Cassie Ventura broke down in tears in court as she described her “personal shame” at taking part in “freak off” sex sessions for Sean Combs – and also accused him of raping her as their relationship came to an end.

During her second day of testimony, the singer and model told jurors of several alleged violent incidents and said the hip-hop mogul, who was known as Puff Daddy and Diddy throughout his career, blackmailed her with compromising videos.

At one point, the courtroom in Manhattan, New York, fell silent as sexually explicit images from “freak offs” were shown to jurors, but kept private from the public gallery. These included images of Ms Ventura and escorts.

Combs asked his lawyer Marc Agnifilo to see a binder of the images, and thumbed through it for a few moments before handing it back.

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs trial: Day 3 – As it happened

The 55-year-old, once one of the most powerful men in the music industry, has pleaded not guilty to charges of sex-trafficking, racketeering conspiracy, and transportation to engage in prostitution.

Prosecutors allege he used his fame and fortune to coerce Ms Ventura and other women into abusive sex sessions with escorts. His lawyers have conceded he could be violent, but argue that all sexual encounters were consensual and he never veered into sex trafficking and racketeering.

Ms Ventura, who is heavily pregnant with her third child, kept calm and composed for most of her evidence on Wednesday, but broke down at the end of the day when asked why she had chosen to testify.

“I can’t carry this anymore,” she told the court. “I can’t carry the shame, the guilt, the way he treated people like they were disposable. What’s right is right, what’s wrong is wrong. I came here to do the right thing.”

Early in 2023, she said she started suffering from “flashbacks” and had suicidal thoughts, so went to rehab and trauma therapy.

It is “impossible to know” how many “freak offs” she participated in, but it was in the hundreds, she told the court. Asked if she has been involved in any since ending the relationship in 2018, she replied: “No.”

Ms Ventura, 38, alleged that Combs raped her at her home in Los Angeles, after she told him she was ending things.

“I just remember crying and saying no, but it was very fast,” she said, her voice trailing off.

She told jurors she did have consensual sex with the rapper on a subsequent occasion. “We’d been together for over 10 years. You just don’t turn feelings off,” she said.

Ms Ventura sued Combs in November 2023, and settled within 24 hours. She received £20m, the trial was told.

Combs ‘threatened Cassie and Kid Cudi’

Ms Ventura’s second day of testimony also included details of how she briefly dated Scott Mescudi, better known as singer and rapper Kid Cudi, during a low point in her relationship with Combs in 2011.

Combs lunged at her with a corkscrew and kicked her in the back when he found out, jurors heard, and threatened to blow up Mescudi’s car.

These allegations were also detailed in her lawsuit, which alleged his car did “explode in his driveway” around this time.

During several hours on the stand, Ms Ventura told how she hid the extent of Comb’s alleged violence from loved ones, and described one incident when she allegedly suffered a “pretty significant gash” above her left eye after he threw her into a bed frame.

Rather than go to hospital, his security staff took her to a plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills, she said.

The hotel CCTV ‘attack’

An incident at a hotel in Los Angeles in March 2016, which has come up several times during the trial already, was also discussed again.

CCTV from the hotel, which was first released by CNN in May 2024, showed Combs allegedly beating Ms Ventura in a hallway.

Jurors were shown photos of her with a swollen lip following the incident as she testified. She said a friend of hers saw her injuries and was “super upset” because she’d “seen me with black eyes and busted lips before”.

She also spoke about a trip to Cannes in 2013, after which she said the rapper began playing a recording of a “freak off” on his laptop on a commercial flight to New York, with other people around them – telling her he was “going to embarrass me and release them”.

Read more:
The rise and fall of Diddy
Diddy – a timeline of allegations
Everything you need to know about the trial

Asked if the freak offs impacted her health, Ms Ventura said she had stomach problems and frequently developed urinary tract infections. She was also affected mentally, she told the court, saying they made her feel “really empty” and “gross”.

Throughout her testimony, Ms Ventura has maintained she never wanted to have sexual experiences with other people but did it at first to please the man she loved, and later out of fear. She was 22 and inexperienced when she started dating Combs, who was 17 years older, she said.

The trial continues with cross-examination of Ms Ventura from the defence tomorrow.

Gary Lineker has “apologised unreservedly” for a social media re-post featuring a rat, saying he would “never knowingly share anything antisemitic”.

The 64-year-old presenter faced criticism after he shared a post on Instagram from the Palestine Lobby group showing a picture of a rat and titled: “Zionism explained in two minutes.”

In a statement, he said: “On Instagram I reposted material which I have since learned contained offensive references.

“I very much regret these references.

“I would never knowingly share anything antisemitic.

“It goes against everything I believe in.

“The post was removed as soon as I became aware of the issue.

“Whilst I strongly believe in the importance of speaking out on humanitarian issues, including the tragedy unfolding in Gaza, I also know that how we do so matters.

“I take full responsibility for this mistake.

“That image does not reflect my views.

“It was an error on my part for which I apologise unreservedly.”

Rats have historically been used in antisemitic propaganda, including by the Nazis in 1930s Germany.

Lineker’s agent told the BBC the presenter immediately deleted the post when he learned about the image’s symbolism.

The presenter was temporarily suspended from the BBC in March 2023 after an impartiality row over comments he made criticising the then-government’s new asylum policy.

In November he announced he would be stepping down from presenting Match Of The Day but will still host World Cup and FA Cup coverage.

Sean “Diddy” Combs’s former girlfriend Cassie has told his sex-trafficking trial that “freak offs” with male escorts became like a job, as the music mogul allegedly abused and sexually exploited her for years.

The musician and model, whose full name is Casandra Ventura, did not look at Combs as she took to the witness stand in court in Manhattan, New York.

Over about six hours, the 38-year-old, who is eight months pregnant with her third child with husband Alex Fine, at times became emotional as she alleged she was degraded by her former partner during their 10-year on-off relationship.

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs trial: Day 2 – As it happened

Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty and strenuously denied allegations of sexual abuse. His lawyers argue that although he could be violent, he never veered into sex trafficking and racketeering, and that all sexual encounters were consensual.

Ms Ventura, who is the central witness in the prosecutors’ case, began by telling the jury how Combs was violent to her over the course of their relationship, giving her black eyes and bruises.

The hip-hop star became increasingly controlling, she said, and was allegedly abusive over the smallest perceived slights. “You make the wrong face, and the next thing I knew I was getting hit in the face,” she said.

Ms Ventura was 19 when she signed to his label, Bad Boy, she said, and 22 when, during the first year of their relationship, Combs first proposed a “freak off” – a sexual encounter with a third party. Her “stomach churned”, she said, and she was “confused, nervous, but also loved him very much” and wanted to please him. She described him as “charming” but “polarising”.

‘There was no space to do anything else’

Throughout her time on the stand, she gave graphic details of these drug and drink-fuelled encounters with male escorts, saying Combs would watch and masturbate, and often record the encounters and watch the videos back.

They could last for hours or even days, she said – telling the court the longest went on for four days. They ended up becoming weekly events and took priority over her music career, jurors heard. While she had hits with singles Me & U and Long Way 2 Go in 2006, and signed a 10-album deal with Bad Boy, jurors heard she only released one album.

“Freak-offs became a job where there was no space to do anything else but to recover and just try to feel normal again,” Ms Ventura said. Each time, she added, she had to recuperate from lack of sleep, alcohol, drugs “and other substances”, and “having sex with a stranger for days”.

Read more:
The rise and fall of Sean Combs
Diddy – a timeline of allegations
Everything you need to know about the trial

Alleged violence detailed in court

Ms Ventura told the court she began feeling as if she could not say no to Combs’s demands because “there were blackmail materials to make me feel like if I didn’t do it, it would be held over my head in that way or these things would become public”.

She was also worried about potential violence, she told the court. When asked in court how frequently Combs became violent with her, Ms Ventura responded: “Too frequently.”

The rapper “would mash me in the head, knock me over, drag me, kick me”, she said. “Stomp me in the head if I was down”.

Ms Ventura also told the court that Combs kept cash, jewellery, guns and “sometimes tapes from cameras” in safes at several properties in New York, Los Angeles, Miami and Alpine, New Jersey.

“The guns came out here and there. I always felt it was a little bit of a scare tactic,” she told the court.

Towards the end of her first day of evidence, a surveillance video made public last year, which showed Combs allegedly beating Ms Ventura at a Los Angeles hotel in 2016, was played to jurors in court for a second time.

“How many times has he thrown you like that before?” prosecutor Emily Johnson asked her.

“Too many to count,” Ms Ventura replied.

On Monday, prosecutors in their opening statement told the court that while Combs’s public persona was that of a “charismatic” hip-hop mogul, behind the scenes he was violent and abusive.

His defence lawyers argued that the case is really about nothing more than the rapper’s sexual preferences, which they said should remain private, and do not make him a sex trafficker.

The trial is to last about eight weeks.

Ms Ventura is set to continue giving evidence on Wednesday.