R&B singer Chris Brown has been charged with assault following an alleged attack on his pop-star girlfriend Rihanna in Los Angeles last month, prosecutors have said.
Brown, 19, is to appear in court later today for arraignment on the charges which came after he allegedly beat the Barbados-born "Umbrella" singer Rihanna in the early hours of February 8.
Rihanna's father Ronald Fenty has said he is "lost" after being unable to get in contact with the singer.
"Her mother can't get on to her, her brother told me she changed her email ... somebody has a stranglehold on her," he was quoted in Us Magazine as saying.
"I'm lost."
The alleged bashing incident shocked the music world and left Rihanna nursing cuts and bruises to her face, forcing her to cancel a scheduled performance at the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles later that day.
Brown has been charged with two felony counts of assault and making criminal threats, a statement from the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office said.
The charges come after police documents obtained by US television station KTTV reavel the alleged attack followed an argument that broke as the couple sat in Brown's rented Lamborghini. Rihanna had found a text message from another woman on Brown's phone.
Brown slammed Rihanna's head against the passenger window before punching her several times in the face and mouth, splattering blood on her Gucci dress and inside the car, according to the leaked documents.
"I'm going to beat the s--- out of you when we get home, you wait and see," he was quoted as saying in the documents, the New York Post reported.
Rihanna then called her assistant demanding that the police be there when they arrived home.
Brown then threatened to kill her for doing "the stupidest thing ever", according to the report.
The couple were reported to have made up since the alleged attack and were spotted holidaying at rapper P. Diddy's luxury residence near Miami last week.
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