By Luc Cohen
NEW YORK (Reuters) -An ex-girlfriend of Sean “Diddy” Combs who accuses him of kicking, punching and dragging her testified at his sex trafficking trial on Tuesday that she still loves the hip-hop mogul.
“He was my baby,” said the woman, who is testifying under the pseudonym Jane to protect her privacy. Asked under cross-examination by defense lawyer Teny Geragos if she currently loves Combs, Jane said, “I do.”
The woman said she enjoyed taking care of Combs, bathing him and falling asleep with him while watching television after “hotel nights,” their phrase for drug-fueled encounters in which she would have sex with male entertainers while Combs watched.
The questioning was part of Combs’ strategy to portray Jane as a willing participant in the sexual encounters with him, not a victim of sex trafficking as prosecutors allege. Combs, 55, and the founder of Bad Boy Records, has pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors say Combs used force and threats of cutting off financial support to coerce women into taking part in the encounters, sometimes known as “Freak Offs.”
Over three days under questioning by prosecutors in Manhattan federal court, Jane said that she agreed to have sex with a male escort in front of Combs early in their relationship but that he later dismissed her requests to stop and threatened to stop paying her rent.
On Monday, Jane said Combs kicked, punched and dragged her during an altercation at her Los Angeles home last June. Later that night, he told her to perform oral sex on a male entertainer even though she said she did not want to, Jane said.
Under questioning by Geragos on Tuesday, Jane said she researched the terms “cuck” and “cuckold” during her relationship with Combs to try to understand his desires. The words refer to men who enjoy watching female partners with other men, Jane said.
“I just wanted to know why my partner wanted so many of these nights and what was driving him,” Jane said.
Combs’ defense lawyers are expected to cross-examine Jane until Thursday. Testimony is in its fifth week. Combs could face life in prison if convicted on all counts.
Also known throughout his career as Puff Daddy and P. Diddy, Combs turned artists like Notorious B.I.G. and Usher into stars, elevating hip-hop in American culture and becoming a billionaire in the process.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York;Editing by Noeleen Walder and Howard Goller)
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