How Justin Bieber’s young mother unknowingly sent him into the clutches of Diddy – after she battled drug issues and was sexually abused so many times if ‘felt normal’…Read more

When Justin Bieber signed his first record deal with Usher’s label in 2008, his mother Pattie Mallette had no doubts he would be a star.

Pattie, 49, was fundamental to her son’s early success – accompanying him on his first trip to Atlanta to meet music entrepreneur Scooter Braun, and uploading videos of Justin singing cover versions of famous songs to YouTube, where his talent was first discovered.

It was Pattie – who gave birth to her son at a home for teenager mothers a month before her 19th birthday – who was in charge of signing Justin’s legal documents as his career took off, and she admitted the task was ‘daunting’.

Being suddenly thrust into the machinations of big record companies and talent agents would be a bewildering task for anyone, but it’s fair to say that Pattie was vulnerable after overcoming a very difficult past.

Abused as a child from the age of 5 by a male babysitter and a friend’s grandfather, she’s recalled how she becamse so accustomed to being violated ‘that it began to feel normal’.

After abusing drugs and alcohol in her teenage years to mask the pain, she raised Justin in social housing and worked two or three jobs at a time to support them.

So, after years of struggle, it was no wonder that Justin’s sudden rise to fame felt like the reward they had been waiting for.

Sadly, that naivety had a part to play in Justin’s path to a whirlwind life of fame, leaving him potentially vulnerable to some of the industry’s most dangerous and predatory stars.