Image source, Jane Rosenberg / Reuters

Day two of testimony in Sean 'Diddy' Combs' sex-trafficking trial has concluded and we'll shortly be pausing our live coverage.

Here's what happened in court today:

• Daniel Phillip, a male stripper, finished his testimony and was then cross-examined by defence lawyers
• Cassie Ventura then took the stand. She was emotional as she recounted her 11 year on-and-off relationship with Combs, which she said "frequently" involved physical abuse

• Cassie, who is eight months pregnant, spoke softly and took deep breaths before answering prosecutors’ questions
• She told the court Combs introduced her to so-called "freak-offs" where she had sex with male escorts while Diddy watched, directed, and recorded
• These encounters made her "feel worthless", she told the court, adding that she feared saying no would cause Combs to assault her
• Cassie said Diddy controlled every aspect of her life and music career and often had his staff surveilling her
• On Wednesday, Cassie is expected to continue her testimony and Combs' defence lawyers will cross examine her

You can follow live updates of Cassie's second day of testimony here.

This page was edited by Brandon Livesay and Caitlin Wilson. The writers were Sakshi Venkatraman and Madeline Halpert.

Sakshi Venkatraman
Reporting from court

It was another dramatic day in court in lower Manhattan.

⁠Casandra Ventura, Sean Combs' ex-girlfriend, is the witness everyone has been waiting for. It's a full house at court, even in the overflow rooms, when she is speaking.

As the day went on, the prosecution's strategy really took shape.

We spent hours hearing from their key witness Ventura, who told the court room about the so-called freak-offs the couple participated in. She explained to the jury how she didn't always want to go along with the sessions, but felt like she couldn't push back.

It became clear that prosecutors are trying to build their racketeering case against Sean "Diddy" Combs by intentionally questioning Ventura about the hip-hop mogul's assistants and staff members who they allege aided in the drug, sex and gun crimes he is accused of.

When it's the defence's turn to cross-examine Ventura, they will likely also focus the R&B singer's relationship with Combs - possibly in an effort to portray her as a willing participant in the freak-offs as who had something to gain from Diddy.

They already tried to get to the heart of that question in their cross-examination of male escort Daniel Phillip earlier in the day: how coercive was Diddy really?

⁠We now have an answer to at least one question in this case: It looks like the public won't be seeing footage or photos from the freak-offs, as agreed to by both the defence and prosecution.

Various media organisations had asked for the footage to be made public, but Judge Arun Subramanian has provisionally denied the request, saying it could "revictimize" Ventura and others.

Ana Faguy
US Reporter

Jennifer Beidel, a former US attorney for the Southern District of New York, tells the BBC that because of the length of Casandra Ventura and Sean "Diddy" Combs' relationship - about a decade, on and off - Ventura's testimony in this case is crucial.

"The jury is looking to put together a cohesive narrative, so hearing from someone who was there for a number of years is really critical," Beidel said.

Cases are much more likely to be successful when there is a "narrator" who can walk the jury through the course of events and explain their perspective of how it all went down, Beidel says.

"When there are ten or 20 witnesses it's hard for [jurors] to understand. That's why Ms Ventura is so critical," she says.

While Beidel says Ventura is essential to the prosecution's case, her appearance on the witness stand could also a bit of a "double-edged" sword, she says.

Because Ventura was in a relationship with Combs for such a long period of time, the door is no open for the defence to question why she would stay in such poor conditions for so long.

If the defence is able to cast doubt on why Ventura might have stayed with Combs for many years despite the alleged abuse - without coming across as "victim blaming" - the defence could have some success, Beidel says.

Sakshi Venkatraman
Reporting from court

Court is adjourned for the day as Cassie Ventura continues her explosive testimony.

When we wrapped up inside the courtroom, Ventura was reviewing the now-infamous footage from the InterContinental Century City hotel in Los Angeles which was shown to the jury yesterday.

That's the video from 2016 in which Sean Combs appears to knock her down, beat her, kick her and drag her.

Even after hours of testimony today, we still have a long way to go with Ventura on the stand.

Prosecutors say direct questioning will go until midday tomorrow, and the defence says their questions will go into Thursday at least.

Court has now adjourned for the day, according to reporters in the room.

After the hours of testimony she has given today, we're expecting to hear more from Casandra Ventura on the stand again tomorrow.

Stay with us as we bring you today's final details from court.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

Warning: This post and others below contain distressing details

Prosecutors are continuing to question Ventura about the details of every act that took place during the so-called freak-offs.

She tells the court of every event that usually took place, saying one "session" could last as long as three hours.

She spends much of her testimony explaining that she did not want to be participating in the "freak-offs."

"I just wanted it to be over," she says. Sometimes she would have "freak-offs" with several male escorts in one night, she tells the court.

"I hated it," she testifies. “I was an object being heavily objectified by men."

The court took a brief recess a few minutes ago, according to reporters in the room, on Ventura's request.

After about 10 minutes, the jury filed back in and Ventura returned to the stand.

Stick with us for more details from her testimony.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

Warning: This post and others below contain distressing details.

As Ventura's testimony continues this afternoon, we are hearing more details about how the couple - she and Combs - hired escorts and organised the freak-offs.

Ventura tells the court they would pay the escorts $1,500 - $6,000 for their services.

The court is shown photos of six escorts that Ventura is asked to identify. She testifies that some of the men were flown to destinations to have sex with Ventura, getting at the prosecution's allegations of transporting people for the purpose of prostitution.

Ventura says she used drugs at "all" of the freak-offs - marijuana, ketamine, GHB - because it was "a way to not feel it for what it really was", she says: “Having sex with a stranger I don't really want to be having sex with."

Sakshi Venkatraman
Reporting from court

After going into graphic detail about what she was expected to do at freak-offs, Ventura's testimony has moved to how she acquired the male escorts.

Combs tasked her with hiring them and approved each one, she said. He preferred they be black men.

She tells the court she was instructed to tell them that her husband was into voyeurism, and he wanted to see her with another man.

Several services were used to contract the escorts in different cities, including Craigslist, Backpage, and Cowboys for Angels. Cowboys for Angels has come up multiple times in both her and the escorts’ testimony, and she says it became her most frequently used across the US.

There are 12 jurors hearing the ongoing Diddy case in New York, here's what we know about some of them:

• A licensed massage therapist who has a family member who was a victim of domestic violence
• A 51-year-old veterinarian with a Ph.D. in molecular biologist and neuroscience
• A 42-year-old who works at a nursing home
• A corrections department employee who says they will not have any bias towards law enforcement officials
• A retired 68-year-old who previously worked at a bank
• A physicians assistant who has on occasion worked with psychiatric patients

Image source, Jane Rosenberg

Cassie Ventura is back on the witness stand in the sex-trafficking trial of Sean "Diddy" Combs.

And we have another sketch from inside the courtroom to share with you, showing an emotional Ventura testifying in front of her former partner, Combs.

Stick with us, we will bring the latest details as they happen.

Cassie Ventura has been on the witness stand giving emotional and graphic testimony for most of the day. The court is now going to take a brief pause.

When we return, Ventura will be back on the stand again.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

After some emotional testimony from Ventura, who talked about how the freak-offs "humiliated" her, we now have a change in pace for her testimony.

Prosecutors are asking dozens of details about the freak-offs, asking Ventura to name the hotels they took place in (there are too many to name, she says) as well as the types of candles Combs wanted to use during the encounters.

Combs’ lawyers begin to object to the repetitive line of questioning, and the judge calls a side bar.

Throughout, prosecutors are trying to emphasise that Combs made all the calls for the freak-offs.

"I couldn’t say no," Ventura says at one point.

Sakshi Venkatraman
Reporting from court

Warning: This post and others below contain distressing details

Ventura is now taking the courtroom through her first few "freak-off" experiences.

In tears, she describes on the stand the fear and humiliation she says she experienced when Combs called the first escort to his home.

She then explains how she took ecstasy and got drunk beforehand. She also put on a masquerade mask, which she tells the court Combs instructed her to wear.

She was too high to feel much, Ventura tells the court, but does remember feeling "dirty and confused".

The freak-offs then became a weekly ritual, she says.

Ventura says she was worried if she declined to participate, Combs would become angry.

"His eyes would go black," she testifies, describing episodes of rage. "The version of him I was in love with was no longer there."

She started to feel like her only alone time with Combs was during these parties, Ventura says.

The prosecution asks her if there was anything she enjoyed about the freak-offs.

"The time spent with (Combs)," she answers.

She says she tried to tell him "gently" that "doing this made me feel horrible, it made me feel worthless". But he didn't care, she says.

Anoushka Mutanda-Dougherty
Podcast host, Diddy on Trial

The BBC's Diddy on Trial podcast has followed every twist and turn in Diddy’s case since November 2024.

From bombshell balcony dangling allegations, to featuring in a Kanye West track behind bars, and Diddy accusing the federal government of racism - there have been headline-making moments every week... and that's before the trial even started.

Now we're bringing you all the updates straight from court in New York.

You can listen to the podcast on BBC Sounds or watch on our YouTube channel, external.

Sakshi Venkatraman
Reporting from court

As her testimony continues, the prosecution is now asking Cassie Ventura about Combs' guns, which she says he kept in safes at all of his houses, along with cash, jewellery and video tapes.

Ventura recalls an incident when one of Combs' security guards came into his LA home and told him rival music mogul Suge Knight was at a diner nearby.

She tells the court that Combs and the security guard dressed in black, covered their heads and faces, grabbed guns and left the house while Ventura cried and begged him not to do anything stupid.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

Back on the stand in her brown dress, and now also yellow sweater, we are still slowly walking through the details of Ventura’s old life.

She’s talking about all of the things Combs paid for - cars, houses, luxury trips - and the items he would take away to "punish" her - her phone, her laptop.

Prosecutors have begun to show the court photos of Combs’ employees - including several of his security guards, one of whom Ventura says would take away her things at Combs’ direction.

It appears the government is now trying to get into the racketeering element of its case - this involves the allegation that Combs used his loyal network of associates to run a criminal enterprise and cover up his alleged crimes.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

We’re back in court with Cassie Ventura on the stand once again.

On our way up through security, we got a look at Combs’ entourage of family and friends in court - more than a dozen people.

That includes his identical twin daughters, who were wearing matching white blazers and heels, as well as Combs’ mother and one of his sons. There were also other friends and supporters of the music mogul.

We now have the first court sketch featuring Casandra Ventura as she testifies for the prosecution in the sex-trafficking trial of Sean Combs.

The sketch shows the moment that Ventura, who is eight months pregnant, is sworn in by the court.

Image source, Jane Rosenberg / Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Before Ventura's testimony began earlier, reporters in the courtroom said the judge and lawyers for both sides spent several minutes conferring over whether the R&B singer's husband, Alex Fine, would be allowed to be in the courtroom during her testimony,

The defence argued that he should not be - they said they may call Fine as their own witness later. But the prosecution says he should be present as support for Ventura.

In the end, US media report that all parties agreed that Fine would be allowed be in the courtroom for part of Ventura's testimony, but not the portions which might be relevant to the defence's potential later questions.