Singer Chris Brown pleads guilty to brawling at a London nightclub

LONDON (AP) — Grammy-winning singer Chris Brown pleaded guilty Friday to affray over an altercation in a London nightclub in a fight that injured a music producer.

Brown, 37, made the change of plea during a hearing at London’s Southwark Crown Court. He had previously denied more serious charges over what prosecutors called a “vicious attack” in 2023.

In return for the guilty plea, prosecutors dropped charges of assault, attempting to cause grievous bodily harm and having an offensive weapon, a bottle.

Brown’s friend and vocal coach Omololu Akinlolu also pleaded guilty to affray. The two men had been due to stand trial in October.

Brown had denied attacking Abraham Diaw with a bottle at the Tape nightclub in the swanky Mayfair neighborhood in February 2023. But prosecutors said the fight was caught on surveillance camera in front of a club full of people.

“This was a vicious and unprovoked attack by Brown and Akinlolu in a crowded nightclub where Brown used a glass bottle as a weapon to strike the victim’s head twice,” Claire Campbell, a senior prosecutor with the Crown Prosecution Service, said after the guilty plea.

“This kind of violence is entirely unacceptable, and the Crown Prosecution Service will work tirelessly – with the police and partners across the criminal justice system – to pursue cases like this, and prove that no one is above the law.”

Brown had been free on bail of $6.75 million, which allowed him to tour Europe and North America last summer. He was freed on bail again Friday and will be sentenced Oct. 26 on the affray charge, which carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison.

Brown, wearing a tan suit, gold-rimmed sunglasses and a St. Louis Cardinals baseball cap, signed autographs for fans as he left the courthouse.

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.