On the night of Monday September 16, 2024 music business mogul, hip hop pioneer and cultural icon Sean “Diddy” Combs was taken into custody in New York. Just one day later Combs was inside a federal courthouse in downtown Manhattan. He has since been denied bail. Prosecutors are alleging that he created and ran a “criminal enterprise” via a business empire that engaged in sex trafficking, forced labour, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice.

On September 27, new sexual assault allegations arose when a woman filed a lawsuit in New York saying she was repeatedly raped and drugged at Diddy’s homes - becoming pregnant after one of the encounters. On Tuesday October 1, Houston-based attorney Tony Buzbee launched a class action lawsuit saying more the than 50 alleged victims he’s representing have "gut-wrenching" stories about what went down at the alleged "freak offs”. Buzbee alleges "mind-boggling" violations alongside "debauchery and depravity, exacted by powerful people."

In the first episode of this special series of The Trial, DailyMail.com’s West Coast News Editor Marjorie Hernandez breaks down how Combs’ rise up through the music industry saw him grow from a teenager obsessed with hip hop and street style into a man whose endless funds, fame and power unleashed what some say was a terrifyingly abusive side.

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Guests:

• Gerrick Kennedy - author and former Los Angeles Times reporter
• Greg Kading - A retired LAPD homicide detective. In 2006 he was recruited to reinvestigate the murder Christopher Wallace, AKA Biggie Smalls.
• Pam Lewis-Rudden - A music licensing specialist. She worked for Diddy as his assistant at Uptown Records in the early 1990s
• Mark Curry - an author, rapper and artist who was signed to Bad Boy Records by Diddy in 1997.

Presenter: Marjorie Hernandez

Editor: Sam Morris

Producer Rob Fitzpatrick

Executive Producer: Lucy Vallance

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

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Presenter: Kayla Brantley

Producer: Lucy Robson

Creative Director: Caroline Cheetham

Executive Producer: Jamie East

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