“Actor and director Mel Gibson has pleaded no contest to a “misdemeanour” battery charge after a fight with then-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva in 2010. Gibson, 55, was placed on probation for 36 months and ordered to attend a year of domestic violence counselling. The complaint accuses Gibson of “wilfully and unlawfully” using force and violence against Ms Grigorieva. A misdemeanour charge is generally considered a lesser criminal act than a felony charge in the US”. – BBC News

Photo: Oksana Grigorieva arrives at the premiere Of Warner Bros. “The Edge Of Darkness” held at Grauman's Chinese Theatre on January 26, 2010 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

A general view shows the Christmas decoration at a country house estate in the village of Bad Tatzmannsdorf, Austria, November 30, 2015. The estate owned by the Gollnhuber family is lit with half a million Christmas lights and more than 60 inflatable Christmas figures, turning the place into a winter wonderland every December and attracting thousands of visitors. (Photo by Leonhard Foeger/Reuters)

Nico Martin with a Mini Electric wrapped in thousands of Christmas fairy lights, at Greenfield Farm in Christmas Common, Oxfordshire on November 9, 2021. Nico, from Bracknell in Berkshire, has wrapped his own Mini in lights for the last two years, raising money for the MS Trust and for Duchenne UK. This year Mini are supporting Nico, providing him with a Mini Electric wrapped in thousands of Christmas lights ready for him to take out on the road. (Photo by Jacob King/PA Images via Getty Images)

People walk in the Old City of Damascus, Syria, decorated for the upcoming Christmas holidays, Tuesday, December 14, 2021. (Photo by Omar Sanadiki/AP Photo)

Pedestrians use their smartphones to capture the newly illuminated Christmas tree at the Syntagma square in Athens on November 23, 2023. (Photo by Angelos Tzortzinis/AFP Photo)

The Christmas tree is lit at Rockefeller Center in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., November 30, 2022. (Photo by Jeenah Moon/Reuters)

A woman takes pictures using her mobile phone on a deserted square decorated ahead of Christmas, in Pristina on December 7, 2020, during a government-imposed curfew from 7pm to 5am, as part of preventive measures against the spread of the Covid-19. (Photo by Armend Nimani/AFP Photo)