Sex Worker Gives Harrowing Details At Diddy Trial Of Paid Encounters, Abuse

Almost immediately after opening statements on Monday, testimony in Sean “Diddy” Combs’ sex trafficking trial turned graphic as the prosecution’s second witness described paid sexual encounters and instances where Combs allegedly abused his ex.

Federal prosecutors in New York have indicted Combs on five charges, including racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion. The trial is expected to last eight weeks, and Combs is facing life in prison if convicted. He has denied the charges, arguing that he engaged in consensual sex and also that he has been targeted by prosecutors because he’s a powerful Black man.

On Monday, Daniel Phillip, 41, told jurors that R&B singer Casandra “Cassie” Ventura paid him to have sex with her in front of Combs, whom she was then in a relationship with, multiple times starting around 2012.

According to multiple reports, Phillip’s first encounter with the two took place at a hotel in Manhattan, where he was hired to perform a striptease for a bachelorette party. Instead, when he arrived, he said Ventura asked if he was OK with engaging with just the two of them and immediately gave him a few thousand dollars.

Combs was also in the room to watch, he said, but Phillip did not immediately recognize him because he was dressed in a robe and wearing a bandana that covered the bottom half of his face.

The Washington Post reported Combs told Phillip at the time that he was in the “importing and exporting” business. Phillip then said he recognized the voice as belonging to Combs.

At one point, Ventura asked Phillip to massage her, which turned into the two of them having sex while Combs watched and pleasured himself, Phillip testified, according to Variety. Eventually, they stopped, and Ventura gave Phillip an additional few thousand dollars and took his phone number before Phillip left.

He said he then received a text from Ventura asking for a nude picture, which he sent, and Ventura asked him to return to the hotel room. They once again engaged in intercourse for hours as Combs watched and masturbated, he testified, according to Variety.

Phillip said he had additional sexual encounters with the former couple until around late 2013 or early 2014, Variety reported. One instance reportedly involved Phillip urinating on Ventura, and another involved him taking what he believed to be the drug molly, or MDMA.

He recalled the sex lasting anywhere between an hour to 10 hours, with pay ranging from $700 to $5,000 or $6,000, the Washington Post reported. Combs would also chime in to give them instructions while they were having sex and recorded Phillip and Ventura having sex “once or twice,” according to Phillip.

Phillip also said that Combs had once taken a picture of his driver’s license “just for insurance, just in case.”

Phillip said he saw Combs abusing Ventura during an instance when Combs asked Ventura to come to him, CNN reported. She asked for a moment before coming, which angered Combs and caused him to attack her, Phillip said.

“She was screaming, and he pulled her into the bedroom,” Phillip said, according to Variety. “I could hear what sounded like him slapping her. She was screaming, ‘I’m sorry! I’m sorry!’”

Phillip reportedly recalled Combs telling Ventura, “Bitch, when I tell you to come, you come now. Not later.”

“I was shocked. It came out of nowhere. I was terrified. I didn’t know what to do,” Phillip continued.

He also said Combs would still expect Phillip and Ventura to have sex after the abuse, but Phillips found it difficult “staying hard.” Phillip said Combs gave him the erectile dysfunction drug Cialis to combat the issue on one or two occasions, according to Variety.

Phillip also told jurors of another instance in which he heard screaming and slapping involving Ventura and Combs behind closed doors at another Manhattan hotel.

“I heard her yelling, ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry,’ someone was being slapped around and slammed around the room,” Phillip said, according to NBC News. “And I looked around the corner and I saw Mr. Combs walk out of the hotel altogether without clothes, he might have had a towel on.”

“She basically tried to convince me that ‘it’s OK’ and ‘I’ll be OK,’” Phillip said of Ventura after the abuse. “And I said, ‘It is not OK and you need to get help.’”

Phillip testified that he didn’t go to the police about the violence because he saw Combs as someone with “unlimited power,” and he was scared he would be killed, Courthouse News Service reported.

“My thoughts were that this was someone with unlimited power,” he said. “And chances are that, even if I did go to the police, I might still lose my life.”

Phillip will re-take the witness stand on Tuesday. Ventura is also expected to testify on Tuesday.