New York

Austin Wolf receives 19-year prison sentence in child sex abuse case

Former adult film actor Austin Wolf has received his prison sentence on two counts of child sexual exploitation.

Content warning: This story includes topics that could make some readers feel uncomfortable and/or upset.

On 26 September (Friday), US District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer sentenced the 44-year-old – whose real name is Justin Heath Smith – to 19 years in prison for one count of enticing a minor to engage in sexual activity and one count for engaging in a pattern of activity involving prohibited sexual conduct.

Alongside his prison sentence, the court imposed a $40,000 fine and 10 years of supervised release.

“Justin Heath Smith’s crimes against children are horrible. He targeted kids as young as seven, and every New Yorker wants him and those like him off our streets for as long as possible and never again near our children,” US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton said in a statement.

“The women and men of our Office, and our law enforcement partners, are laser-focused on ridding our streets of those who sexually exploit our children. The message to predators from our Office is clear: there is no place for you in New York other than prison.”

Smith’s sentencing comes over a year after he was first arrested for distributing and possessing child sex abuse videos on Telegram.

According to the official complaint, a detailed investigation into Smith first started in April 2024 after the intelligence and security service seized the phone of another Telegram user named ‘Target Telegram User-1.’

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While reviewing the individual’s records, they discovered a correspondence with another account named ‘Anon Anon,’ who was believed to be Smith.

During their exchange, which reportedly took place between 24 March and 28 March 2024, the two users allegedly shared “approximately 200 videos” of child pornography “that depicted children as young as infants,” the document read.

After their arrest, ‘Target Telegram User-1’ took part in an interview with authorities, revealing that they had previously met with ‘Anon Anon’ in person, and shared details that matched Smith’s – including “physical description, vocation, and approximate address,” the document continued.

After ‘Target Telegram User-1’ claimed that ‘Anon Anon’ kept child pornography on his home computer, law enforcement executed a search of Smith’s apartment, where they seized his phone and an SD card. 

On 20 June, nearly a year after his arrest, Smith pleaded guilty to enticement of a minor during his plea hearing.

According to the New York Post, the former adult film star admitted to the court to “inducing a 15-year-old to engage in a sex act” in late 2023 or early 2024.

“I don’t remember through text or [social media], but phones were definitely used. I know what I was doing was wrong,” Smith reportedly said in between sobs.

“I apologise. I knew it was wrong when I did it. I don’t blame anyone else for my conduct [although] it was another person engaging in the conduct. I take full 100 percent responsibility for my actions, and I am prepared for the consequences.”

For more information about the case, Smith’s plea agreement and statements made in court, click here.

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Emily Ratajkowski rocks see-through hot pink bra, thong and garter belt for steamy new Lounge campaign

EMILY Ratajkowski raised the temperature as she posed for steamy lingerie snaps to promote her campaign with Lounge underwear. 

The actress and model, 34, flaunted her famous figure in a selection of lingerie pieces from her collaboration with the underwear brand, and posted some of the saucy pics to her Instagram account.

Emily Ratajkowski in pink lingerie with floral embroidery, lying on a white bed.

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The mum-of-one looked radiant in a hot-pink bra, panties and garter set for one campaign shotCredit: Lounge/Morgan Maher
Emily Ratajkowski in brown lace lingerie set lying on a wooden floor.

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Emily lay seductively on the floor for another snap, where she wore an all black bra and thong ensembleCredit: Lounge/Morgan Maher
Emily Ratajkowski in a black lingerie set, leaning on a grey stone mantle.

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She showed off her slender frame in a standing shot from the promotional shoot for her Lounge campaignCredit: Lounge/Morgan Maher

Mum-of-one Emily donned a hot-pink bra, panties and garter set in one snap, as she posed suggestively with white sheets on a bed.

In another picture, the Gone Girl actress lay seductively on the floor in an all-black set as she looked directly into the camera.

The famously slender star also showed off her frame and toned stomach as she posed stood up in the all black ensemble, 

The sexy lingerie pieces are part of the model’s collection with Lounge Underwear, dubbed “Emily’s Edit”. 

Read more on Emily Ratajkowski

Speaking about the edit, Emily said: “Sexiness has nothing to do with what someone else sees. It’s about how I feel. 

“I’m a mother, I’m a writer, I’m someone who loves fashion. I play a dozen different roles every day. I love that Lounge recognizes how multifaceted women can be.”

The edit, which features seasonal picks from the star, marks Lounge’s Fall 2025 collection, and also features clothing items including a suede blazer and matching shorts, a cherry lacquer argyle cardigan, and a chocolate sheer shirt paired with a coordinating skirt.

It comes a week after Emily was seen partying away with British pop star Charli XCX, after attending their wedding ceremony in Sicily, Italy

The Brat star, 33, married her The 1975 drummer husband George Daniel in a small ceremony in London last month, before flying out to Italy to throw a huge celebration with family and close friends.

Emily was among a flurry of stars who attended the wedding, which included Matty Healy, Gabriette, Amelia Dimoldenberg and Julia Fox.

Emily Ratajkowski rocks the tiniest thong bikini ever on beach in Brazil as model friend applies her sunscreen

The model appeared to attend the ceremony alone – without her four-year-old son Sylvester Apollo Bear, who she shares with her ex-husband Sebastian Bear-McClard. 

Emily finalized her divorce with the film producer, who faced a slew of sexual misconduct allegations, in July, after filing for divorce in September 2022. 

The model sparked her latest romance rumours earlier this month, after she was spotted getting close to Caught Stealing actor Austin Butler in New York

The pair were spotted together at the Waverly Inn in Manhattan’s West Village, in what could mark her first relationship since her divorce.

She has previously been linked to stars including chart-topper Harry Styles, Oscar winner Brad Pitt, artist Jack Greer and SNL alum Pete Davidson

Emily recently revealed she would be making a career turn, as she gears up for a screen-writing debut on A24’s untitled drama series for Apple TV+, which is set to explore female identity and modern motherhood – with Lena Dunham and author Stephanie Danler. 

“Lena was the first person who published my writing, on Lenny Letter, but she knew about me from Instagram,” she told Variety in July. 

“I’ve had a lot of experiences, with Lena specifically, where she has seen past surface level things and given me so many opportunities.”

Austin Butler and Emily Ratajkowski at a restaurant.

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Emily sparked dating rumours with film star Austin Butler after the pair were spotted together in ManhattanCredit: Deux Moi
Emily Ratajkowski on the runway at the Tory Burch fashion show for Spring/Summer 2026.

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The model was since spotted at the Tory Burch S/S 2026 fashion show at New York Fashion Week earlier this monthCredit: Getty

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Henry Jaglom dead: Indie director shunned big studios

Henry Jaglom, the uncompromising indie filmmaker who eschewed big-budget operations in order to preserve his creative vision, died Monday night. He was 87.

Jaglom died at his Santa Monica home surrounded by his family, his daughter Sabrina Jaglom said. The writer-director, whose filmography includes “Last Summer in the Hamptons” and “Eating,” was known for his intimate, naturalistic style and foregrounding of women’s stories in his work.

Sabrina, also a director, said in a statement that her father was “larger-than-life, and made the world a lot more colorful for those of us lucky enough to know him.”

“But, most of all, he was the most loving and supportive Dad. He will be greatly missed, but impossible to forget,” she said Thursday.

From his earliest directing gigs, Jaglom was committed to creating autobiographically inspired and emotionally resonant stories with as little studio intervention as possible. He kept costs low, cast his friends and family in his movies and pursued an improvisational production style that preceded the early-2000s film genre mumblecore.

“My movies talk about the emotional side of life,” Jaglom told The Times in 2009.

“I just try to have people do what we do, which is sit around, talk, deal with the emotions of life,” he said. “It can be touching, sad, happy, but it allows people to go through some of what they go through in life and not feel isolated and lonely.”

Jaglom’s 1985 film, “Always,” in which he co-starred with his ex-wife Patrice Townsend, was inspired by the disintegration of the couple’s own relationship. Jaglom and Townsend divorced two years before the film’s release.

Nearly a decade later, conversations Jaglom had with his second wife, actor Victoria Foyt, about parenthood were distilled into 1994’s “Babyfever,” which the couple wrote, directed and Foyt starred in.

Former Times staff writer Chris Willman called the comedy-drama “remarkable in its comprehensive documentary aspects.”

“Jaglom is, as always, big on verite and improvisation; with such a large cast milling about the airy, oceanside house, he’s managed to cover just about every conceivable baby base, with sentiments ranging from banal self-interest to self-conscious belly laughs, and a lot of very real, undeniably affecting poignancy in-between,” Willman wrote in his review of the film.

“Babyfever” was lauded for sincerely engaging with topics affecting women and for starring a mostly female cast — both of which were trademarks for Jaglom, who went on to form a women’s arm to HHH Rainbow Productions, his production company with producers Howard Zucker and Henry Lange, which for many years was located on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood.

“Women are the most disenfranchised people in this business,” he told The Times in 1987. “They still have to play mostly by men’s rules. And as I’ve been successfully making million-dollar movies for some time now I thought: ‘Why can’t they do it too?’”

Jaglom was a mentee and close confidant of acclaimed filmmaker and actor Orson Welles, whose farewell performance came in Jaglom’s 1987 comedy “Someone to Love,” which screened at the Cannes Film Festival.

“He plays himself, shedding even the persona he adopted for TV talk shows,” Jaglom told The Times of Welles’ acting style in the film. “People will finally get to see him the way I knew him; it’s almost as if he was sitting there having lunch with you.”

Peter Biskind compiled conversations between the longtime friends for his popular 2013 book, “My Lunches With Orson: Conversations Between Henry Jaglom and Orson Welles.”

Several people approached Jaglom about publishing the tapes before Biskind came knocking, the director told The Times in 2013. But Biskind was the first one he took seriously.

“I said, ‘You want to put yourself through all this?’” Jaglom said. “And he said, ‘Yeah, on the one condition that you don’t censor me.’”

Jaglom, born in London in 1938, was the child of Jewish parents who immigrated to England to escape Nazi persecution. Later, Jaglom’s family moved to New York, where Jaglom spent his formative years and returned after attending the University of Pennsylvania.

In New York, Jaglom trained with Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio, acting in and directing off-Broadway theater and cabaret before moving to Hollywood in the late 1960s. The multihyphenate went on to make his directorial debut in 1971 with “A Safe Place,” which starred Wells and Jack Nicholson.

After finding commercial success with his third film, “Sitting Ducks” (1980), Jaglom told The Times in 1987 that he was pitched by several big-time studio heads who said, “‘When you’re ready to make a serious movie, a big movie, come and see me.’”

“I said: ‘If you love my films why would you want me to come and make one of your big ones?’” Jaglom said, adding that with a large studio at the helm, directors run the risk of ceding the “final cut.”

“As far as I’m concerned all the big stars and fancy limos and fine dressing rooms aren’t worth a thing if you don’t control your film creatively,” he said.

For years, Henry ate at the same cafe on Santa Monica’s Montana Avenue. He was always delighted when fans and aspiring filmmakers stopped to say hello.

In addition to Sabrina, Jaglom is survived by a son, Simon Jaglom, and ex-wives Townsend and Foyt, Sabrina and Simon’s mother.

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Read letters written by Diddy’s cellmates as they review class disgraced music mogul has been teaching in prison

DISGRACED rap mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs has received glowing handwritten testimonials from his fellow inmates.

The letters paint him as a positive force inside Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, despite the serious convictions hanging over him.

Sean "Diddy" Combs attends the REVOLT & AT&T Summit.

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Sean Combs is running a weekly session called “Free Game with Diddy” for inmatesCredit: Getty
The Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York.

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The rapper is currently being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn, NYCCredit: Reuters
A handwritten letter from a prisoner reviewing Diddy's class in jail, stating it taught respect and how to become a better version of themselves.

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Prisoners have written letters praising Diddy’s class that he is running in jail
Work performance rating for inmate Sean Combs, registering him as a tutor with a bonus justification that reads "Excellent class. Keep up the great work!!!"

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The class was also positively reviewed in a performance rating doc

The 55-year-old, awaiting sentencing next month, has reportedly been running a weekly session called “Free Game with Diddy.”

Inmates say it covers everything from entrepreneurship to health advice, while also giving them a chance to “pick his brain” about fame and money.

Douglas Welch, 42, told Judge Arun Subramanian that Combs “brings love into the Unit” and claimed the class pushed him to go “harder at my health journey.”

He wrote: “Sean Combs brings love into the unit.

“I know because since he’s been here all the Spanish and black inmates cook and pray together, workout together too…

“Since he started his class I’ve been going harder at my health journey.”

Another inmate, Quinton Davis, said the sessions included “business Management, entrepreneurship and life skills,” adding that Combs had even encouraged the group to use “AI and Chat GPT.”

“It’s a key factor and inside scoop on how Mr. Combs started from nothing and became the icon-business mogul he is today,” Davis explained.

“I also learned how to research things better by using AI and Chat GPT.”

Diddy faces just two years in jail after overhyped prosecution but could still go BROKE, says lawyer

A third prisoner insisted the rapper “brings joy and happiness to the atmosphere in the unit” and alleged that “everybody in the unit is treating and acting positively towards each other” since his arrival.

“Because of Mr Combs everybody in the unit is treating and acting positively towards each other,” the letter said.

“Mr Combs cares very much for everyone in here, doesn’t matter what race or age and he is making it his business to do his best to make an impact.”

An official evaluation form dated June 10 backs up those glowing reports.

The “Work Performance Rating – Inmate” document identifies Combs as a tutor in Unit C-B, with a handwritten note praising: “Excellent class. Keep up the great work!!!”

A handwritten letter from Douglas Welch to Judge Subramanian about Sean Combs' class.

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Douglas Welch said Combs is a ‘focused, positive, God fearing man’ who ‘brings love into the Unit.’
A letter from an inmate in MDC Brooklyn to Judge Arun Subramanian, praising Mr. Combs' positive influence in the unit.

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Another prisoner said the rapper ‘brings joy and happiness to the atmosphere in the unit’

The case against Combs

Combs has been jailed at MDC since his September 2024 arrest.

He was acquitted in July of headline-grabbing charges including sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy.

But he was convicted on two counts of violating the Mann Act after prosecutors said he arranged travel for women and escorts across state lines for alleged drug-fuelled “freak-offs.”

Sentencing is scheduled for October 3, 2025.

His lawyers last week filed a 380-page plea asking Judge Subramanian to impose no more than 14 months, which would mean immediate release after time served.

They cited what they described as “inhumane” jail conditions, his childhood trauma, and claimed progress in battling substance abuse.

Courtroom sketch of Sean "Diddy" Combs reacting to a verdict.

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A courtroom sketch showing Combs’ reaction after he was acquitted of sex trafficking and racketeering charges on July 2Credit: AP
P. Diddy wearing a black tuxedo and bow tie.

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Combs is set to be sentenced on October 3Credit: Reuters

Over 100 letters from family and associates were also submitted, attempting to portray him as rehabilitated.

Prosecutors are expected to argue for a far stiffer punishment — reportedly four to five years — and continue to highlight allegations of violence and coercion against ex-girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura and another woman known as “Jane.”

On top of the looming sentencing, Combs is fighting multiple civil lawsuits and reputational fallout from years of abuse and exploitation claims.

For now, though, the inmates sharing his unit have presented a strikingly different picture to the judge — one of a man they say “changes the vibe” in prison.

The trial of Sean “Diddy

DISGRACED music mogul Sean “Diddy

Five: The number of charges against Combs. His charge sheet includes one count of racketeering conspiracy, two charges of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion, and two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. Combs has pleaded not guilty to the alleged offenses. 

Twelve: The number of jurors. Six alternates will also be selected.

Two: In March 2024, two of Combs’ homes were raided by the feds. Cops searched a property in Holmby Hills, Los Angeles, that was linked to his production company. Agents also searched a property in Miami, Florida. Cops were pictured carrying boxes from the disgraced star’s Star Island mansion. In September 2024, Combs listed the Los Angeles home for $61.5 million.

1,000: The number of bottles of baby oil and lubricant seized by cops during the raids of the hip-hop star’s homes. The supplies are alleged to be linked to the star’s infamous drug-fueled freak offs.  

Eight: The number of weeks the trial is expected to last.

Eight: The number of lawyers on the prosecution team. Seven of which are women.

Seven: The number of lawyers on Combs’ defense team. Brian Steel, who represented the rapper Young Thug, is part of the defense team.

Four: The number of accusers who will take the stand. Combs’ ex-partner Cassie Ventura, who accused him of sexual abuse and assault, is the prosecution’s star witness. Combs and Ventura had an on-off relationship for over a decade. Ventura and Combs settled for $20 million a day after the lawsuit was filed.

15: Combs faces a minimum sentence of 15 years if he’s convicted on the sex trafficking charge.

10: Ten years is the maximum charge for the transportation for the purposes of prostitution.

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