The trial of Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, who has been indicted on charges of sex trafficking since October, begins in May. He faces hundreds of allegations of sexual abuse and assault dating over a 30-year period, all of which he denies, and he plans to plead not guilty in court.

Combs, then, is relying in large part on his defence team and the cooperation of his A-list allies. Sitting in his cell in the notoriously dangerous and unhygienic Metropolitan Detention Centre in New York, Combs has allegedly made several attempts to contact his witnesses already, breaking prison rules in the process. He has also been denied bail three times due to prosecutors arguing that he is a ‘serious risk’ for witness tampering.

It’s already set to be one of the most high profile sex trafficking trials in recent history, with many of the allegations disturbing and abhorrent in nature, and now it seems many of Combs’ A-list allies are hoping to disassociate themselves from the music mogul.

Combs, famed for his outlandish celebrity parties, was once one of the most powerful men in the music industry. ‘I have so much money now that I could hire someone to kill you, and nobody would know,’ former music executive Daniel Evans claims Combs once said to a colleague in the New York office of his label Bad Boy Records in 1997. ‘No one would miss you. No one would know anything.’

The BBC heard from more than 20 people who have worked with Combs at Bad Boy Records, including former executives, assistants and producers, who have described their experiences with the producer.

Their tales range from being asked to fly women across the US for sex at the request of different artists to seeing Combs have sex with women in the studio when it was not always clear they were compos mentis.

The Texan lawyer representing a rising number of clients who allegations against Combs is Tony Buzbee. One of his clients alleges that Combs raped her on a bathroom floor at a promotional party held for The Notorious B.I.G. in 1995. In her lawsuit, she claims Combs told her not to tell anyone, warning ‘or you will disappear’.

‘There was a course of conduct that became more egregious over time and the conduct goes go back to the 90s,’ Buzbee states. Combs, for his part, has accused the lawyer of being ‘more interested in media attention than the truth’ and says he ‘never sexually assaulted or trafficked anyone’.

In an interview with the BBC, Evans reflects on the era and said ‘people wanted to party, have fun, hook up and build good memories’, but there are things that still trouble him.

The manager of Combs’ Time Square recording studio, Felicia Newsome, has similar memories of finding Combs having sex with someone who was not as responsive as they’d have expected. ‘It was abnormal if somebody reported it,’ she said, ‘but it wasn’t abnormal for it to be happening.’

She recalled allegedly being asked to get condoms for Combs so he could have sex with ‘a model and another woman’. ‘I said to Puffy, don’t ever ask anyone here to go and get condoms,’ she remembered. ‘He replied: “I didn’t need anything like that, Ma” and never did it again.’

Other former staff members say the label was run by executives in their early 20s and many interns, some of whom were at school age. They claim there were often sexual relationships between employees and the interns.

Model Crystal McKinney alleges that the mogul plied her with drugs, alcohol and marijuana before sexually assaulting her in his studio in 2003. The same year, a woman alleges that Combs and two associates gang raped her at the studio when she was 17. Combs’ lawyers say McKinney’s claims are ‘without merit’.

Evans admits himself that he was sceptical about some of the claims leveraged at Combs until he saw the viral footage of the rapper brutally beating his then-girlfriend Casandra ‘Cassie’ Ventura. In May last year, after Combs publicly denied any wrongdoing against Ventura, a 2016 surveillance video obtained by CNN showed Combs violently dragging and kicking her outside his hotel room as she lay motionless on the floor.

Two days after the video was leaked, Combs issued an apology video. ‘My behaviour on that video is inexcusable,’ he said. ‘I take full responsibility for my actions in that video. I was disgusted then when I did it. I’m disgusted now. I went and I sought professional help. I got into therapy, going to rehab. I had to ask God for his mercy and grace. I’m so sorry.’ Ventura’s lawsuit featuring allegations of assault were settled out of court.

‘It’s not the first time I’ve seen that temper,’ Evans added. ‘The guy in the video with Cassie is almost identical to the guy who threatened the employee [looking back at what he witnessed in 1997]. So, you wonder, has anything changed?’

Kanye West, on the other hand, has recently expressed solidary with Combs, writing ‘FREE PUFF’ on X. He added, ‘@realDonaldTrump PLEASE FREE MY BROTHER PUFF.’ While the president is yet to comment on Combs’ legal situation, he has called him a ‘great guy’ and a ‘good friend’ in the past and has been pictured at several of his white parties over the years.

Meanwhile, fellow rap mogul 50 Cent, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, has always been vocal in his disdain for Combs. In fact, it was confirmed last September that Jackson is making a docuseries for Netflix about the assault and sexual abuse allegations against Combs. Speaking to People he said, ‘It seems like I’m doing some extremely outrageous things, but I haven’t. It’s really me just saying what I’ve been saying for 10 years.

‘Now it’s becoming more full facing in the news with the Puffy stuff, but away from that, I’m like, “Yo, it’s just my perspective because I stayed away from that stuff the entire time, because this is not my style.”’

In a statement about his documentary, Jackson said, ‘This is a story with significant human impact. It is a complex narrative spanning decades, not just the headlines or clips seen so far. We remain steadfast in our commitment to give a voice to the voiceless and to present authentic and nuanced perspectives.’

Combs has worked with, been friends with or partied with almost every big name in Hollywood over the past three decades, so when his trial begins on 5 May, it is likely to cause ruptures. As for whether they will speak out or stand by him, we will have to wait to see.