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Sean “Diddy” Combs has been accused of raping a woman as alleged payback for her saying she believed he was involved in the murder of rapper Tupac Shakur, a new lawsuit shows.

The court document, filed in California, is the latest civil case to be filed against Combs, who is currently behind held in New York as he awaits a criminal trial on charges of sex trafficking and racketeering.

Warning: This story contains details readers may find distressing

In the lawsuit, the woman claims the hip-hop mogul raped her using a remote control – and that associates witnessed and also took part in sexual abuse. She also alleges he threatened to give her “a Glasgow smile” – to cut her face with a knife – and threatened he could harm her and her family if she spoke out.

She is suing Combs, along with four other men and two women, over allegations of sexual assault, battery, rape, sexual abuse, false imprisonment and kidnapping, and has called for a trial by jury.

Combs, known as P Diddy, has not yet responded to this lawsuit, but has denied all claims of sexual assault made against him.

He has also previously denied any involvement in the murder of Shakur, who was killed in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas in 1996.

Tupac was killed in 1996. Pic: Walik Goshorn/MediaPunch/IPx/AP
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Tupac Shakur was killed in 1996. Pic: Walik Goshorn/MediaPunch/IPx/AP

The woman claims she first met one of Combs’ friends in a bar in February 2018. In the lawsuit, she says the man made a video call to Combs and showed her – but she told him she “was not impressed” as she believed “he had something to do with the murder of rapper Tupac Shakur”.

She heard Combs remark that she would “pay” for her statement and dismissal of him, the court documents say.

The woman says she was at the friend’s home in Orinda, California, the following month, when the rapper arrived unannounced.

He told her again she would “pay”, the lawsuit claims, and approached her with a knife. He held it to the right side of her face “and threatened to give her a ‘Glasgow smile’ in retaliation for her previous statements on the video call”, the document says.

The woman alleges her clothes were removed and that Combs covered her in a substance she realised was an oil or lubricant, before picking up a television remote and “violently” raping her with it.

Read more:
The claims against P Diddy
P Diddy’s mother issues statement on allegations

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September: Diddy’s lawyer speaks outside court

Combs is accused of telling the woman “her life was in his hands and that if he wanted he could ‘take her’ and she would never be seen again”, and also that he “owned her now”.

She was then raped by Combs and others “until eventually she had no control over her body nor could she move her body”, the lawsuit alleges. The rapper recorded some of this, she claims.

The woman says she eventually managed to run for help and that Combs offered her money to say she was a sex worker and that they had had consensual sex.

She says she told a local sheriff about her ordeal, but her complaint was “ignored”.

Her claim in California comes a day after six lawsuits were filed against Combs in New York, with more expected in the coming weeks.

In a statement, Combs’ representatives said the rapper and his legal team “have full confidence in the facts, their legal defences, and the integrity of the judicial process”.

They added: “In court, the truth will prevail: that Mr Combs has never sexually assaulted anyone – adult or minor, man or woman.”

When planned lawsuits were announced on 1 October, one of his lawyers said he could not “address every meritless allegation in what has become a reckless media circus”.

Combs, 54, was once one of the most influential producers in hip-hop, and also known as a rapper in his own right, with hits including Bad Boy For Life and I’ll Be Missing You.

After being arrested in September, he pleaded not guilty to three felony charges accusing him of using his business empire, including record label Bad Boy Entertainment, to transport male and female sex workers across state lines to take part in recorded sexual performances called “freak offs”.

His criminal trial has been set for May 2025.

The killing of Tupac remained unsolved for more than two decades, but the case was reinvestigated in recent years.

In September 2023, former gang member Duane “Keffe D” Davis was charged with murder. His trial is due to take place in March 2025.

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Convicted killer jailed after turning up at Cheryl Tweedy’s home for fourth time

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Convicted killer jailed after turning up at Cheryl Tweedy's home for fourth time

A convicted killer who turned up at Cheryl Tweedy’s home for a fourth time has been jailed.

Daniel Bannister, 50, was sentenced to 12 months after admitting a single charge of breaching a restraining order.

He was also given a new restraining order, which warns him against contacting the former Girls Aloud singer.

“You are causing her anxiety,” Judge Alan Blake told him.

“She does not wish any contact with you. You have shown defiance to the court order. You need to draw a line under that behaviour.”

Bannister turned up at Tweedy’s rural home for the fourth time on 19 June.

Reading Crown Court heard he arrived in a taxi just before 10pm and rang the intercom twice before peering over the gate.

Bannister believed the singer had invited him to her home over Microsoft Teams, the court was told.

Daniel Bannister. Pic: Thames Valley Police
Image:
Daniel Bannister. Pic: Thames Valley Police

Tweedy said she was “stunned” when Bannister visited her home yet again and had been forced to hire security.

“Each time he returns the worry of his intentions intensifies,” she said in a victim impact statement.

“I’m worried, nervous and on edge every time I open my gate. No person should have to feel this way.

“Daniel has made my young child scared,” she added.

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Bannister was initially jailed for four months in September last year – and handed a three-year restraining order.

But he breached it by turning up at Tweedy’s home in December.

In March, he was jailed for 16 weeks at Wycombe Magistrates’ Court for repeatedly going to Tweedy’s Buckinghamshire home while under the restraining order.

During that appearance, the court heard that Tweedy “immediately panicked” and was “terrified” when she saw him outside her home, fearing for the safety of her eight-year-old son Bear.

Bannister killed Rajendra Patel, 48, at a south London YMCA shelter in 2012 and pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

Mr Patel died from an injury to his leg, a court heard.

Tweedy’s former partner Liam Payne died last year in Buenos Aires, Argentina, after falling from his third-floor hotel balcony.

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Noel Clarke ordered to pay at least £3m of Guardian publisher’s legal fees

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Noel Clarke ordered to pay at least £3m of Guardian publisher's legal fees

Noel Clarke has been ordered to pay at least £3m of The Guardian publisher’s legal costs after losing his “far-fetched” libel case over allegations of sexual misconduct reported by the newspaper.

The first article, published in April 2021, said some 20 women who knew the actor and filmmaker in a professional capacity had come forward with allegations including harassment and sexually inappropriate behaviour.

Clarke, best known for his 2006 film Kidulthood and for starring in Doctor Who, sued Guardian News and Media (GNM) over seven articles in total, as well as a podcast, and vehemently denied “any sexual misconduct or wrongdoing”.

Following a trial earlier this year, a High Court judge found the newspaper’s reporting was substantially true, agreeing with the publisher’s defence of its reporting as both true and in the public interest.

At a hearing to determine costs on Tuesday, Clarke represented himself – saying in written submissions to the court that his legal team had resigned as he was unable to provide funding for the hearing.

Mrs Justice Steyn ruled that he must pay £3m ahead of a detailed assessment into the total costs to be recovered, which lawyers for the publisher estimated to be more than £6m.

“The claimant maintained a far-fetched and indeed a false case that the articles were not substantially true, by pursuing allegations of dishonesty and bad faith against almost all of the defendant’s truth witnesses,” the judge said.

The sum of £3m sought by GNM was “appropriate and no more than what ought to be reasonably ordered in this case”, she added, and “substantially lower than the defendant’s likely level of recovery”.

Clarke, 49, told the court he used ChatGPT to prepare his response to GNM’s barrister Gavin Millar KC, who asked the judge to order £3m as an interim payment – which he said was “significantly less” than the “norm” of asking for 75%-80%.

The actor described the proposed costs order as “excessive”, “inflated” and “caused by their own choices”, and asked the court to “consider both the law and the human reality of these proceedings”.

He also requested for the order on costs be held, pending an appeal.

“I have not been vexatious and I have not tried to play games with the court,” Clarke said. “I have lost my work, my savings, my legal team, my ability to support my family and much of my health.

“My wife and children live every day under the shadow of uncertainty. We remortgaged our home just to survive.

“Any costs or interim payments must be proportionate to my means as a single household, not the unlimited resources of a major media conglomerate.

“A crushing order would not just punish me, it would punish my children and wife, and they do not deserve that.”

Detailing GNM’s spend, Mr Millar said about 40,000 documents, including audio recordings and transcripts, had to be reviewed as a result of Clarke bringing the case against then. He highlighted a number of “misconceived applications” made by the actor which “required much work from the defendant’s lawyers in response”.

During the trial, the actor accused GNM – as well as a number of women who made accusations against him – of being part of a conspiracy aiming to destroy his career.

This conspiracy allegation “massively increased the scale and costs of the litigation by giving rise to a whole new unpleaded line of attack against witnesses and third parties,” Mr Millar said in written submissions to the court.

Clarke originally asked for damages of £10m, increasing to £40m and then £70m as the case progressed, the barrister said.

He must now pay GNM the £3m within 28 days, Mrs Justice Steyn ruled.

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Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs lawyers call for almost immediate release at sentencing – and describe ‘inhumane’ prison conditions

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Sean 'Diddy' Combs lawyers call for almost immediate release at sentencing - and describe 'inhumane' prison conditions

Sean “Diddy” Combs’s lawyers have called for the music mogul to be given no more than 14 months in prison when he is sentenced next month – meaning he would walk free almost immediately.

In a new written legal submission, the defence team also detailed “inhumane” conditions at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York – saying food sometimes contains maggots, that the rapper is routinely subjected to violence, and that he has “not breathed fresh air in nearly 13 months”.

Combs, 55, was found guilty of two prostitution-related charges following his high-profile trial in the summer, but cleared of the more serious charges of sex-trafficking and racketeering conspiracy.

He has already served a year in custody in New York following his arrest in September 2024, and is due to be sentenced on 3 October.

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How the Diddy trial unfolded

His defence lawyers have now made their arguments for sentencing in a written submission to Judge Arun Subramanian, who heard the trial.

“In the past two years, Mr Combs’s career and reputation have been destroyed,” his lawyers said in the document. “He has served over a year in one of the most notorious jails in America – yet has made the most of that punishment.”

They said Combs has been “adequately punished” already, having been jailed in “terrible conditions”. He has also become sober “for the first time in 25 years” and had an “incident-free record”, they added, and helped other inmates by creating an educational programme on business management and entrepreneurship.

It is now time for the rapper “to go home to his family, so he can continue his treatment and try to make the most of the next chapter of his extraordinary life”, the defence team said.

Combs fell to his knees when the jury's verdicts were delivered. Pic: Reuters/Jane Rosenberg
Image:
Combs fell to his knees when the jury’s verdicts were delivered. Pic: Reuters/Jane Rosenberg

‘Maggots and limited clean water’

The defence’s submission provides new information about what life behind bars has been like for Combs, a Grammy-winning artist and Bad Boy Records founder who was one of the most influential hip-hop producers of the 1990s and 2000s, and for his family and previous associates.

The rapper had to let more than 100 employees go from his businesses following his arrest, it said, and many have been unable to find work due to their previous association with him.

Combs’s seven children have also faced “devastating consequences”, according to the legal filing, including lost business opportunities in acting, television, fashion and music.

The rapper's mother Janice Combs supported him during the trial. Pic: Reuters
Image:
The rapper’s mother Janice Combs supported him during the trial. Pic: Reuters

The rapper and his family were also set to star in a Hulu show about their lives, but the show was cancelled once the allegations against him became public.

Combs was removed from the boards at three charter schools he created in Harlem, the Bronx and Connecticut and was also stripped of an honorary doctorate degree from Howard University, which plans to return his prior donations, it said.

The defence’s document also goes into detail about the alleged conditions at the detention centre where Combs is being held.

Judge Arun Subramanian heard the trial and will sentence Combs. Pic: Reuters/Jane Rosenberg
Image:
Judge Arun Subramanian heard the trial and will sentence Combs. Pic: Reuters/Jane Rosenberg

“Mr Combs is routinely subject to violence – both directed at him and at others,” they said. On 12 September, they said members of the defence counsel were in the middle of a call with the rapper that had to be ended suddenly “because of a stabbing that locked the facility down for the next several days”.

Living conditions are “inhumane”, they argued, and Combs has been “under constant suicide watch”, meaning every two hours he “must present his identification card to the guards to show he is alive and well. While he is sleeping, he is awoken by an officer to ensure he is well and subjected to bright lights illuminated 24 hours per day”.

He also has limited access to clean water, they said, and often “heats his water to have clean water to drink without getting sick”.

Describing the dorm-style room he sleeps in, they said he is within “two feet from other inmates with the bathroom in the same room, with no door”.

Read more:
How the trial unfolded
The rise and fall of Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs

The rapper “has not breathed fresh air in nearly 13 months, or felt sunlight on his skin”, the document added, while food “on any given day can contain maggots”.

The judge has already rejected a proposed $50m bail package for Combs.

Prosecutors, who will also submit their recommendations for sentencing ahead of the hearing, have already said they will call for him to remain in prison for a substantial period.

Combs was found guilty of two counts of transportation for engagement in prostitution – for flying girlfriends and male sex workers around the US and abroad for sexual encounters referred to as “freak offs”. Each charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

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