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Singer Chris Brown has avoided immediate imprisonment for attacking a music producer in a London nightclub in 2023, with a U.K. judge handing him an eight-month suspended sentence.
“Violence of this kind in a crowded nightclub is serious. It creates an obvious risk, not merely to the person against whom it is directed, but also others nearby,” Judge Tony Baumgartner said at London’s Southwark Crown Court on Monday.
Brown, 37, had pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the attack at the city’s Tape nightclub in February 2023. Brown struck Abraham Diaw twice in the head with a tequila bottle and continued to attack him until restrained, Baumgartner recounted Monday.
“The repeated use of a glass bottle against the head made your conduct particularly dangerous,” he told Brown.
Brown’s vocal coach Omololu Akinlolu, who also participated in the attack had, like Brown, pleaded guilty to charges of affray in July, after denying the more serious charges of assault and and attempting to inflict grievous bodily harm.
Affray is a criminal charge for using or threatening physical violence in a way that causes a person to fear for their safety. Brown was facing a maximum three years in prison for what prosecutors described as the “unprovoked attack.”
But Brown was spared a jail stint — his eight-month sentence has been suspended for 12 months, meaning he’ll only go to prison to serve those eight months if he commits another offence within the next year.
Omololu Omari Akinlolu, Brown’s voice coach and co-defendant, walks outside the Southwark Crown Court in London, on Oct. 28, 2025. (Isabel Infantes/Reuters)
Akinlolu, 40, who received a four-month sentence, also had his suspended for 12 months.
Brown has been embroiled in legal trouble over violence numerous times, and has an extensive criminal record.
In 2009, he was sentenced to five years probation after pleading guilty to assaulting his then-girlfriend, singer Rihanna. Brown choked and punched Rihanna, leaving visible injuries on her face, and threatened her life, according to a police affidavit. Following another misdemeanor assault charge for attacking a man outside a hotel in Washington, D.C., Brown went to jail in 2014.
The highly publicized 2009 case, as well as continued allegations of violent behaviour over the years, has led to protests and calls for Brown to be blacklisted by the industry. Yet, the R&B singer has continued to have a successful career, scoring Grammy awards for best R&B album in 2011 and 2025.
Brown was arrested in May 2025 in connection with the nightclub incident after he returned to Britain for the first time since the attack. He was initially denied bail, but was released after promising to pay a £5 million ($9.3 million Cdn) security fee.
Baumgartner said that Brown’s “initiation of the violence, the repeated bottle strikes,” and his continued aggression as Diaw tried to move away all were serious considerations in deciding the sentence.
He cited the absence of planning, the short duration of the assault — about 20 seconds — and Brown’s young children in his decision to limit the sentence to eight months.
Brown and Akinlolu each were required to pay a portion of the prosecution’s costs.
In England and Wales, custodial sentences of 12 months or less are automatically suspended unless the judge assesses that there are exceptional circumstances that require the offender to be immediately imprisoned.
Brown’s lawyer, Sallie Bennett-Jenkins called him “a dedicated, loving and loyal father to four children” and said he was sorry for this “ugly and unattractive incident.”
Brown, seen here outside a London court in July 2025, has been embroiled in legal trouble over violence numerous times, and has an extensive criminal record. (Chris J. Ratcliffe/Reuters)
