Sean “Diddy” Combs has been sentenced to more than four years in prison over two prostitution-related charges.
Despite an emotional plea for “mercy” made by the hip-hop mogul in court, Judge Arun Subramanian said he rejected the defence’s argument that “freak off” sexual encounters were consensual experiences and that his is just a “sex, drugs and rock’n’roll story”.
Combs abused “power and control” with women he professed to love, the judge said.
The rapper was convicted in July of flying people around the US and abroad for sexual encounters, including his then girlfriends and male sex workers, in violation of US prostitution laws.
However, he was cleared of the more serious charges of racketeering conspiracy and sex-trafficking that could have put him in jail for life.
On Thursday, on the eve of his sentencing, Combs 55, submitted a letter to Judge Arun Subramanian pleading for “mercy” and apologising for the “hurt and pain” he has caused others.
Once one of the most influential hip-hop producers of the 1990s and 2000s – the founder of Bad Boy Records and a Grammy-winning artist in his own right – he has led a very different life since his high-profile arrest.
In his letter, he said prison had changed him and vowed never to commit another crime again.
He had faced a maximum of 20 years in prison for the prostitution-related charges.
Before Friday’s hearing, prosecutors argued he should spend at least 11 years behind bars.
But Combs’s lawyers called for him to be freed almost immediately due to time already served since his arrest just over a year ago – saying the long sentence sought by prosecutors was “wildly out of proportion” to the crime.
The judge had previously rejected bail for the rapper several times.
Combs’s sentencing follows his almost two-month high-profile trial in New York earlier this year.
It included testimony from his former long-term girlfriend Cassie Ventura, now Cassie Ventura Fine, who alleged she was coerced and sometimes blackmailed into sexual encounters with male sex workers, referred to as “freak offs”.
Jurors were also shown video clips of the music star dragging and beating Cassie in a Los Angeles hotel hallway after one of those sessions in 2016.
Combs referred to this in his letter, saying he had “lost” his mind at the time and admitted he would not be able to forgive anyone who did the same to one of his daughters.
Ahead of the sentencing, Cassie also submitted a letter to the judge in which she called Combs a “manipulator” and said she feared for her safety.
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