The singer Chris Brown has been remanded in custody by a court in the UK, accused of attacking a music producer with a bottle in a nightclub.
The 36-year-old American R&B singer, a former partner of Rihanna, was arrested at 2am on Thursday at the five-star Lowry hotel in Salford, after flying into the UK for a tour.
The alleged assault is said to have happened at the Tape club in Hanover Square, London, in 2023. Brown is alleged to have used a bottle to cause grievous bodily harm to Abe Diaw.
Brown, wearing a black T-shirt and black jogging bottoms, was flanked by two security guards in the dock at Manchester magistrates court on Friday. He confirmed his name as Christopher Maurice Brown, provided his date of birth and gave the Lowry hotel as his address.
Outlining the case against him, the prosecutor Hannah Nicholls said the alleged victim was standing at the bar of the Tape nightclub on 19 February 2023 when the defendant launched an “unprovoked attack” in which the complainant was struck several times with a bottle.
She said: “The defendant then pursued him to a separate area of the nightclub where the victim was punched and kicked repeatedly by him and another.”
The district judge Joanne Hirst told Brown the alleged offence was a matter “too serious” to be dealt with at her court as she sent the case to Southwark crown court in London for a plea and trial preparation hearing on 13 June. She refused an application for bail from lawyers for Brown.
Brown confirmed to Hirst that he understood he had been remanded in custody until next month. The singer nodded to an associate in the front row of the court’s public gallery as he was led from the dock after the 30-minute hearing.
Brown is a two-time Grammy award winner known for hits including Go Crazy, Loyal, Run It and Under the Influence.
He is due to tour the UK in June and July on his Breezy Bowl XX tour, with dates at Co-op Live in Manchester, the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, Villa Park in Birmingham and Hampden Park in Glasgow.
A number of fans had gathered outside the court before Friday’s hearing.
