7 months ago
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A model has accused Sean "Diddy" Combs of drugging and sexually assaulting her in 2003, the latest in a string of allegations against the rapper and businessman.
Crystal McKinney said in a lawsuit that Mr Combs invited her to his New York studio and plied her with alcohol and marijuana until she became intoxicated.
He then forced her to perform oral sex, she said.
BBC News has asked representatives of Mr Combs for comment.
Mr Combs has recently been caught in a storm of sexual misconduct and abuse allegations.
Earlier this week, he apologized after CCTV footage showed him attacking singer, model and actress Cassandra "Cassie" Ventura in a hotel hallway in 2016.
Last month, federal authorities raided his homes in Los Angeles and Miami, Florida, in a federal human trafficking investigation.
Ms McKinney filed her claim under New York’s Victims of Gender Motivated Violence Protection Act, which allows victims to file claims regardless of when the abuse occurred until 2025.
The complaint also names Mr Combs’ Bad Boy Entertainment, his clothing label Sean John and distributor Universal Music Group.
Ms McKinney said she was an up-and-coming model when an unnamed fashion designer introduced her to Mr Combs at a Men's Fashion Week event.
The designer “began to direct Plaintiff’s appearance, as he sought to ensure Combs found her attractive,” according to the documents.
At the event, Ms McKinney said Mr Combs made suggestive remarks, offered to help her career and “plied her with alcohol”. He invited her to his studio the same night.
Ms McKinney said Mr Combs was drinking and smoking marijuana with several other men.
Offering her some, one told her, “You’ve never had weed like this before.”
Ms McKinney said she interpreted that to mean the marijuana was laced with another substance.
Once she was “very intoxicated”, Mr Combs led her to a bathroom, where he forced her to perform oral sex on him, she alleged.
She lost consciousness afterwards and “awakened in shock to find herself in a taxicab heading back to the designer’s apartment,” feeling “humiliated and traumatized and without recourse”.
Ms McKinney said modelling opportunities began to decline for her and she believed Mr Combs used his influence to "blackball" her in the industry.
In a “tailspin of anxiety and depression”, Ms McKinney said she attempted suicide.
Ms McKinney said she filed the suit to seek “justice for herself and for any of other Combs’ victims”.
