intercourse acts with them.

In court docket papers filed in New York, Mr Jones additionally claimed that Mr Combs tried to “groom” him into having intercourse with one other man, telling him it was “a standard apply within the music trade”.

Mr Combs’ lawyer, Shawn Holley, referred to as Mr Jones “nothing greater than a liar” and described his claims as “pure fiction” that could possibly be discredited by “overwhelming, indeniable proof”.

CCTV footage emerged displaying Mr Combs assaulting Cassie Ventura within the hallway of a Los Angeles resort in 2016.

The images, broadcast by CNN, confirmed a person pushing Ms Ventura to the ground and kicking her whereas she was on the bottom. He later tried to pull her by her shirt and throw an object at her.

A day later, Mr Combs apologised, saying: “I take full accountability for my actions in that video. I used to be disgusted then after I did it. I am disgusted now.”

Ms Ventura later posted an announcement highlighting the lifelong impression of home violence. “It broke me all the way down to somebody I by no means thought I might turn out to be,” she wrote.

Mannequin and actress Crystal McKinney accused Mr Combs of drugging her and forcing her to carry out oral intercourse within the rest room of a New York Metropolis recording studio in 2003.

Two days later, Mr Combs was sued once more by April Lampros, who alleged 4 cases of sexual assault between 1995 and about 2000.

Ms Lampros claimed she met the musician in 1994 whereas a pupil on the Vogue Institute of Tecnhology, and that an initially romantic relationship “rapidly became an aggressive, coercive, and abusive relationship primarily based on intercourse”.

In a single incident, she claimed the star compelled her to take ecstasy and have intercourse along with his then-girlfriend.

Former grownup movie star Adria English claimed she was “groomed into intercourse trafficking over time” in numerous occasions between 2004 and 2009 at Mr Combs’s star-studded events.

His lawyer Jonathan Davis responded: “Irrespective of what number of lawsuits are filed it will not change the truth that Mr Combs has by no means sexually assaulted or intercourse trafficked anybody.”

Mr Combs didn’t attend a digital listening to for a lawsuit filed towards him by Derrick Lee Cardello-Smith, a Michigan inmate who claimed the star drugged and sexually assaulted him at a celebration in Detroit in 1997.

The no-show led to a default judgment towards Mr Combs, who was ordered to pay Mr Caredello-Smith $100m (£75m).

The musician’s attorneys later filed an emergency movement to overturn the ruling.

Daybreak Richard, a former singer in Mr Combs’ lady group mission Danity Kane, filed a go well with towards the star.

The singer, who later joined Mr Combs within the band Diddy Soiled Cash, alleged that the musician sexually assaulted her on a number of events by touching her physique, in addition to verbally abusing and overworking her.

The star was arrested in a Manhattan hotel room after a grand jury indictment.

His lawyer mentioned the star had co-operated with authorities, and voluntarily relocated to New York in anticipation of the costs.

“These are the acts of an harmless man with nothing to cover, and he appears ahead to clearing his identify in court docket,” he added.

In an look on the US District Courtroom in New York, Mr Combs was charged with intercourse trafficking, racketeering and transportation to have interaction in prostitution.

In an indictment that was unsealed on the similar time, prosecutors alleged that he additionally engaged in kidnapping, compelled labour, bribery and different crimes.

They described him as the pinnacle of a legal enterprise that abused girls, utilizing threats of violence to power them into taking part in drug-fuelled orgies with male prostitutes.

These “freak offs” had been “elaborate and produced intercourse performances” and had been extremely organised events, prosecutors mentioned.

Mr Combs’ associates allegedly booked resort suites, recruited intercourse staff and distributed medication together with cocaine, methamphetamine and oxycodone to coerce partygoers into intercourse and maintain them “obedient”.

His employees allegedly organized journey for the victims and organised the availability of intravenous fluids to assist them recuperate from the events, which generally lasted for days.

Prosecutors additionally alleged that Mr Combs taped the “freak offs” and would use the footage to stress his victims into silence.

Mr Combs’ lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, declared his consumer’s innocence, and described the “freak offs” as consensual.

“Is it intercourse trafficking?” he requested. “Not if everyone desires to be there.”

Mr Combs pleaded not responsible to the costs.

However he was denied bail after prosecutors argued that he posed “a major danger of obstructing justice”, reporting that he had “already tried to impede the federal government’s investigation of this case, repeatedly contacting victims and witnesses and feeding them false narratives of occasions”.

The choose cited the star’s anger points and historical past of substance abuse as causes for holding him detained till the trial.

“My concern is that it is a crime that occurs behind closed doorways,” he mentioned.