Chris Brown has been sentenced to eight months in prison, suspended for 12 months, at Southwark Crown Court in London on Monday, after pleading guilty to affray over the 2023 nightclub bottle attack on music producer Abraham Diaw. The suspended sentence means the 37-year-old singer avoids jail unless he offends again within the next year.
Judge Tony Baumgartner said the repeated use of a glass bottle aimed at the head was "plainly dangerous" and carried the risk of a more serious injury than Diaw sustained, and he told Brown that his fame and commercial success did not entitle him to special treatment, while taking his long-established career in music into account. The judge noted Brown's two previous convictions involving violence, from 2009 and 2013, were relevant because of their nature but are now old.
The court was shown CCTV of the attack, in which Brown struck Diaw four times with a heavy, square-shaped tequila bottle, connecting twice with the left-hand side of his head and then hitting his shoulder, before raining down further blows as Diaw turned away. Prosecutor Heidi Stonecliffe KC said Brown's vocal coach Omololu Akinlolu then grabbed Diaw in a "bear hug," Diaw fell to the ground, and Brown was also seen throwing punches before being pulled away. Akinlolu, 40, who also pleaded guilty to affray, was sentenced to four months in prison, suspended for 12 months, and both men were ordered to pay £1,500 in costs.
Brown, wearing a black leather jacket, sat looking at the floor for much of the hearing in front of a packed public gallery. There were loud cheers outside the court as he left, and he appeared to stop to sign an autograph. The affray charge carried a maximum sentence of three years in prison.
— Previously posted on Monday, October 26, 2026 —
Grammy-winning singer Chris Brown is to be sentenced at Southwark Crown Court in London on Monday over a brawl at a London nightclub three years ago, after pleading guilty to affray for attacking music producer Abraham Diaw with a bottle.
Brown, 37, pleaded guilty at the same court in July. Prosecutors said he struck Diaw twice over the head with a glass bottle at the Tape nightclub in Mayfair in the early hours of February 19, 2023, and that the attack — in a crowded club, in front of everyone there — was caught on the club's surveillance cameras. The court heard Diaw was punched and kicked as he tried to get away, and was treated in hospital for head and knee injuries. The surveillance footage itself has never been publicly released.
In return for the guilty plea, prosecutors dropped the heavier charges Brown had been facing: assault, attempting to cause grievous bodily harm, and having an offensive weapon — the bottle. Affray carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison, and the judge said at the plea hearing that all options would be open to the court.
Brown's friend and vocal coach, Omololu Akinlolu, also pleaded guilty to affray and is being sentenced alongside him.
Chris Brown arriving at Southwark Crown Court for his guilty-plea hearing in July.
Brown left the United Kingdom after the 2023 fight and stayed away for more than two years. He was arrested in May 2025 at a hotel in Manchester after flying in for a concert, and has been free on bail of £5 million, which allowed him to keep touring Europe and North America over the summer.
The Crown Prosecution Service described the attack as vicious and unprovoked, and said no one is above the law.
Brown rose to stardom as a teenager in 2005 and won his first Grammy for best R&B album in 2011 for "F.A.M.E.", adding a second in the same category in 2025 for "11:11 (Deluxe)". His legal troubles go back to his felony conviction over the 2009 assault of his then-girlfriend Rihanna, and he has been arrested in several U.S. states over altercations since. In 2019 he was questioned in Paris on suspicion of rape and released without charge.
The sentence is expected later on Monday and this article will be updated when it is handed down.
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