Image source, Jane Rosenberg / Reuters

The first day of evidence in Sean "Diddy" Combs' sex-trafficking trial has wrapped up, and we'll shortly be pausing our live coverage.

Here's what happened in court today:

• After jury selection concluded, the court heard opening statements from the prosecution, who accused the hip-hop mogul of using fame and violence to sexually abuse women
• The rapper's attorneys defended his "swinger" lifestyle and rejected sex trafficking claims
• Following opening statements, the court heard from prosecutors' first witnesses, including a security guard from a hotel where Mr Combs is seen in a now-viral video beating his ex-girlfriend in 2016
• His testimony was followed by a man who said Mr Combs abused his ex-girlfriend during paid sexual encounters with the couple
• Prosecutors focused on the two central victims in the case - Mr Combs' former girlfriend, Cassandra Ventura, and another unnamed former girlfriend
• Lawyers for Mr Combs said the video was evidence of Mr Combs' "flawed" character, but not of a larger criminal enterprise
• The trial is scheduled to continue on Tuesday

You can read our full report from the courtroom here.

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

Sakshi Venkatraman
Reporting from court

We've just spent all day in a packed overflow room at the New York courthouse, hearing from the first witnesses in the Sean "Diddy" Combs sex-trafficking trial.

This case has of course garnered a lot of attention. Though the court has dedicated three rooms for overflow - filled with celebrities, Diddy's friends and family, journalists and onlookers - the atmosphere still felt chaotic at times.

Spectators were often loud, especially during testimony that included details about sexual encounters. But when the now-infamous 2016 video of Diddy beating up Cassie in a California hotel was played, a complete hush fell over the proceedings.

As outlined in their opening statements this morning, what the defence says at this point is that Combs did in fact hit his girlfriends, as jurors went on to see in that hotel video - but the defence also says that's not what this trial is about, and that domestic abuse is not the same as sex trafficking.

Now, we're expecting to hear tomorrow from Cassie, the one person we haven't seen yet but whose name has been floating around this court building all day.

Seen leaving court just a bit ago, her lawyer Douglas Wigdor told reporters outside court that Cassie was feeling "ready".

Now that court has adjourned, we're seeing some images of members of Combs' entourage leaving the Manhattan courthouse.

Combs' children - including his daughters, seen holding hands - and his mother were among those seen walking out of court. Former partners and his publicist were photographed leaving as well.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuter

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Jane Rosenberg / Reuters

Photography and videos are not not allowed inside this federal courtroom in New York. So the job of showing what's happening inside the room falls on sketch artists like Jane Rosenberg.

She’s been drawing famous faces in court for 40 years, including Donald Trump, John Gotti, Ghislaine Maxwell, and Harvey Weinstein.

Rosenberg's first time drawing Combs was in a 2001 trial.

She says drawing him is much harder now. "He looked very different then," Rosenberg tells the BBC's Diddy on Trial podcast., external

"There are no pictures of how he looks now with the grey. He has grey hair... a very white beard."

You can listen to Diddy on Trial on BBC Sounds.

Image source, Jane Rosenberg / Reuters

Image source, Jane Rosenberg / Reuters

Brandon Livesay
Reporting from court

Court has now finished for the day after lengthy questioning of the second witness in this case - Daniel Phillip, the 41-year-old who says Cassie and Combs paid him to have sex with Cassie while Combs watched in the corner.

The cross-examination exchanges were at times terse, with Phillip repeatedly answering questions with just a quick "Correct" as he was asked about the night he first met Cassie at the Gramercy Hotel.

At one point, Phillip asked the defence to stand closer to the microphone, and also rebutted one assertion from the defence, saying he did not have oil on his body before he took his clothes off during the encounter.

The testimony was extremely graphic in nature. Phillip said after his night with Cassie - in which Diddy sat in a corner with a bandana across his face - he "didn't know what the hell just happened" and that he was in "shock".

Court has adjourned for the day, according to reporters inside the courtroom.

Stick around, we'll bring you more testimony from the witness stand, as well as other updates and analysis from the day.

Sakshi Venkatraman
Reporting from court

Warning: This post and others below contain distressing details

On the witness stand, Phillip describes one "freak-off" session he attended when he says he heard what sounded like Cassie crying and being beaten in another room.

Prosecutors ask Phillip why he didn't go to the police after overhearing such an incident.

"I was concerned for my life," he says, adding that he felt threatened because Combs had taken a photo of his driver's licence.

He tells the court he thought Combs might have an "in" with the police department - a comment which was then met with a swift objection from the defence.

Pratiksha Ghildial
Reporting from court

While the trials plays out in the courtroom, elsewhere in the courthouse there has been a steady stream of people lining up to get a glimpse of the former hip-hop star.

I got talking to 42-year-old Rhazè Lanore, who was standing ahead of me in the line. She says she is a supporter of Diddy and hopes he is not convicted.

"I am not saying he is totally innocent but I feel the charges against him are exaggerated," Lanore says.

She says it made her sad to see the video of him appearing to beat up Cassie, but tells me she thinks those actions are about domestic abuse and that she doesn't understand all the other charges against him.

"Diddy definitely has more haters than supporters," she says as she heads to a court overflow room.

Federal prosecutors have accused Diddy on five charges - including racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and engaging in prostitution.

He denies them all.

Sakshi Venkatraman
Reporting from court

The witness Daniel Phillip is now going into detailed descriptions about the various sexual encounters he had with Cassie and Combs.

He tells the court that Combs, often masked, would instruct him and Cassie about what acts to perform.

He says the so-called "freak-off" would happen at hotel rooms in New York or at the artists' personal residences, and could range in time from one hour to 10 hours.

Combs often recorded videos of the encounters, he tells the court.

Philip, who says he usually only texted and communicated with Cassie, says he was worried about her and would try to meet up to make sure she was okay.

Also seen around the New York courthouse today is Alex Fine, the husband of Casandra Ventura, also known as Cassie.

Ventura is the ex-partner of Sean "Diddy" Combs, seen in the hotel assault video we've been telling you about.

Image source, Reuters

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

Both the defence and prosecutors finished with the first witness, Florez, about a half hour ago.

We’ve been hearing from a second witness, Daniel Phillip, a 41-year-old who says Cassie and Combs paid him to have sex with Cassie while Combs watched in the corner.

Phillip says his boss asked him to fill in for his male stripper coworkers one night at a bachelorette party, but when he got there, it was just Cassie.

Cassie allegedly told him that it was her birthday and her husband, Combs, wanted to do something nice for her.

Phillip says the couple paid him $5,000 to have sex with Cassie.

Phillip tells the court he recognised Combs from the moment he heard his voice in the hotel room. He says Combs told him he worked in “importing and exporting”. The couple asked Phillip to come back to the hotel room just shortly after he left.

Sakshi Venkatraman
Reporting from court

The defence is now trying to poke holes in Florez's testimony with cross examination.

They're focusing on why Florez brought up certain details in court, like the "devilish scary look" he described seeing in Combs' eyes the day of the assault at the hotel, or Cassie's purple eye.

Defense Attorney Brian Steel asks why these details were not filed in the incident report on the day it happened.

The defence is also suggesting that the stack of cash which Combs showed Florez after the incident was not a bribe, but rather intended as payment for the damage done to the hotel.

Florez tells the court it was a bribe.

Sakshi Venkatraman
Reporting from court

The prosecution just finished their questions for Florez. He was asked to comment on several videos of the InterContinental hotel, which showed the 2016 incident.

Florez also used his phone to film the hotel security monitor. He says he did this to show his wife the video later.

"If I had told my wife what had happened she wouldn't have believed me," he told the court.

The video showing Combs attacking Cassie was first aired by CNN last May, shocking many viewers and forcing the rapper to issue an apology for his violent behaviour seen on camera.

Last month, Judge Arun Subramanian ruled that the video could be shown to jurors during the trial, after lawyers for Combs sought to have it blocked.

Diddy's defence team argued that CNN had manipulated the footage, but the network denied that claim.

Ultimately, the judge said that the defence team was unable to prove that the video presents an "unfair prejudice to Mr Combs".

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

Warning: This post and others below contain distressing details

Jurors also saw photos of the aftermath of the incident seen in the video, including a vase Florez says Combs smashed in the hotel hallway.

Florez tells the court that Cassie made her way down to the valet, and he followed her to try to make sure she got help.

He noticed her purple eye, he says, and asked if she wanted him to call the police.

Florez says Cassie told him no, and that she just wanted to leave.

Then, a driver who had come to pick her up in a black SUV told Florez once again that Cassie just wanted to leave, to which Florez replied, "I'm not talking to you".

Cassie eventually left in the SUV, and Florez went back up with the hotel manager to try to talk to Combs, who took the hotel manager's phone from his hand because he thought he was being recorded, Florez says.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

Warning: This post and others below contain distressing details

It's half an hour into the first witness testimony and jurors have been shown the video for the first time of Combs assaulting Cassie in the hallway of a Los Angeles hotel.

The video was introduced into evidence after the first witness, former hotel security guard Israel Florez, told the court about what happened on 5 March 2016.

Florez was called up to help a "woman in distress" on the sixth floor, where he found Cassie sitting in the corner covering her face. Florez says Combs was slouched in a chair wearing just a towel with a "devilish" look on his face.

Florez tells the court Cassie said she just wanted to leave, but Combs told her she couldn’t go.

In the end, the security guard escorted them to their room, where Florez says he held the door open with his foot to ensure Cassie could eventually leave.

The video was played before the court, showing Combs beating and kicking Cassie in the hotel hallway.

The video included a clip - possibly longer than what was seen in the CNN video - of Cassie making the phone call to security that Florez says alerted him to the incident.

Sakshi Venkatraman
Reporting from court

The first witness, a man named Israel Florez, has taken the stand.

Florez is currently a Los Angeles police officer, but in March 2016 he was the hotel security officer who responded to an altercation between Combs and Cassie.

Florez says he was on shift at the InterContinental Century City in Los Angeles when he got a call about a woman in distress on the sixth floor.

He tells the court about how he went up to the floor and saw the two in the elevator bank - Combs in a towel and socks and Cassie curled up in the corner covering her face.

The first witness called by the prosecution is Israel Florez, a Los Angeles police officer.

Florez was a security guard at the InterContinental Hotel in California when the CCTV was filmed of Sean 'Diddy' Combs assaulting Cassie in 2016.

The video was mentioned by both prosecutors and the defence during opening statements, and will be shown to the jury during this trial.

The lunch break has finished and the jury is now back in the courtroom.

We're expecting to hear from the first witness shortly.

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 tune in to our latest episode, which was recorded this morning.

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