Chris Brown avoids prison time for brawling at a London nightclub

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LONDON (AP) — Grammy-winning singer Chris Brown avoided prison time Monday for beating a music producer with a tequila bottle at a London nightclub three years ago.

Brown was given an eight-month sentence, suspended for a year.

R&B singer Chris Brown arrives at Southwark Crown court for being sentenced over a nightclub... — R&B singer Chris Brown arrives at Southwark Crown court for being sentenced over a nightclub attack in London, Monday, Oct. 26, 2026.(AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

Brown, 37, had faced up to three years in prison after pleading guilty to a count of affray in July for the attack on the dance floor of Tape, a private club in the swanky Mayfair neighborhood in February 2023.

Affray is the use or threat of unlawful violence that leads someone to fear for their safety.

Video footage played in court showed Brown having to be pulled away from the victim, his former friend Abraham Diaw, after striking him twice in the head with a bottle.

“The repeated use of a glass bottle in that way, especially aimed at the head, was plainly dangerous, it carried the risk of delivering a more serious injury than was ultimately sustained,” Judge Tony Baumgartner said.

Despite the seriousness of the attack, Baumgartner said Brown did not qualify for a custodial sentence because he pleaded guilty and there were several mitigating circumstances. The judge acknowledged Brown’s previous convictions but said he had maintained a clean record in recent years.

Brown left the United Kingdom after the brawl but was arrested in May 2025 at a Manchester hotel after flying to the city for a concert. He had been free on bail of 5 million pounds ($6.7 million), which allowed him to tour Europe and North America last summer.

Brown, who rose to stardom as a teen in 2005, won his first Grammy for best R&B album in 2011 for “F.A.M.E.” He earned his second in the same category for “11:11 (Deluxe)” in 2025.

He has been in repeated legal trouble since his felony conviction in the 2009 assault of his then-girlfriend, Rihanna, hours before the pair were due to perform at the Grammys.

He has been arrested in several U.S. states over altercations, and in 2019 he was arrested in Paris and questioned on suspicion of rape. He was released without charge.