Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs set to be sentenced as prosecutors call for 11-year term

Sean “Diddy” Combs faces sentencing on Friday in a criminal case that could keep him locked up for years.

The former hip-hop mogul was convicted in July of flying people around the country for sexual encounters, including his girlfriends and male sex workers, in violation of the federal Mann Act.

A jury acquitted Combs, 55, of more serious racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking charges that could have put him away for life.

Prosecutors say he should spend more than 11 years in prison for his conviction on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. Combs’ lawyers want him freed now, saying the long sentence sought by prosecutors is “wildly out of proportion” to the crime.

US District Judge Arun Subramanian, who will decide the sentence, has signalled that Combs is unlikely to be freed soon. He twice rejected bail for the rapper, who has been jailed at a federal detention centre in Brooklyn since his arrest a year ago.

Outside the Manhattan court, the scene echoed that of Combs’ high-profile trial.

Hordes of photographers waited as lawyers and Combs’ family members arrived, including several of his children. His mother Janice Combs arrived earlier. Across the street, TV crews broadcast live from in front of a city park.

The sentencing comes after a nearly two-month trial featuring evidence from women who described being beaten, threatened, sexually assaulted and blackmailed by Combs.

A former girlfriend, R&B singer Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, said Combs ordered her to have “disgusting” sex with strangers hundreds of times during their decade-long relationship.

The jury was repeatedly shown video clips of Combs dragging and beating Cassie in a Los Angeles hotel hallway after one of those multiday sexual marathons, which she referred to as “freak-offs” during her four days of evidence.

A woman who testified under the pseudonym “Jane” told jurors she too was subjected to violence and felt obligated to perform sexually with male sex workers at drug-fuelled “hotel nights” while Combs watched and sometimes filmed.

To support their racketeering case, prosecutors also brought on witnesses who testified about other violent acts.

A former personal assistant testified that Combs raped her. One of Cassie’s friends told the jury Combs dangled her from a 17th floor balcony. The rapper Kid Cudi testified that Combs broke into his home after learning he and Cassie were dating.

Although the jury acquitted Combs of racketeering, the judge can still consider that evidence as he decides the sentence.

Judge Subramanian is also considering letters submitted by Combs and some of his accusers.

In his letter to the judge on Thursday, Combs promised he would never commit another crime if released, saying: “The old me died in jail and a new version of me was reborn.”

In her letter, Ms Ventura called Combs a manipulative abuser who has “no interest in changing or becoming better”.

“He will always be the same cruel, power-hungry, manipulative man that he is,” she wrote.

A former personal assistant who said Combs raped her in 2010 asked Judge Subramanian to deliver a sentence “that takes into account the ongoing danger my abuser poses to me, and to others”.

The former assistant, who gave evidence under the pseudonym “Mia”, is expected to speak at Friday’s sentencing.

Combs will address the court, according to court filings. His defence team is also planning to play a roughly 11-minute video.

Combs’ lawyers say the sexual encounters were consensual and that being in jail has hastened Combs’ sobriety and forced him to learn from his misbehaviour. They have said there is no need for him to remain behind bars because he has already been punished enough.

At a court hearing last week, Combs told his mother and children that he is “getting closer to going home”.

The judge has granted a defence request to allow Combs to wear normal, non-jail clothes at his sentencing.

He will be permitted to have one button-down shirt, one pair of trousers, one sweater and one pair of shoes without laces to wear, Judge Subramanian said.

The sentencing “holds significant importance for Mr Combs,” wrote his lawyer, Teny Geragos. Combs wants to appear “in the most dignified and respectful fashion possible”.

Combs was permitted to wear non-jail attire at his trial, but not at a hearing last week where Judge Subramanian heard arguments on the defence’s since-rejected bid to have his conviction overturned. In that instance, the judge said his lawyers waited too long to ask that he be allowed normal clothing.