Chris Brown avoids prison time for brawling at a London nightclub

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. 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