Featured Image Credit: Paras Griffin/Getty Images
Topics: Diddy, Sex Trafficking, Cassie Ventura, Crime
Liv Bridge
Topics: Diddy, Sex Trafficking, Cassie Ventura, Crime
Sean 'Diddy' Combs has been sentenced to more than four years in prison and a fine of $500,000 after being convicted on prostitution-related charges.
The disgraced music industry executive was arrested from a hotel in Manhattan, New York, last September, on charges spanning sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion to racketeering conspiracy, and more.
However, during a high-profile court hearing over several weeks this summer, Diddy was cleared of some of these serious charges.
A jury found the 55-year-old guilty of two counts of transportation for engagement in prostitution, a violation of the Mann Act, which outlaws interstate commerce related to prostitution.
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Today (October 3), Judge Arun Subramanian in New York sentenced Combs to the hefty fine as well as 50 months behind bars after claiming the defence's proposal of a sentence of no more than 14 months would not be sufficient.
The judge said Combs' time in prison would be 'hard' for him to spend away from his family, but he would still 'have a life afterwards'.
The court previously heard all about Combs' extensive 'freak-offs'; drug-fueled and often days-long sex parties, where the Bad Boy Records founder would watch and film male sex workers and his girlfriends.
It is alleged the rapper 'orchestrated' the encounters that took place in different states across the US and abroad. It is also believed he paid the women and the sex workers to travel for the event.
Combs was found guilty of two charges, one relating to sex workers he paid for while in a relationship with singer Cassie Ventura, and another who took part in sessions with another woman he later had a relationship with who has not been named in the trial.
Each count carried a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.
Combs has been kept behind bars since his July conviction, and has protested his innocence against all the charges brought against him.
The sentencing comes as prosecutors urged a New York federal judge earlier this week to send Combs to prison for more than 11 years for the crimes, claiming one of his accusers says she lives in fear of his release.
"His crimes of conviction are serious and have warranted sentences over ten years in multiple cases for defendants who, like Sean Combs, engaged in violence and put others in fear," they wrote in a pre-sentence submission on Tuesday (September 30).
They dubbed Combs 'unrepentant' for his acts and that he 'argues his victims should shoulder the blame' for his behavior.
"He is not the victim," they wrote. "The Court should focus on the very real effects that the defendant's conduct had on the lives of the actual victims, his victims."
However, his defense argued he ought to be sentenced to no more than 14 months in prison, stating he had already suffered during his 13-month-long stint behind bars and further argued his ex girlfriends were 'not vulnerable or exploited or trafficked or sexually assaulted during the freak-offs.'
They also claim he has become a changed man while locked up, from being under suicide watch to reacting calmly to threats including a violent altercation where an inmate reportedly confronted him with a weapon.
His attorneys assert that Combs has realized his exploitation of drugs contributed to the violent acts he carried out, but Diddy's bid to have his conviction overturned entirely was refused.