Sean 'Diddy' Combs' former girlfriend Casandra Ventura, the star prosecution witness at the hip-hop mogul's sex trafficking trial, has testified that her music career began to suffer as she increasingly spent her time participating in days of drug-fuelled sex parties organised by Mr Combs.
Ms Ventura, an R&B singer known as 'Cassie,' said that she began taking part in the 'freak offs' to please Mr Combs, but continued because he blackmailed her with videos of the encounters.
"The '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 told jurors, adding that the performances could last one and a half to four days.
Mr 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 faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years and could face life in prison.
Ms Ventura said she started dating Mr Combs in her early 20s.
Ms Ventura, who is now 38, said that Mr Combs frequently beat her, leaving her with black eyes and bruises all over her body.
"He would bash my head, knock me over, drag me, kick me, stomp me in the head if I was down," Ms Ventura, her voice breaking slightly, said on the second day of testimony in the high-profile trial.
Mr Combs' lawyers say prosecutors seek to criminalise the rapper's "swingers" lifestyle in which he and his girlfriends invited other men to join them for sex.
Defence lawyer Teny Geragos conceded to jurors yesterday that Mr Combs had a bad temper and jealousy problems but said this had nothing to do with sex trafficking or racketeering.
"Domestic violence is not sex trafficking," Ms Geragos said.
"He is not charged with being a flawed individual."
Prosecutors allege Mr Combs used his clout in the music industry to bend victims to his will and keep them silent about his abuse.
Throughout Ms Ventura's testimony, the prosecution repeatedly sought to portray a power imbalance between the Bad Boy Records founder and Ms Ventura.
Ms Ventura told jurors she did not want to engage in the 'freak offs' but did so to avoid making Mr Combs angry.
"I was confused and nervous but I also loved him very much and wanted to make him happy," Ms Ventura said.
"I didn't feel like I had much of a choice."
Ventura says Combs controlled her life
Ms Ventura said Mr Combs controlled much of her life and career.
"Control was everything, from the way that I looked to what I was working on that day, who I was speaking to.
"Control was kind of an all-around thing to a certain point," Ms Ventura said.
Prosecutors introduced a video of Mr Combs and Ms Ventura yesterday, the first day of evidence in the high-profile trial.
In the video, Mr Combs throws her to the ground and kicks her in the hallway of a Los Angeles area hotel when she tried to leave.
Mr Combs, wearing only a towel, is then seen grabbing Ms Ventura's belongings and dragging her into the hallway.
Mr Combs apologised after the video first aired on CNN last year.
Marc Agnifilo, Mr Combs' lead lawyer, has said the 2016 hotel incident depicted the aftermath of a dispute over infidelity.
In a court hearing on Friday, Mr Agnifilo said Ms Ventura had a history of domestic violence, signalling he plans to use that to undermine Ms Ventura's credibility.
Over the course of a two-month trial, jurors are expected to hear testimony from Ms Ventura and two or possibly three of Mr Combs' other female accusers, as well as his former employees who prosecutors say helped arrange and cover up his actions.
Ms Geragos said in her opening statement that prosecutors were trying to twist Mr Combs' romantic relationships into a racketeering and sex trafficking case.
"Sean Combs is a complicated man, but this is not a complicated case.
"This case is about voluntary choices made by capable adults in consensual relationships," Ms Geragos said.
Read more: What we know so far about the Sean 'Diddy' Combs sex trafficking trial
