It’s nearly midnight in packed Glasgow nightclub Corinthian and I’m hanging out with P Diddy and his entourage. The music is pumping, drinks are being guzzled, and there are lots of beautiful, scantily clad women writhing around the music star.
Then one of his entourage, a short bald man, invites me to join them in a hot tub nearby Blythswood Hotel. Of course, I’m flattered and I want to go. As a 23-year-old reporter who’s just landed her dream job on the Daily Star’s music column, I can’t believe my luck. I’d waited 10 hours to interview Diddy who was warm and charming and even leaned in for a hug. And now he wants to party with me.
So I tell the short bald man that, yes, I would like to join them. Only today and with the rapper in prison, does the offer have a sinister quality.
Short bald man keeps a close eye on me and when I turn to get a drink, he says: “Halina, where are you going? Stay here where I can see you. Now you definitely want to come to the hot tub?” I say I’m not sure because I don’t have a bikini, to which he replies: “No worries girl, you can go naked.”
Then P Diddy’s Money Girls – the women that dance with him on stage – are telling me I need to come because, above all, I must get my “big ass” in that hot tub.
Their enthusiasm is infectious and they are women so they’ll have my back. This is going to be okay. This is going to be excellent.
In a frenzied commotion, Diddy leaves the club in a limo and I’m left alone with the short bald man.
He hails a taxi and we get in and I start to have second thoughts. Everything in me says no. So, I tell the short bald man that I don’t want to go. And that’s when the atmosphere changes.
His face drops and he starts yelling: “I can’t be dealing with this s***, f****** girls can’t make up their mind.”
He gets the taxi to pull over and I’m thrown out of the vehicle. And there I was alone in a city I’d never been to before.
I remember feeling shocked and vulnerable by his outburst and how the situation unfolded but then hugely relieved as if I’d got myself out of a potentially dangerous situation.
So incensed by the encounter I then wrote about it on my personal blog which is why I can remember exactly how it played out.
Now looking back I wonder if the short bald man was procuring women for Diddy.
I wonder if I could have ended up being one of those women who have accused him of abuse? If the allegations against him are proven to be true, I feel immense gratitude for my lucky escape and sorry for the many women who didn’t get that chance.
Today Diddy is being detained in the same prison where Maxwell was held. He’s charged with abusing women for more than a decade and allegedly presiding over sordid sexual encounters called “freak offs” and remains in custody after being denied bail. He vehemently denies allegations that go back as far as 2008.
Prosecutors say they have interviewed over 50 victims and witnesses and expect the number to grow.
