[Warning: Potentially Triggering Content]
Cassie Ventura is terrified of what the future holds.
We’re officially just three days out from Diddy’s sentencing. It’s been a long, shocking, emotional, and trying road, but we’re finally going to see what the disgraced rapper’s fate is. In July, he was acquitted of sex trafficking and racketeering charges, but was found guilty on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. He faces up to 10 years in prison for each charge, so a maximum of 20 years total are on the line.
The I’ll Be Missing You rapper’s ex-girlfriend Cassie was a major driving force in his trial, and while the jury did not find Diddy guilty of sex trafficking her, we probably wouldn’t be where we are today if she hadn’t tipped the first domino in his downfall two years ago. But considering everything Diddy has put her through, Cassie is scared of what may happen if he’s freed…
In an emotional three-page victim impact statement handed into a New York court on Monday, Cassie urged Judge Arun Subramanian to consider a sentence that reflects “the reality of the evidence and my lived experience as a victim.” In her statement, obtained by Rolling Stone, the Me & U singer wrote:
“For four days in May, while nine months pregnant with my son, I testified in front of a packed courtroom about the most traumatic and horrifying chapter in my life. I testified that from age nineteen, Sean Combs used violence, threats, substances, and control over my career to trap me in over a decade of abuse. He groomed me into performing repeated sex acts with hired male sex workers during multi-day ‘freak offs,’ which occurred nearly weekly.”
She continued:
“I was forced into lingerie and heels, told exactly how to look, and plied with drugs and alcohol so he could control me like a puppet. These events were degrading and disgusting, leaving me with infections, illnesses, and days of physical and emotional exhaustion before he demanded it all again. Sex acts became my full-time job, used as the only way to stay in his good graces.”
So incredibly heartbreaking.
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The 39-year-old claimed “refusing meant punishment,” and that Diddy “controlled every part of my livelihood and threatened to destroy my reputation by leaking sex tapes, a threat he repeated often.” She added:
“When he believed I had wronged him or was not sufficiently responsive, he also threatened people around me and those close to me, including my family. I regularly worried that displeasing him meant putting my family and friends’ safety at risk.”
What a terrifying way to live. The Perfect Match star went on:
“Over the nearly eleven years we were together, Sean Combs would hit me, punch me, stomp on my face, pull my hair, and throw my body to the ground and against the wall. The jury saw pictures of bruises on my back from Combs kicking me and saw the deep gash over my eye he caused when he slammed me into a bed frame. The entire courtroom watched actual footage of Combs kicking and beating me as I tried to run away from a freak-off in 2016. People watched this footage dozens of times, seeing my body thrown to the ground, my hands over my head, curled into a fetal position to shield me from the worst blows.”
She noted that because of the abuse Diddy subjected her to, she eventually became reliant on drugs to “numb” her from the physical and emotional pain:
“While the defense attorneys at trial suggested that my time with Combs was akin to a ‘great modern love story,’ nothing could be further from the truth. Nothing about this story is great, modern, or loving — this was a horrific decade of my life stained by abuse, violence, forced sex, and degradation.”
Cassie noted that the “seemingly insurmountable level of trauma” led her to thoughts of suicide, and that she still suffers from “nightmares and flashbacks” and continues to “require psychological care to cope.” And she still fears Diddy or one of his goons will come after her or her family despite living “as private and quiet as I possibly can.” She added:
“I am so scared that if he walks free, his first actions will be swift retribution towards me and others who spoke up about his abuse at trial.”
How scary. How can one ever truly be at peace with those thoughts looming in their mind? The Spencer Confidential actress reflected:
“As much progress as I have made in recovering from his abuse, I remain very much afraid of what he is capable of and the malice he undoubtedly harbors towards me for having the bravery to tell the truth.”
She also raised a stiff eyebrow at Diddy’s lawyer’s claims that he’s now a reformed man:
“This disgusts me. He is not being truthful. I know that who he was to me — the manipulator, the aggressor, the abuser, the trafficker — is who he is as a human. He has no interest in changing or becoming better. He will always be the same cruel, power-hungry, manipulative man that he is.”
The mom-of-three, however, expressed a feeling of power knowing that Diddy has, at the very least, been outed for the abuse he subjected her to:
“Thanks to the footage and my testimony, this is also something he will forever be associated with. For over a decade, Sean Combs made me feel powerless and unimportant, but my experience was real, horrific, and deserves to be considered. While the jury did not seem to understand or believe that I engaged in freak-offs because of the force and coercion the defendant used against me, I know that is the truth, and his sentence should reflect the reality of the evidence and my lived experience as a victim.”
She concluded by hoping for “justice and accountability,” but keeping her guard up “to not trust anything.” But she still hopes Judge Subramanian “considers the truths at hand that the jury failed to see.”
What a powerful message. We hope Diddy’s sentencing on October 3 brings Cassie some semblance of peace.
For more information on violence against women, go to https://www.justice.gov/ovw/resources-for-survivors
[Images via FayesVision/MEGA/WENN]
The post Cassie Reveals She’s ‘So Scared’ Of ‘Retribution’ If Diddy Walks Free In Heartbreaking Letter Ahead Of Sentencing appeared first on Perez Hilton.