Rihanna: 'brown will never understand pain he caused'

Rihanna is not convinced her ex-boyfriend Chris Brown fully understands the hurt and pain he caused following their violent bust-up in February (09) after viewing his video apology online for the first time this week (ends06Nov09).

Brown released a two-minute video on the internet in July (09) in which he expressed his "deepest regret" for raising his fists to Rihanna, beating her black and blue.

In the footage, Brown admits he is "very ashamed" of his "inexcusable" actions and wishes he could go back in time to correct his mistakes: "I wish I had the chance to live those few moments again but unfortunately I can't. I can't go into what happened but most important (sic) I'm not gonna sit here and make any excuses. I take great pride in being able to exercise self control but what I did was inexcusable. I am very sad and very ashamed at what I've done."

Rihanna was shown the video by U.S. newswoman Diane Sawyer during a candid TV interview earlier this week, and while she accepts his apology, she fears Brown will never know just how badly he hurt her.

The Umbrella singer says, "Sounds like he might have been reading off of a teleprompter... I know he felt really bad about doing it, I just don't know if he understood the extent of what he did.

"The thing that men don't realise, when they hit a woman, it's... the face, the broken arm, the black eye, it's going to heal. That's not the problem. It's the scar inside. You flashback. You remember it all the time. It comes back to you whether you like it or not. And it's painful. So I don't think he understood that. They never do. They don't know that. They can't know that."

Brown was sentenced to five years' probation and ordered to stay away from Rihanna after pleading guilty to the attack. He was also ordered to undergo anger management counselling and complete community service.