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Los Angeles - Grammy-winning US singer Cee Lo Green has apologised for comments on Twitter about rape, made just after he was put on probation for giving a woman ecstasy before going back to her hotel.
Green also deleted the offending tweets from his Twitter account, although his apology too drew criticism.
"People who have really been raped REMEMBER!!!" he wrote in one of the controversial tweets widely cited by US media after he was sentenced last week to three years' probation, 360 hours of community service and 52 drug addiction classes.
Another read: "When someone brakes on a home there is broken glass where is your plausible proof that anyone was raped."
Cited by The LA Times, he had also tweeted: "If someone is passed out they're not even WITH you consciously! so WITH Implies consent."
After a storm of criticism he deleted the comments and apologised, again on Twitter, albeit in a slightly indirect form. "I truly and deeply apologize for the comments attributed to me on Twitter," he wrote.
"Those comments were idiotic, untrue and not what I believe."
Jezebel, a website devoted to women's interests, mocked his "comments attributed to me" formulation.
"PRO-TIP: if you want people to take your apology seriously, you should probably admit - or at least strongly imply! - that you, personally, are responsible for the thing you're apologizing for," it wrote.
Green was accused of giving ecstasy to a 33-year-old woman without her knowledge while dining at a Los Angeles restaurant in July 2012, before returning to the woman's hotel.
On Friday, he pleaded no contest and was ordered to register as a controlled substance offender.
Prosecutors did not charge him with rape of an intoxicated person, citing insufficient evidence.
The 39-year-old - who has been a judge on US talent show The Voice - is due back in court on 2 March for a progress report hearing.
The singer is perhaps best known for the 2006 worldwide hit Crazy, with Gnarls Barkley and Danger Mouse.
Green has won five Grammys, including two last year, for best traditional R&B performance and best R&B song for Fool for You.
