Rihanna supports Chris Brown at court probation hearing for beating her

Rihanna with Chris Brown, who she escorted to a court hearing about a probation sentence for abusing her (Getty Images)

Has Rihanna found love in hopeless place? Not only has she gone back to her former abusive boyfriend Chris Brown, but yesterday she escorted him to a court hearing where the R&B star was on charge for failing to complete his community service for abusing her in 2009.

Rihanna arrived at the Los Angeles court with Brown, his mother and two other women, and later blew a kiss across the court floor when the R&B star entered to stand trial.

Four years ago Brown was arrested for domestically abusing Rihanna after a pre-Grammys gala. The two split up after the incident but confirmed they were back together last week.

After pleading guilty to the Rihanna attack, Brown was given permission to serve 180 days of community labour in Virginia, as long as he performed manual labour such as graffiti removal and roadside clean-up.

The prosecution brought against Brown claimed there was no credible evidence that he had completed his community service in his home state of Virginia, and asked that he start again and put in 180 days in Los Angeles County.

The prosecution also raised several incidents that prosecutors said demonstrate Brown has continuing anger management issues.

It cited a January 27 fight between Brown and fellow R&B star Frank Ocean, and a 2011 outburst in which Brown threw a chair through a window after he was asked about the Rihanna attack on the TV show Good Morning America.

However, Brown’s lawyer Mark Geragos was able to offer details of Brown’s various community service stints, including shredding documents, painting walls and picking up rubbish.

Geragos filed an angry response, alleging that prosecutors submitted material to the court that was “DEAD WRONG” and asked that they be punished.

He said: “I've never had a client, and I've represented a wide breadth and thousands of clients, never ever had a client who has been tortured by a DA's office on probation like Chris Brown has.”

He said Rihanna was present in support because “she thinks it's utterly ridiculous what they're doing to him, as do I”.

Brown and Rihanna left court together after the short hearing, during which a judge asked for more information and adjourned the case for two months.

The Grammy Awards on Sunday mark four years since Brown was arrested for abusing the popstar. The couple duetted on Rihanna's track "Nobodies Business" in November, and there are rumours the two will duet at this year’s Grammys to show Brown is a “changed man”.

AP