US Court Convicts Diddy On Prostitution Offence, Acquits Him Of Sex Trafficking

Music executive Sean “Diddy” Combs was found not guilty of racketeering and sex trafficking on Wednesday but convicted of a less serious prostitution charge after a high-profile seven-week trial in New York.

The jury, after 13 hours of deliberation over three days, found Combs guilty of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

Combs, 55, smiled and looked relieved as the verdict was read out.

He shook hands with one of his lawyers and said “thank you” to members of the eight-man, four-woman jury as they left the courtroom.

Judge Arun Subramanian also thanked the jury for their service before dismissing them.

“You listened, you worked together, you were here every day, rain or shine,” he said. “You did so with no reward, other than the reward that comes from answering the call of public service.”

The verdict came at the end of a trial in which prosecutors had accused Combs of being the boss of a decades-long criminal group who directed loyal employees and bodyguards to commit myriad offenses at his behest.

The alleged crimes included forced labour, drug distribution, kidnapping, bribery, witness tampering, obstruction and arson.

To find Combs guilty of racketeering, jurors needed to find the existence of a criminal enterprise and that the organisation committed at least two of the offences.

Jurors announced a partial verdict late Tuesday and said they were deadlocked on the racketeering charge, but Judge Arun Subramanian instructed them to keep working.

Combs, once one of the most powerful figures in the music industry, had vehemently denied all charges.