Chris Brown has been accused of showing "disrespect for the French legal system" after failing to meet with a woman who accused him of rape.
The ‘Run It’ hitmaker was arrested in January but released without charge pending further investigation after the unnamed female claimed he and two other men had sexually assaulted her at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Paris, and he has now been slammed by his accuser’s lawyer after he missed a formal meeting with the alleged victim on Tuesday (28.05.19).
American lawyer Gloria Allred, who had travelled to Paris’s police headquarters to assist her client at the meeting – which is called a confrontation in France – said: "[Brown has] thumbed his nose at and shown disrespect for the French legal system.
"His failure to appear today is very unfair to my client, but I assure him that my client will not be deterred from seeking justice."
The alleged victim’s French lawyer, Jean-Marc Descoubes, stressed the ‘Yeah 3x’ singer wasn’t legally obliged to attend the meeting, and the other two suspects were also not there, so it is expected there will be another date set in the future.
However, he added: "If he doesn’t show up a second time we will have to either ask for the preliminary investigation to be closed (to allow for an investigative judge take over the procedure) because we just can’t keep going like this.
"Or we will ask the prosecutor to put in place more coercive measures, a warrant to get him to come because the confrontation requested by our client is key to this case – a sexual abuse case."
Following the 30-year-old singer’s arrest, he was allowed to leave France while the investigation continued.
And Ms. Allred slammed the star and said he has "betrayed the trust of the criminal justice authorities who allowed him to leave France expecting that he would honor his promise to attend the confrontation."
The alleged victim has claimed she was attacked in Chris’ suite at the five star Mandarin Oriental hotel on January 15.
In her police statement, which was obtained by French magazine Closer, she claims she met the singer – who has been accompanied on his France trip by girlfriend Ammika Harris – at Le Crystal club, near Les Champs-Elysees, and went him back to the hotel, after she and a friend were both invited there by Chris and the other two men.
She then claims she was separated from her friend and ended up alone with the singer, which is when the alleged crime took place.
According to reports, Chris – who has denied the allegation – and the other three men were arrested at his hotel and have been co-operating with their lawyers.