A woman in California is claiming Sean “Diddy” Combs “violently gang raped” her as retribution after she said he was involved with Tupac Shakur’s murder.
The revelation comes amid a flurry of lawsuits that were filed against the embattled music mogul earlier this week.
In the lawsuit, which was obtained by the New York Post, USA Today, TMZ, NewsNation and other media outlets, the victim, a woman named Ashley Parham, claims the I’ll Be Missing You hitmaker raped her with a TV remote with the help of several accomplices.
Parham alleges that she met Combs virtually in February 2018 and was assaulted the next month. After a man she was with FaceTimed the hip-hop star to show off, Parham says she told Combs that she thought he had a hand in Tupac’s shooting death on the Las Vegas Strip back in 1996.
At the time, Tupac’s murder was rumoured to be part of an escalating feud between East Coast and West Coast rappers. Combs’ friend Biggie Smalls was involved in a war-of-words with Pac and was shot and killed in Los Angeles the following March in what many believed was retaliation for Shakur’s murder.
Combs reportedly said Parham would “pay” for her accusation that he played a part in Tupac’s murder and she says she was “set up” by the man she met that February and assaulted the following month in Orinda, Calif.
According to Parham’s suit, Combs showed up “with an entourage” and he put a knife to her face and threatened to give her a “Glasgow smile” as payback for her Tupac remarks.
Several other names are included in Parham’s lawsuit, including Kristina Khorram, who the Post described as being Combs’ alleged “manipulator in chief.”
Khorram is accused of setting up Parham “to be sexually assaulted and raped by Defendant Diddy as well as assisting in covering up the crime thereafter.”
According to the court documents, Parham alleges that Combs squirted a liquid substance on her and raped her with a television remote, telling her he could “take her” and she “would never be seen again.”
Parham also contends that Khorram said they could “sell” her and “ship her off anywhere in the world, never to see her family again.”
She is seeking $50 million in damages and a jury trial.
In an interview with NewsNation, Parham’s lawyer Ariel Mitchell-Kidd admitted that her client stayed the night after the alleged assault took place. But she said that Parham was “not thinking clearly.”
“None of us know what we would do until we are in a similar situation,” Mitchell-Kidd said.
Last week, in an interview with NewsNation’s Banfield, Mitchell-Kidd detailed a “gruesome attack” she alleges the plaintiff suffered at the hands of Combs and his accomplices.
“Essentially, my client was raped by Mr. Combs, his bodyguard and a friend who invited my client to his home to set up this whole situation,” Mitchell-Kidd claimed. “The details are graphic in nature and the complaint lays out all the details and the graphic and just deplorable way my client was victimized that night.”
Combs was hit Monday with a new wave of lawsuits accusing him of raping women, sexually assaulting men and molesting a 16-year-old boy.
At least six lawsuits were filed against Combs in federal court in Manhattan, adding to the mounting charges against the singer. According to the Associated Press, the lawsuits were filed anonymously to protect the identities of the accusers, two by women identified as Jane Does and four by men identified as John Does.
Some of the victims allege that Combs used his position in the music industry and dangled promises of fame as a way to convince them to attend drug-fuelled parties that led to their assaults.
One accuser, who was a minor at the time, says that Combs fondled his genitals when he was 16 at a party in 1998. The man, who now lives in North Carolina, alleges that Combs told him he had “the look” of a star and then abruptly ordered the then-teen to drop his pants.
“Don’t you want to break into the business?” the man claims Combs asked him.
The lawsuits follow Combs’ Sept. 16 federal arrests for sex trafficking and racketeering. His lawyers have asked a New York judge to force prosecutors to disclose the names of his accusers.
According to a criminal indictment, Combs, who was twice denied bail and remains in custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, is accused of using his “power and prestige” to induce victims into drugged-up, elaborately produced sexual performances dubbed “Freak Offs” that the rapper arranged, participated in and often recorded on video. The events would sometimes last days and Combs and victims would often receive IV fluids to recover, the indictment said.
After raiding his homes in California and Florida, authorities uncovered drugs, guns with defaced serial numbers, and “more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant.”
Some of the abuse claims alleged by police mirror accusations Combs’ former girlfriend Cassie Ventura made against the three-time Grammy winner last fall.
Ventura sued Combs last November, claiming the hip-hop star raped and sex trafficked her over the course of their abusive 10-year relationship.
The lawsuit was settled a day later, however earlier this year, security video aired by CNN showed Combs attacking Ventura in a Los Angeles hotel hallway in 2016.
Following his arrest last month, Combs, who has pleaded not guilty, was hit with more sexual assault allegations as a woman filed a lawsuit in New York saying she was repeatedly raped and drugged at the Bad Boy Records founder’s homes and became pregnant after one of the encounters.
Another woman named Thalia Graves has alleged that Combs and his head of security raped her in the summer of 2001 at a recording studio in New York City.
A team of lawyers announced earlier this month that they would be filing 120 sexual assault lawsuits against Combs.
“The biggest secret in the entertainment industry, that really wasn’t a secret at all, has finally been revealed to the world,” said Tony Buzbee, one of the lead attorneys, at a Houston news conference. “The wall of silence has now been broken.”
Of the 120 purported victims, 25 were minors at the time the alleged assaults. One individual alleged he was nine years old when he was abused, Buzbee said.
Last week, Combs’ trial date was set for next May.
— With files from the Associated Press