What’s a ‘freak off’, and what are the accusations in opposition to 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 number of stars lined as much as toast his profession, with a visitor checklist that included Jay-Z, Travis Scott, Mary J Blige, Kehlani, Tinashe, Chris Brown and Machine Gun Kelly.

The get together coincided together with his thirtieth yr within the music trade – three a long time by 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 ladies into sexual actions, typically by using 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 often known as “freak offs”, together with medicine and greater than 1,000 bottles of child oil.

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

The courtroom case comes after a yr by which the musician has confronted lawsuits from a lot of ladies.

Right here is how the allegations in opposition to Mr Combs have stacked up.

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

However in a civil lawsuit, she stated 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 “regularly beat and kicked Ms Ventura, leaving black eyes, bruises, and blood”.

She described events often known as “freak offs” – drug-fuelled, days-long sexual performances – which Mr Combs allegedly coerced ladies 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 network” who “were not willing to do anything meaningful” to cease the violence.

The lawsuit additionally alleged that Mr Combs destroyed a automotive belonging to US rapper Child Cudi, to dissuade him from relationship 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 relationship again to 1991 by a number of ladies.

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 courtroom papers accusing Mr Combs and one other man of raping her and her buddy 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 laborious that she handed out.

Within the lawsuit, she stated Mr Combs had grow to be irate whereas making an attempt to trace down her buddy, as a result of he was fearful she would inform “the girl he was with at the time”.

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

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

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

In courtroom papers, the girl, recognized solely as Jane Doe, alleged she was given “copious amounts of drugs and alcohol” earlier than the assault and was left in a lot ache that she may barely stand or keep in mind how she acquired house.

In response, Mr Combs stated he “did not do any of the awful things being alleged”, whereas Mr Pierre stated the “disgusting allegations” had been “false and a desperate attempt for financial gain”.

On 6 December, Mr Combs responded to the flurry of lawsuits with a press release on his Instagram web page.

“ENOUGH IS ENOUGH,” he wrote. “For the last couple of weeks, I have sat silently and watched people try to assassinate my character, destroy my reputation and my legacy.

“Sickening allegations have been made in opposition to me by people in search of 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 nine tracks on 2023’s The Love Album, sued Mr Combs in February 2024, accusing the star of making unwanted sexual contact and forcing him to hire prostitutes and participate in sex acts with them.

In court papers filed in New York, Mr Jones also claimed that Mr Combs tried to “groom” him into having sex with another man, telling him it was “a standard follow within the music trade”.

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

CCTV footage emerged showing Mr Combs assaulting Cassie Ventura in the hallway of a Los Angeles hotel in 2016.

The pictures, broadcast by CNN, showed a man pushing Ms Ventura to the floor and kicking her while she was on the ground. He later attempted to drag her by her shirt and throw an object at her.

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

Ms Ventura later posted a statement highlighting the lifelong impact of domestic violence. “It broke me all the way down to somebody I by no means thought I’d grow to be,” she wrote.

Model and actress Crystal McKinney accused Mr Combs of drugging her and forcing her to perform oral sex in the bathroom of a New York City recording studio in 2003.

Two days later, Mr Combs was sued again by April Lampros, who alleged four instances of sexual assault between 1995 and about 2000.

Ms Lampros claimed she met the musician in 1994 while a student at the Fashion Institute of Tecnhology, and that an initially romantic relationship “rapidly changed into an aggressive, coercive, and abusive relationship primarily based on intercourse”.

In one incident, she claimed the star forced her to take ecstasy and have sex with his then-girlfriend.

Former adult film star Adria English claimed she was “groomed into intercourse trafficking over time” in a number of events between 2004 and 2009 at Mr Combs’s star-studded parties.

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 failed to attend a virtual hearing for a lawsuit filed against him by Derrick Lee Cardello-Smith, a Michigan inmate who claimed the star drugged and sexually assaulted him at a party in Detroit in 1997.

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

The musician’s lawyers later filed an emergency motion to overturn the ruling.

Dawn Richard, a former singer in Mr Combs’ girl group project Danity Kane, filed a suit against the star.

The singer, who later joined Mr Combs in the band Diddy Dirty Money, alleged that the musician sexually assaulted her on multiple occasions by touching her body, as well as verbally abusing and overworking her.

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

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

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

In an appearance at the US District Court in New York, Mr Combs was charged with sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution.

In an indictment that was unsealed at the same time, prosecutors alleged that he also engaged in kidnapping, forced labour, bribery and other crimes.

They described him as the head of a criminal enterprise that abused women, using threats of violence to force them into participating in drug-fuelled orgies with male prostitutes.

These “freak offs” had been “elaborate and produced intercourse performances” and were highly organised parties, prosecutors said.

Mr Combs’ associates allegedly booked hotel suites, recruited sex workers and distributed drugs including cocaine, methamphetamine and oxycodone to coerce partygoers into sex and keep them “obedient”.

His staff allegedly arranged travel for the victims and organised the supply of intravenous fluids to help them recover from the parties, which sometimes lasted for days.

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

If convicted, the musician faces a sentence of 15 years up to life in prison.

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

“Is it intercourse trafficking?” he asked. “Not if all people needs to be there.”

Mr Combs pleaded not guilty to the charges.

But he was denied bail after prosecutors argued that he posed “a major threat” to the trial, 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 judge cited the star’s anger issues and history of substance abuse as reasons for keeping him detained until the trial.

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

Mr Combs’ lawyers appealed the decision, offering to place the star under the watch of a round-the-clock private security team.

However Judge Andrew L Carter Jr said that, even under those terms, Mr Combs could still use employees to contact witnesses.

He will likely be detained at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Heart till his trial.