Sean Combs sex trafficking trial: Combs’s ex Cassie under intense defence questioning

Cassie Ventura, the ex-girlfriend of Sean “Diddy” Combs, is under cross-examination from the music mogul’s defence today in his sex trafficking trial. Warning: Explicit

Casandra Ventura, the former girlfriend of Sean “Diddy” Combs, is receiving intense cross-examination from the music mogul’s defence team today in his sex trafficking trial.

Ventura, the singer known as Cassie, told jurors over two days that Combs raped, beat and forced her into drug-fuelled sex parties over the course of their more than a decade together, excruciating testimony that now exposes her to a grilling from defence lawyers.

Combs’s lawyers are seeking to emphasise that Ventura had a loving relationship with Combs, took drugs and participated in “freak-offs” of her own free will, and behaved erratically and even violently herself.

While Ventura’s relationship with Combs was complicated and included domestic abuse, the defence said in opening statements, it did not amount to the sex trafficking he is charged with.

“Being a willing participant in your own sex life is not sex trafficking,” said defence lawyer Teny Geragos earlier this week.

Ventura, 38, is the case’s star witness: over two days of testimony, she described Combs as controlling and willing to wield his wealth and influence to fulfil his desires.

She gave vivid accounts of coercive sex parties and violent beatings that will underpin much of the prosecution’s case against the music industry figure.

Combs has denied all charges but faces a life sentence if found guilty.

The trial is on day four.

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Originally published as Sean Combs sex trafficking trial: Combs’s ex Cassie under intense defence questioning