“This case stands as a warning to sex buyers, pimps and intimate partner traffickers that the public, the courts, and survivors of your abuse know the fault lies solely with you and that your crimes will not stay behind closed doors. Survivors now know they don’t have to keep silent and that judges, prosecutors and law enforcement will hold you legally responsible for your crimes,” said Sonia Ossorio, Executive Director of Women’s Justice NOW.

The sentence concludes a trial in which prosecutors detailed and witnesses described a pattern of abuse, violence, manipulation, and intimidation carried out by Combs over a number of years with two former girlfriends who testified at length at trial. In issuing the sentence, Judge Subramanian noted that while Combs had already spent 13 months in pretrial detention, the seriousness of his conduct called for a longer period of incarceration. Combs will spend the next three years of his life in a New York prison.

“Mr. Combs could have been granted time served,” he said from the bench. “But the evidence showed repeated, deliberate harm against vulnerable individuals. The gravity of these offenses — and his continued refusal to acknowledge responsibility — compels a sentence that reflects both accountability and deterrence.”

Judge Subramanian emphasized the importance of justice for the victims and acknowledged their suffering and resiliency in confronting the abuse in open court. Speaking about the survivors who testified, he said. “You were speaking to the millions of women out there who have been victims but feel invisible and powerless and had to suffer in silence. You told those women and the world that violence behind closed doors doesn’t have to stay hidden forever. The number of people who you reached is incalculable,” he said in court.”

Combs, 55, will serve his sentence in federal custody, followed by five years of supervised release and mandatory counseling upon completion of his prison term.