Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs has been sent back to jail to await sentencing after a dramatic verdict day that saw him cleared of the most serious charges he faced – but found undeniably guilty of others. 

Combs, 55, had pleaded for mercy and freedom, telling the judge he should be allowed back to Florida to look after his ailing mother. 

He was found guilty of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution, which carry a combined sentence of up to 20 years, but was cleared of the top charges – a victory in many senses. 

It remains unclear how much longer the rapper, who has already been in jail for nine months, may spend behind bars. 

Diddy has not been seen in public since September 2024, when he was arrested on suspicion of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. 

No cameras have been allowed inside the federal courthouse. 

Today, as the verdict was read aloud after just 13 hours of deliberations, his fans and family cheered and partied outside. 

They cleared him of sex trafficking and racketeering, the most serious charges, which could have put him behind bars for decades. 

Across town, Cassie Ventura’s husband Alex Fine was spotted returning home with their children, holing up inside their house as the world reacted to the trial outcome. 

She testified while heavily pregnant, telling the jury how Diddy tortured and abused her for years.  

The infamous video of Diddy beating her up in a California hotel was among the pieces of evidence shown to the jury. 

He was not, however, charged with any form of physical domestic violence. 

Instead, prosecutors failed to prove their case that he was guilty of entrapping women into sexual slavery. 

Today, her attorneys said the verdict proved how much needed to change in the justice system.

They hoped her bravery and testimony would pave the way for more victims to come forward.

Diddy’s team of all star lawyers won the jury over by presenting text messages that suggested the women were willing participants in the notorious ‘freak off’ sessions. 

Prosecutors also failed to present a clear case for racketeering conspiracy – the notion that Diddy and his team of ‘fixers’ created and enforced a criminal enterprise, through which the alleged abuse was facilitated. 

As the verdict was read aloud in court today, the star dropped to his knees and prayed.

His lawyers told the judge he would obey by the strictest bail terms, after a grueling 10 months in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, where he has been housed with fellow inmates Luigi Mangione and Sam Bankman-Fried. 

Prosecutor Maurene Comey said the government will seek a 20-year maximum for Combs – whereas his defense will fight for less and have requested he be freed on a $1 million bond while awaiting his sentencing. 

It was an explosive trial filled with jaw-dropping moments and mentions of some of the world’s biggest stars. 

Cassie, Diddy’s ex-girlfriend and the star witness, testified while heavily pregnant. 

There was a cameo from Kanye West, constant warring between prosecutors and defense lawyers, and an army of Diddy die-hards outside court every day.

Now, the music mogul begins a new fight seeking a light sentence. It remains unclear when he will learn his punishment. 

Prosecutors painted a picture of a mob-like figure who threatened to kill people if they spoke out against him and ran a ‘criminal enterprise’ that covered it up.

It wasn’t enough to convince jurors of his racketeering conspiracy guilt.

Both Cassie and ‘Jane’ claimed they were forced to take part in freak offs, where they had sex with a male escort while covered in baby oil as Diddy masturbated while directing them on what to do.

The jury was shown multiple clips of the freak offs – which made one black female juror grimace, while another put her hand to her face. 

The X-rated material was not released to the public.

Dozens of celebrities were named but none were implicated in criminal wrongdoing and only one turned up to support Diddy, Kanye West, who briefly appeared in court.

THE CASE AGAINST DIDDY

In her closing argument, prosecutor Christy Slavik said that Diddy used a ‘methodical pattern of violence and coercion’ to force women into freak offs.

Slavik claimed that Diddy ‘groomed’ his victims and wanted ‘complete control’ over them which he achieved by drugging and abusing them.

Diddy often called himself ‘The King’ and wanted to be treated as such, the jury was told.

During a marathon summation which took nearly five hours, Slavik said that Diddy was a man who ‘doesn’t take no for an answer’.

She described him as the ‘leader of a criminal enterprise’ who had a group of ‘loyal lieutenants’ ready to protect him.

Emily Anne Johnson, another prosecutor, rejected the idea that Diddy was on trial for his sexual proclivities.

She said: ‘Let me be very clear…this case is not about a celebrity’s private sexual preferences. 

‘The evidence will show the sexual conduct at issue in this case was coercive and criminal because the defendant made women have sex when they didn’t want to’.

DIDDY’S DEFENSE

Diddy’s defense was that he was a terrible boyfriend but not a sex trafficker.

His lawyers said that he was a ‘complicated’ man who was sometimes a ‘jerk’ who admitted to beating up women.

His relationships with women were ‘toxic’ and driven by jealousy – but they were not criminal.

Opening the case, Teny Geragos told the court: ‘The evidence is going to show you a very flawed individual but it will not show you a racketeer or a sex trafficker’.

According to Geragos, even though Diddy was ‘kinky’, the government shouldn’t prosecute him for what he did in the bedroom.

CASSIE VENTURA

The star witness for the defense was Cassandra ‘Cassie’ Ventura, who dated Diddy for more than a decade and testified while eight-and-a-half months pregnant with her third child by her husband, personal trainer Alex Fine.

Ventura, now 38, met Combs when she was just 19 and signed to his Bad Boy Records label on a 10-album deal.

After they first kissed at her 21st birthday in Las Vegas, Combs flew Britney Spears in to celebrate – she quickly fell in love with him even though he was 17 years older than her.

Ventura said she was so sexually inexperienced that he had to teach her what oral sex was.

Rather than helping her career, she testified that Diddy made Ventura’s ‘job’ to perform drug-fueled freak offs for Combs with male escorts while he watched and masturbated.

Just one of her 10 albums would come out.

Ventura testified: ‘Within the first year of our relationship Sean proposed to me this idea this sexual encounter that he called voyeurism where he’d watch me in sexual activity with a third party, specifically another man’.

With a sigh, Ventura said in a halting voice: ‘It entails hiring of an escort, and… setting up this experience so that I could perform for Sean’.

The alleged toll on Ventura was steep: freak offs would go on for up to four days and when she wasn’t partaking in them, she was recovering from the effects of taking ecstasy, cocaine, ketamine and GHB, also known as liquid ecstasy.

She allegedly frequently contracted UTI infections but didn’t always have time to recover before the next freak off, meaning that she endured a ‘burning’ sensation while having sex.

Ventura testified in explicit detail what freak offs involved: her and a male escort covering themselves in baby oil while Diddy told them how to have sex.

If Ventura refused then she would be beaten so badly the whites of her eyes would turn red, she told the jury.

‘If they were violent arguments would usually result in some sort of physical abuse,’ she said. ‘Dragging, just different things of that nature.

‘He would bash me on my head, knock me over, drag me, kick me, stomp me in the head if I was down’.

Prosecutor Emily Anne Johnson asked how frequently this would happen. ‘Too frequently’, Ventura said.

Diddy’s mood could change ‘at the drop of a conversation, bad conversation, that I had nothing to do with’, Ventura said.

‘The most complicated examples are the abuse. I also felt at certain times when I knew it wasn’t even about me. Yeah, make up the wrong face and the next thing I knew I was getting hit in the face.

‘If I wasn’t smiling at him the way he wanted I just looked a certain way he didn’t like. Maybe I was a brat or something he would let me know I need to fix my face or watch my mouth. Those were things that were said quite often. Fix your face, watch your mouth or you have a slick mouth’.

The jury was shown chilling footage from a time in 2016 when Ventura tried to escape a Freak Off at the InterContinental hotel in Los Angeles.

The camera footage – first aired by CNN last year – showed Diddy dragging Ventura by her hair and repeatedly kicking her while she was on the floor.

By 2017 Ventura was souring on the relationship and messaged Combs: ‘Nothing good comes out of FOs (Freak Offs) any more. You treat me like you’re Ike Turner’.

They broke up the following year but not before Combs allegedly raped Ventura on what she thought was one of their final dinners together.

Diddy’s lawyers used Ventura’s texts to try and undermine her testimony including some friendly ones sent after the alleged rape.

The following month, in September 2018, Ventura told Diddy: ‘I do love you’, and in another message she said: ‘Can’t wait to see you’.

THE MALE ESCORTS

The jury heard from two exotic dancers who said they were paid thousands of dollars to take part in Freak Offs.

One of them was known as ‘The Punisher’, a name he said that he got from playing basketball in his teens.

The escort, whose real name was Sharray Hayes, told how he normally worked as an exotic dancer – at one point bragging about his ability to ‘dry hump’ women.

But after being paid $2,000 by Ventura and Diddy, he took part in a Freak Off at a Trump hotel in New York.

Hayes said he wanted to create a ‘sexy scene’ so poured baby oil all over himself while Diddy watched.

Hayes, 51, told the court that he was hired for the Freak Off in 2012 and would go on to do around 10 more.