The singer Cassie has been on the witness stand giving emotional and graphic testimony for most of the day. She is Diddy’s former partner and is testifying against him for the prosecution.Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs faces charges of racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. He has denied all charges. If found guilty, he could spend the rest of his life in prison.Anoushka Mutanda-Dougherty speaks to the BBC’s Sakshi Venkatraman about the day in court.A warning that this episode contains descriptions of violence, sexual violence and graphic descriptions of sex.The Diddy on Trial podcast is here to investigate the rumours, confront the theories, and give you the answers that you need. We also want YOU to be part of the conversation. Have you any burning questions about the case? Heard a theory that doesn’t sit right with you? Get in touch now via WhatsApp: 0330 123 555 1.Presenter: Anoushka Mutanda-Dougherty Series Producer: Laura Jones Sound Design: Mark Burrows Senior Digital Producer: Matthew Pintus Video Producer: Daniel Raza Production Coordinator: Hattie Valentine Editor: Clare Fordham Commissioning Editor: Rhian Roberts Assistant Commissioner: Will Drysdale Commissioning Producer: Adam Eland Commissioning Assistant Producer: Rechmial Miller
Chapter 1: What is the main focus of Diddy's trial involving Cassie?
BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts Hello and welcome back to Didi on Trial from BBC Sounds with me Anoushka Matanda-Dowdy. Make sure you subscribe and turn on your push notifications so you never miss a thing. Now it's only day two of the trial but today is massive.
Victim One, who has now been officially named as Didi's former romantic partner Cassie Ventura, takes the stand as the prosecution's main witness. Just a warning, this episode contains descriptions of violence, sexual violence and graphic descriptions of sex. Now, reminder, Sean Diddy Combs is accused of sex trafficking, transportation for prostitution and racketeering with conspiracy.
He denies all the charges and says he's never sexually assaulted anyone, man or woman, adult or minor. If found guilty, he could end up spending the rest of his life behind bars. I'm stood outside the federal courtroom in lower Manhattan, New York. And today, inside that courtroom, R&B singer Cassie Ventura is giving her much-anticipated testimony.
It is extremely busy here, busier than it was yesterday. We've got press from every major media organisation here and we're all penned in in these little cages that the police have put up. Some people are here to support Diddy, some people are playing his music, some people are outside playing Cassie's music. We've got podcasters and TikTokers who are recording all the time throughout the day.
And sometimes when people think the family's coming out or they can get a glimpse of lawyers, people just start running down the street with their phones, with their cameras, everybody trying to get a slice of the action. Yesterday, some of Diddy's children left the testimony at lunchtime and the press just swarmed to them. They were getting into a black SUV.
Everybody was clambering, trying to get a shot of them, trying to ask them questions. Now, we told you yesterday late in the afternoon we had some extremely graphic details about Diddy's sex life with Cassie from a male escort. Today, Cassie's inside that courtroom telling her own story. Cassie dated Sean Diddy Combs for more than a decade.
They were one of Hollywood's most recognizable power couples. But in November 2023, Cassie dropped a bombshell civil lawsuit alleging a decade of abuse. She alleged that Sean Diddy Combs raped, sexually assaulted her and forced her to engage in sex acts with commercial male sex workers. The lawsuit was settled a day after it was filed for an undisclosed amount.
To be clear, this was a civil lawsuit, so it was concerned with monetary compensation. This federal trial that we're at today is about Didi's freedom, and Cassie is the prosecution's main witness. For any jurors who weren't aware of Cassie before the trial, yesterday they were shown CCTV footage taken from the hallway of a hotel in 2016 where Didi assaults Cassie.
Now I'm about to go into the courtroom with my producer. There's no tech allowed, no phones, no recorders. You just get a notepad and a pen. As soon as we come out, we'll update you on what Cassie had to say. It's 5pm. We're stood outside the court after a very intense testimony from Cassie, which is going to carry on into tomorrow.
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Chapter 2: Who is Cassie Ventura and what is her role in the trial?
She also speaks about freak-offs in great detail. And we're calling them freak-offs. I know some people have had questions about that because that is what the federal government are calling them. And it's a term that we've heard was originated by Diddy. Now, she speaks about the first time she was introduced to what that meant and him kind of saying, this is what I'm into.
What did she say about that?
Yeah, so she says that Diddy, within the first year of their relationship, approached her with this idea called voyeurism, which was that he wanted her to have sex with somebody else while he watched. And he just said that that's what he was into and that that's what would please him. And she was disgusted, internally confused. She said that her stomach dropped to her butt.
She had never heard of something like that and she didn't want to do it. But ultimately, she acquiesced because she felt like that's what she needed to do to make him happy. And at that point, She loved him and wanted to make him happy, so she did it and participated in the first freak-off.
And she spoke about that a lot, like loving him, wanting to make him happy and not wanting him to feel judged about like his sexual proclivities, particularly in relation to the freak-offs. But she does speak about how it turned from what some might call a threesome or voyeurism into more like an occupation. Can you just fill me in what she said with that?
yeah she said that eventually these freak-offs became a full-time job she said that they would last anywhere from 36 hours to four days and they would happen every single week so you can only imagine how much of her time these freak-offs must have been taking she had a budding music career at the time she was releasing a lot of hits
And she said that her career was stifled because of how much she was doing the freak offs. And then after them kind of recovering from them, obviously, if she was on, you know, several different drugs, she would have to come down from the drugs and take a few days to feel normal again and rehydrate is what she said. So, yeah, she said that it really impeded the activities in her life.
And it was just part of Diddy's way of controlling hers, how she painted it.
And she did speak about control a lot. And she spoke about the overarching control that she alleges he had over her life. And it kind of started with comments on her aesthetic appearance into how she was acting. They did speak about it, how it extended into kind of body piercings. And then the conversations around breast augmentation, expressing like differences he wanted in her opinion.
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Chapter 3: What was the atmosphere outside the courtroom during Cassie's testimony?
This is the shocking moment English football has been dreading. Bloodgate. I'm not sure we've had anything like it before or since in terms of what it actually meant for the sport. Sports Strangest Crimes. Listen on BBC Sounds.