Brown receives suspended sentence

Brown has two children by Kim Ward and one child by Whitney Houston

Troubled singer Bobby Brown has been given a suspended jail sentence after missing three child support payments.

Brown, 35, was sentenced to 90 days in prison for contempt of court by a judge in Norfolk County, Massachusetts.

But the sentence was suspended because the payments had been made on Monday, according to a court official.

Mr Brown was jailed for one day in March after failing to pay $63,500 (£34,797) to Kim Ward, the mother of two of his children, now aged 12 and 14.

He is also due to stand trial in Atlanta on charges that he allegedly struck his wife, singer Whitney Houston, in the face last December.

Brown and Houston, 40, have been married since 1992 and have a 10-year-old daughter.

Probation

Tuesday's hearing was held to determine whether the R&B singer had complied with a court order to make monthly payments of approximately $5,000 (£2,740).

If Mr Brown fails to make the scheduled payments the sentence can be imposed.

"I'm still trying," he said after the hearing. "I can work harder, you know, to try and keep up with the payments."

Mr Brown was jailed in February for violating probation on a drink-driving charge.

On that occasion he was released from prison three days early so that he could appear at an emergency family court hearing in Massachusetts.