A series of Mel Gibson’s racist and sexist rants might not be used as evidence during his child custody dispute, a lawyer for his ex-girlfriend told a judge.

The disclosure came after Oksana Grigorieva’s lawyer Daniel Horowitz told the court that his client was dropping her claims that the Hollywood star physically abused her.

The accusation stems from a case over the custody and care of their infant daughter.

Mr Horowitz’s comments came after Mr Gibson’s lawyer Stephen Kolodny complained that he had been trying to get access to the Russian musician’s laptop for nearly a year to find out more about the recordings.

Mr Horowitz noted that Ms Grigorieva was no longer seeking a domestic violence restraining order against Mr Gibson and the rants were more important to those allegations than any other aspects of the case. The recordings, which were leaked to celebrity website Radar-Online.com, included mis-ogynistic statements about Ms Grigorieva by the Oscar-winner and also several racial slurs.

The tapes were reviewed by authorities who eventually charged Mr Gibson with misdemeanour domestic violence battery but have never been played in open court. The Braveheart and Lethal Weapon star pleaded no contest to the battery charge and was placed on probation and ordered to undergo counselling.

“It should be noted that the sheriff’s department did a thorough investigation of Ms Grigorieva’s laptop and turned over their findings to the district attorney, who concluded there was no evidence of any crime whatsoever by Ms Grigorieva,” her spokesman Stephen Jaffe said.

Los Angeles Superior Court judge Scott Gordon agreed to halt the case for a month to give Mr Horowitz a chance to appeal against a ruling rejecting a motion by Ms Grigorieva to disqualify the actor-director’s lawyers from the case.