SOURCE :- THE AGE NEWS
By Jack Queen and Jonathan Stempel
Warning: This article contains graphic details that may distress some readers.
New York: Sean “Diddy” Combs’ ex-girlfriend Casandra Ventura testified that the hip-hop mogul beat her during drug-fuelled sex parties known as “freak-offs”, threatened to release videos of her taking part, and warned he would ruin her career.
“He would grab me up, push me down, hit me in the side of the head, kick me,” Ventura, a rhythm and blues singer known as Cassie, told jurors in Manhattan federal court on Wednesday, New York time – the third day of Combs’ trial on sex trafficking and racketeering charges.
Sean Combs with then-partner Casandra Ventura, better known as Cassie, in 2017.Credit: Invision/AP
Ventura said Combs was dismissive after she showed him a photo of a gash on her eyebrow that she said he gave her in 2013 by throwing her against a bed frame.
“You. Don’t know. When to. Stop,” Ventura said Combs told her. “You have pushed it too far and continue to push. Sad.”
Ventura, 38, wore a turtleneck dress and dark jacket for her second day of testimony against Combs, and is the prosecution’s star witness.
A court sketch of Ventura before testifying in Manhattan federal court.Credit: Elizabeth Williams via AP
Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to five felony counts of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. If convicted on all counts, he would face a minimum of 15 years or life behind bars.
Prosecutors showed jurors seven still photos of Ventura and various escorts that were taken from videos of “freak-offs”.
One juror swallowed hard upon seeing one image and another jerked his head back.
The photos were not shown to spectators or the press. US District Judge Arun Subramanian, who oversees the trial, denied Reuters and other media limited access to the photos and videos.
Ventura spent more than a decade with Combs in a relationship she said was once loving but deteriorated.
She told jurors that fighting back against Combs sometimes slowed him down, but usually made the abuse worse.
“It would just make him more violent, make him stronger, make him want to push me harder,” Ventura said.
“He said that it would ruin everything that I had worked for, that it would make me look like a slut. That I would be shamed. Nobody should do that to anyone.”
Jurors were shown photos that Ventura’s mother once took of her, where Ventura said she was sporting bruises on the back and leg from having been kicked by Combs.
Ventura acknowledged having herself initiated physical violence against Combs, but said she didn’t see any injuries.
Jurors viewed a 2013 text where Combs told Ventura he deleted the videos, but Ventura said she still saw them on his devices on several occasions.
Ventura has testified she took part for a decade in “freak-offs”, often fearful that Combs would become violent if she didn’t.
Combs wore a cream-coloured sweater over a white collared shirt to court. His mother and at least two children looked on. He is jailed in Brooklyn when not in court.
Earlier in the week, jurors saw a 2016 surveillance video from the hallway of a Los Angeles hotel where a towel-clad Combs threw Ventura to the ground and began to kick her.
Ventura said the video was taken after a “freak-off” where Combs gave her a black eye. Combs has apologised for the video.
Jurors also saw texts after the hotel incident in which Combs asked Ventura to come back because the police were arriving.
Ventura declined, saying she had a black eye and fat lip, and wanted to be rested for a movie premiere the next day.
“You are sick to think it was ok for you to do what you’ve done,” Ventura texted Combs. “Please stay far away from me.”
Combs’ lawyers have signalled they will ask Ventura in their cross-examination of her about what they have called her history of domestic violence.
The trial could take up to two months.
Combs also faces dozens of civil lawsuits by women and men who accuse him of sexual abuse. He has denied wrongdoing and said his relationships were consensual.
Also known during his career as Puff Daddy and P. Diddy, Combs founded Bad Boy Records and is credited with helping turn artists like Mary J. Blige, Faith Evans, Notorious B.I.G. and Usher into stars in the 1990s and 2000s.
Reuters
