The American singer and actor Chris Brown has pleaded not guilty to attempting to cause grievous bodily harm in an alleged bottle attack at a London nightclub.

Brown, 36, is accused of attempting to unlawfully and maliciously cause Abraham Diaw grievous bodily harm with intent at the Tape club in Hanover Square, Mayfair.

At a plea and trial preparation hearing at Southwark crown court on Friday morning, his co-defendant Omololu Akinlolu, a US national, denied the same charge.

Both defendants are further charged with assaulting Diaw, occasioning him actual bodily harm in the incident, on 19 February 2023, and Brown also faces one count of having an offensive weapon – a bottle – in a public place.

They were not asked to enter pleas to those charges, and a further court date was set for 11 July. A five- to seven-day trial was scheduled to start from 26 October 2026.

Brown arrived at court at 9am to a large group of photographers outside and walked in silence to the building’s entrance. About 20 people sat in the public gallery behind the dock, many of them fans of the singer.

The Grammy-winning singer was arrested after flying into the UK for the Breezy Bowl XX tour. He was detained by police at about 2am on 15 May at the five-star Lowry hotel in Salford, Greater Manchester.

Brown was able to continue with his scheduled international tour after he was freed on conditional bail having agreed to pay a £5m security fee to the court.

He performed in Cardiff on Thursday night and is due to play two nights in London this weekend before heading to Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow, followed by dates in Ireland and elsewhere in Europe.