Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs: May 5 court date set for rapper accused of sex trafficking and racketeering

Millionaire rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs was told on Thursday that he would remain on remand behind bars for another seven months before being tried for alleged sex trafficking.

The Grammy-winning musician, who also faces racketeering charges, appeared in court with six of his children and octogenarian mother on hand to support him.

Combs, who maintains his innocence, was charged with a series of offences following his arrest on September 16 at a New York hotel.

Since then upwards of 120 alleged victims have come forward.

Combs, 54, is alleged to have held “freak-offs” – drug-fuelled sex parties, which he denies.

During searches of Combs’ homes earlier this year, officials seized narcotics, videos and more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant, according to prosecution lawyers.

They said agents also seized firearms and ammunition, including three AR-15 semi-automatic rifles with defaced serial numbers in his bedroom in Miami.

Combs is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Centre in New York after his request for bail was denied.

He “asserted his right to a speedy trial” in a filing seen by the Mail to the US Department of Justice.

Combs’s mother Janice, 84, was heckled outside court on Thursday as she arrived for the hearing with the rapper’s children.

She looked sombre in glasses and a fur coat and clutched a supporter’s arm as they walked to the New York courthouse. She kept her head down as she climbed out of a car to the sound of furious crowds gathered outside the Manhattan federal court.

One man shouted: “Your son is a predator and he deserves to be locked up.”

Combs’ daughters Jessie James and D’Lila Star, both 17, held hands as they entered the hearing minutes before it was set to begin.

The pair kept silent as they were asked if they had any comment over their father’s trial. But the response they received from the crowds was warmer than their grandmother’s – as they were told to “stick together”.

Their brothers Quincy, 33, Justin, 30, Christian, 26, and Chance, 18, were also present.

The judge offered Combs a trial date of May 5, at the request of his legal team.

Prosecutors said they estimate they will need three weeks in court, while Combs’s lawyers said they would need about a week to make their case.

Mrs Combs has previously slammed the “public lynching” of her son and has criticised the accusations against him as “lies”, adding: “The worst part of this ordeal is watching my beloved son be stripped of his dignity, not for what he did, but for what people choose to believe about him.”

It’s understood that concerns have been raised about how surveillance footage of Combs beating his ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura in a hotel was made public.

His lawyer criticised “a series of unlawful government leaks, which have led to damaging, highly prejudicial pre-trial publicity that can only taint the jury pool and deprive Mr Combs of his right to a fair trial”.