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WASHINGTON — More than 100 people are to sue rap musician Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs for sexual assault, rape and sexual exploitation, a US lawyer has said.
Texas-based lawyer Tony Buzbee said that some of the alleged victims include minors who were abused when they were as young as nine years old.
“This is an important matter that we intend to aggressively pursue,” Buzbee told reporters.
Erica Wolff, a lawyer representing Combs, said the rapper “emphatically and categorically” denies the allegations, saying they are “false and defamatory”.
Speaking at a news conference on Tuesday, Buzbee said he and his team “will leave no stone unturned to find potentially liable parties” in the alleged abuse, or “any individual or entity who participated in or benefited from this egregious behavior”.
Ms Wolff said in a statement to the BBC that Combs “looks forward to proving his innocence and vindicating himself in court, where the truth will be established based on evidence, not speculation”.
The legal action is the latest against Combs.
Combs was arrested last week and is facing criminal charges of racketeering and sex trafficking. He is currently in federal custody after he was denied bail, which he is appealing.
He has denied all allegations of criminal wrongdoing.
According to Buzbee, who is licensed to practice law in Texas and New York, the total number of alleged victims he is representing is 120, with half of them being men and the other half women who hail from more than 25 states across the US.
He added that 25 of the alleged victims he is representing were minors. This marks the first time that Combs has been accused of sexually abusing children.
The allegations span between 1991 to as recently as this year with the incidents taking place in Los Angeles, New York and Miami, Buzbee said. He added most of the incidents occurred after 2015.
Most of the plaintiffs, he said, allege they were date raped after parties hosted by Combs that were held at well-known venues, as well as private residences and hotels.
Buzbee said the parties were either to mark an album release, or were New Year’s Eve parties and US Independence Day parties. Others occurred at what he said were auditions.
“Many times, especially young people wanting to break into the industry, were coerced into this type of conduct in the promise of being made a star or the promise of having Sean Combs listen to their tape,” Buzbee said.
One man, who was aged nine at the time, alleges he was sexually abused by Combs and his associates at a recording studio in New York while trying to land a record deal, according to his lawyer.
“Had he not been in power, I feel I could’ve been something great. I quit the industry because of what Sean Combs did to me,” he said in a statement via his lawyer.
Another man, who was also a minor at the time, alleged he was told by Combs he would be made a “star”, but he first needed to visit the rapper alone without his parents.
Once in a private area, his lawyer claimed Combs then requested the boy perform oral sex on him.
Buzbee also raised the case of a then-15-year-old girl who alleges she was flown to New York for a party hosted by Combs and was subsequently raped by him and others.
The lawyer claimed there was a clear modus operandi with alleged victims typically being offered “laced” drinks before being sexually assaulted.
“The biggest secret in the entertainment industry has finally been revealed to the world,” Buzbee said. “The wall of silence has now been broken.”
He added that this is not a class action lawsuit and that there will be individual cases filed for each alleged victim.
Andrew Van Arsdale, an attorney at the AVA law group which is working with Buzbee, said his firm had received more than 3,000 phone calls from people alleging abuse by the music mogul.
In addition to the 120 alleged victims, he said his firm were working to vet another 100 cases. — BBC
