14 DAY TRIAL // They once made the oddest and most unexpected couple in showbiz. Now, Mel Gibson and Oksana Grigorieva, his “little communist,” as he once used to call her, are locked in a bitter custody battle and even more bitter domestic abuse case.
As we also noted on several previous occasions, Grigorieva claims that Mel repeatedly abused her both physically and verbally, with one night being the culmination of it all when he punched her and slapped their infant daughter Lucia.
The Russian singer even claims to have photographic evidence of the injuries sustained in the altercation, aside from the audio tapes that leaked in the media earlier this year, on which Mel is heard threatening her.
According to papers filed in court the other day, Mel never punched Oksana: he only slapped her once because she was being irrational and hysteric, and was about to harm their daughter by acting so.
As for the injuries that Oksana can prove, Mel claims they were all caused by this severe condition that she has and that makes her uncontrollably harm herself, says TMZ.
“Oksana is emotionally unstable and suffers from Trichotillomania, an impulse control disorder characterized by the repeated urge to pull, and pulling, out one’s own hair, eyelashes, eyebrows and other body hair,” the Hollywood actor and director says in his declaration.
“During our relationship Oksana often had scratches and bald spots on the side of her head as a result of this disorder (scratches she is now, apparently, attempting to blame on me!),” the star adds.
As for the explosive fight the two had in January and that led to the bitter split, Mel says that he did slap her – but never laid a hand on daughter Lucia. On the contrary, he only slapped Oksana to prevent her from harming the child.
“I slapped Oksana one time with an open hand in an attempt to bring her back to reality. 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,” Gibson alleges in the same court declaration.
“While I do not believe I handled the situation as well as I should have, I was worried about the rough way Oksana was shaking and tossing Lucia around. My hand never touched any part of Lucia,” the actor adds.