P Diddy's arrest is said to have been in the making for ''nearly three years'' as it has been claimed the UCLA football coach had been targeting his son Justin Combs.

The 45-year-old rapper was arrested earlier this week on three counts of assault for hitting Sal Alosi with a heavy metal weight and insiders claim the UCLA coach had had it in for the 21-year-old aspiring sportsman for some time.

A source revealed: ''Justin has been bullied for nearly three years. Justin has been a real target of this coach, who's been bullying him, and [Alosi] kicked him out of practice and told him to go home and not to come back till the end of the summer.''

It's thought Diddy first found out he had been dropped from the sports team when his son was sat at home and so he wanted to see what the problem was. When he took Justin to the UCLA grounds, it's said Sal ''refused to talk'' to them.

The source told the New York Post newspaper's Page Six column: ''Sean wanted to go down there to see what happened. He went with no entourage, no security. Just to talk to the coach. He wanted to figure out the problem. The coach refused to talk.'' No further comments have been made by Diddy's representative or UCLA.

However, the 'Bad Boys For Live' hitmaker's representative has previously claimed he acted in a ''solely defensive'' nature and believes once the truth comes out the case will be ''dismissed''. They stated: ''The various accounts of the events and charges that are being reported are wholly inaccurate.

What we can say now is that any actions taken by Mr. Combs were solely defensive in nature to protect himself and his son. We are confident that once the true facts are revealed, the case will be dismissed.''

UCLA's head football coach Jim Mora also issued a statement saying: ''I'm thankful that our staff showed the level of professionalism that they did in handling this situation. This is an unfortunate incident for all parties involved. ''[UCLA] will let the legal process run its course and refrain from further comment at this time''.