Mel Gibson admits he slapped ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva but said he did so only to stop her from harming their baby.
Gibson made the admission in a court document filed as part of the pair’s ongoing custody dispute.
Grigorieva has claimed that Gibson hit her on Jan. 6 and busted her two front teeth, which led to a domestic violence investigation by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
The disputes between the two were made famous when howling and obscene voicemails from Gibson were made public.
But Gibson, in a court declaration obtained by TMZ.com, wrote that the two were having yet another argument when Grigorieva grabbed baby Lucia and screamed, “Stop yelling or you will make her into a retarded brain damaged idiot!
Grigorieva then ran around outside in the dark with the baby while Gibson tried to get her back inside. When she did, she was swinging the baby around, “causing Lucia’s little body to be flung from one side to the other, her head shaking violently,” TMZ reported the declaration said.
“I slapped Oksana one time with an open hand in an attempt to bring her back to reality,” the declaration said. “I did not slap her hard, I was just trying to shock her so that she would stop screaming, continuing shaking Lucia back and forth.”
“There was never any blood on Oksana and none of her teeth were ‘broken,’ although one of the false veneers from a tooth apparently did come off, I did not see that occur at the time,” Gibson added in the declaration.