Amber Heard arrives to finish her testimony at Johnny Depp libel trial
Amber Heard arrives to finish her testimony on fourth day on stand at Johnny Depp libel trial after accusing actor of trying to smother her with a pillow
- Amber Heard has accused Johnny Depp of verbal and physical abuse throughout their relationship
- She claims the Pirates of the Caribbean star punched, slapped, kicked, headbutted and choked her
- But Depp says at libel trial in London he was not violent towards her and it was she who attacked him
- The Sun is relying on Heard’s allegations in defence of article that accused Depp of being a ‘wife beater’
- Security has been stepped up at High Court after Heard claimed she was verbally abused by Depp fans
By Mark Duell and Vivek Chaudhary For Mailonline
Published: 05:26 EDT, 23 July 2020 | Updated: 05:55 EDT, 23 July 2020
Amber Heard arrived at the High Court in London this morning with the actress due to finish giving evidence today in her ex-husband Johnny Depp‘s libel case over allegations of domestic violence.
She has accused Depp of verbal and physical abuse throughout their relationship – allegedly punching, slapping, kicking, headbutting and choking her, as well as displaying ‘extremely controlling and intimidating behaviour’.
However Depp, 57, who is not expected in court until noon today because he is attending a meeting about a future film project, says he was not violent towards the Aquaman actress, 34, claiming it was she who attacked him.
During her evidence, which began on Monday, Heard has claimed Depp pushed Kate Moss down a flight of stairs and called the faeces found in the couple’s bed after her 30th birthday ‘absolutely disgusting’.
Heard, who also denied having an affair with Tesla founder Elon Musk, will conclude her evidence about 14 allegations of domestic violence, The Sun’s publisher News Group Newspapers (NGN) is relying on Heard’s allegations in its defence of an April 2018 article that called Depp a ‘wife beater’, at the Royal Courts of Justice.
Amber Heard arrives at the High Court in London this morning for Johnny Depp’s libel trial against The Sun to continue
Heard, pictured arriving at the court in London today, will conclude her evidence about 14 allegations of domestic violence
Amber Heard (right) arrives with her girlfriend Bianca Butti (left) at the High Court in London for the libel trial this morning
Her sister Whitney Henriquez, who previously lived in one of five penthouses owned by Depp in the Eastern Columbia Building in Los Angeles, is due to give evidence this afternoon.
Yesterday, Heard denied telling ‘lies’ about her claims Depp was violent as the actor’s barrister Eleanor Laws QC accused her of ‘instigating the assaults and rows’ and ‘concocting’ the allegations against her ex-husband in response to other witnesses’ evidence.
Heard told the High Court the star threw bottles ‘like grenades’ during an explosive row in Australia in which the Pirates Of The Caribbean star lost the top of his middle finger in disputed circumstances.
Ms Laws put it to Heard that, during the incident in Australia, the actress ‘worked yourself into a rage, screaming at him’ and threw a glass bottle – Depp claims the bottle severed the top of his finger.
Heard’s sister Whitney Henriquez, pictured arriving at the High Court in London today, is due to give evidence this afternoon
Heard leaves her hotel in London this morning as she prepares to give evidence for the fourth day at the High Court
Johnny Depp leaves London’s High Court yesterday. He is not expected in court until midday today because he has a meeting
Heard said she got angry ‘at times’ but ‘not to the extent where I would throw anything at him offensively’.
Johnny Depp v The Sun: Key issues in libel trial
Hollywood star Johnny Depp’s libel claim against The Sun enters its second week on Monday. These are the key issues the trial judge, Mr Justice Nicol, has to determine.
– Whether the April 2018 article by the tabloid’s executive editor Dan Wootton was defamatory of Depp. Under the Defamation Act 2013, a statement is not defamatory unless its publication causes ‘serious harm to the reputation of the claimant’.
– The Sun’s publisher, News Group Newspapers (NGN), is defending the claim and relying on a defence of truth. It is for the publisher to prove that the allegations made in the article are ‘substantially true’.
– The meaning of the article, which is defined as what it would mean to the ‘reasonable reader’, will have to be determined by the judge. But NGN’s lawyers say the differences between the rival meanings contended by each side are ‘not significant’ and the outcome of the case will therefore not turn on meaning.
– Depp’s case is that the article bore the meaning that he was ‘guilty, on overwhelming evidence, of serious domestic violence against his then wife, causing significant injury and leading to her fearing for her life, for which he was constrained to pay no less than £5 million to compensate her, and which resulted in him being subjected to a continuing court restraining order; and for that reason is not fit to work in the film industry’. He strenuously denies the allegations and claims he ‘has never hit or committed any acts of physical violence against Ms Heard’.
– The meaning which NGN will seek to prove is true is that the Claimant beat his wife Amber Heard, causing her to suffer significant injury and on occasion leading her to fearing for her life. They rely on 14 separate allegations of violence and allege more generally that Depp was ‘controlling and verbally and physically abusive’ towards Ms Heard, particularly when he was under the influence of alcohol and or drugs, throughout their relationship. NGN’s lawyers say an important issue for the judge to decide will be what substances Depp was using during the relationship. They contend that he frequently lost control of himself, partly because of his heavy drug and alcohol use, and also that his memory has been impaired by his heavy use of drugs.
– If Depp wins his case, the judge will have to decide what level of compensation he should receive for the harm to his reputation and for the ‘distress, hurt and humiliation caused’. There is an upper limit on general damages for libel of £300,000 to £325,000. However, if he succeeds, Depp may also be entitled to aggravated damages. The actor is also asking for a final injunction against NGN, who his legal team say ‘have retained the article on their website and maintained their allegation to the bitter end’.
She also said she did break a bottle ‘very early’ one evening of the trip, and that it was ‘before Johnny had started to throw the bottles at me’.
Heard claimed the couple were in an argument about Depp drinking and, when she confronted him, he offered her the bottle, ‘teasing me to take it’ and then pulling it away.
She added that she ‘reached for it a second time and I smashed it on the floor in between Johnny and I’, adding: ‘I regret I did that.’
Heard told the court: ‘He started picking them up one by one and throwing them like grenades.
‘One after the other after the other, in my direction, and I felt glass breaking behind me, I retreated more into the bar and he didn’t stop.
‘I was too scared to look behind me. He threw all the bottles that were in reach, all except for one which was a celebratory magnum-sized bottle of wine.’
Heard said she remembered that was the only bottle not smashed out of 30 or so.
The actress was also asked about an alleged incident of domestic violence in Los Angeles in December 2015, which she described in a witness statement as ‘one of the worst and most violent nights of our relationship’.
Heard alleges that Depp slapped her, dragged her by the hair through their apartment, pulling clumps of her hair out, and then repeatedly punched her in the head, which he denies.
The actress became visibly upset as Ms Laws read through passages of her witness statement detailing the alleged abuse. She was asked: ‘That’s just a complete set of lies, isn’t it?’ Heard quietly replied: ‘No.’
The court heard that medical notes made by a nurse, Erin Boerum, who saw Heard shortly after the alleged incident, recorded that Heard was ‘actively bleeding on her lip’ and that she ‘briefly looked at the client’s scalp but was unable to visualise haematomas the client described’.
When it was put to her that she had no bruises when she saw Ms Boerum, Heard said: ‘I had two black eyes, a broken nose, a broken rib … I had bruises all over my body.’
After she gave more details of injuries, Ms Laws suggested: ‘This is just nonsense, isn’t it? She (Ms Boerum) didn’t see any bruising … you had just bitten your lip because there was fresh blood on it.
‘Had you just done that for her benefit?’ Heard replied: ‘Of course not.’
Depp is suing NGN and The Sun’s executive editor Dan Wootton over the publication of an article on April 27 2018, with the headline: ‘Gone Potty: How can JK Rowling be ‘genuinely happy’ casting wife beater Johnny Depp in the new Fantastic Beasts film?’
His lawyers say the article bore the meaning there was ‘overwhelming evidence’ Depp assaulted Heard on a number of occasions and left her ‘in fear for her life’.
NGN is defending the article as true, and says Depp was ‘controlling and verbally and physically abusive towards Heard, particularly when he was under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs’.
The blockbuster case, the biggest English libel trial of the 21st century, is due to finish next week with closing submissions from both sides’ legal teams on Monday and Tuesday.
Security is stepped up at court after Amber Heard claims she was verbally abused by Johnny Depp fans
Mary Kennan, 66, pictured today, presented Amber Heard with a bunch of flowers and a gift as she arrived in court this morning
Security has been stepped up at the High Court after Amber Heard claimed that she was verbally abused by Johnny Depp fans.
Heard has been giving evidence all week, revealing sensational details about the physical and emotional abuse she claims she suffered at the hands of Depp.
Heard complained to court security staff that a group of Depp supports swore at her and that she felt intimidated by them intimidated her as she walked through a courtyard to get to her vehicle at the end of the day.
Mary Kennan, 66 who witnessed the incident earlier this week, presented Heard with a bunch of flowers and a gift as she arrived in court this morning.
Ms Kennan told MailOnline: ‘Everyone has the right to feel safe in this building and I felt really sorry for her because of the way some people abused her earlier this week. I chose the flowers because they are beautiful, sweet and innocent and I thought Amber would appreciate them.’
Heard spent around five minutes inside the main hallway of the High Court chatting to Ms Kennan, who revealed that the gift to her was a ‘meditation.’
‘I want her to find some peace and get on with her life. A lot of people have been giving her a very tough time over the past few days and that’s not fair,’ she added.
Security patrols have been increased in and around the High Court with Depp supporters instructed to vacate the building once the day’s hearing has finished. Many had been waiting in the courtyard at the end of the day to try and get a glimpse of Depp or speak to his legal team.
A group of Depp supporters, who have dubbed themselves ‘Team Depp’ have been following the trial via video link from a separate courtroom to the one where it is taking place because of social distancing guidelines.
Extra checks are also being carried out at the entrance to the High Court following an increase in Depp fans trying to get into the building as the trial has progressed.
A High Court source told MailOnline: ‘We’ve had a lot of people trying to get in who have been telling us that they want to see Johnny and give Heard a piece of their mind.
‘As the trial has gone on, there have been more and more Depp fans coming to the court and a lot of them are angry about how they feel he’s been treated by Heard.’
YESTERDAY: Amber Heard had to cover her facial injuries with make-up before appearing on James Corden’s Late Late Show after Johnny Depp tried to smother her with a pillow, court hears
Amber Heard’s make-up artist claimed she had to cover up the actress’ facial injuries before she appeared on James Corden’s Late Late Show after Johnny Depp allegedly tried to smother her with a pillow.
Depp’s ex-wife accused the Hollywood legend, 57, slapped her, dragged her by the hair through their apartment – pulling clumps of her hair out – and then repeatedly punched her in the head in LA in December 2015.
Heard, 34, described the alleged attack in her first witness statement as ‘one of the worst and most violent nights of our relationship’ and became visibly upset as Depp’s lawyer read through passages of her statement in court.
The High Court in London heard Eleanor Laws QC accuse Heard of lying about the incident as she described Heard’s claims that her body was covered in bruises as ‘nonsense’.
When a short clip of Heard’s appearance on The Late Late Show the next day was then played in court in which she appeared to have no facial injuries, the actress said she had covered the bruises with make-up.
Her make-up artist Melanie Inglessis then told The Sun’s lawyer how a ‘distressed’ Heard had bruises under her eyes, a swollen nose, cuts on her lips and ‘missing chunks of hair on the top of the crown’.
Ms Inglessis said that she use concealer to hide some of Heard’s facial bruises and had ‘no other choice’ but to put red lipstick on her ‘to cover the injury on her lip’.
In other developments at Depp’s libel trial as he sues The Sun for calling him a ‘wife beater’:
- Heard said Depp threw ’30 or so bottles’ towards her ‘like grenades’ and severed his finger while attacking her at an Australian mansion as he filmed Pirates of The Caribbean
- Heard denied it was her decision to take their dogs Boo and Pistol into Australia illegally and blamed Depp
- Heard claimed Depp attacked her 24 hours before she appeared on the Late Late Show with James Corden.
Amber Heard claimed that Johnny Depp physically abused her one day before she was on The Late, Late Show with James Corden on on December 16, 2015 (above) – and said after her appearance that she ‘just did that show with two black eyes’
Amber Heard’s make-up artist claimed she had to cover up the actress’ facial injuries before she appeared on James Corden’s Late Late Show after Johnny Depp allegedly tried to smother her with a pillow
Heard poses with guests Luke Bracey and Wanda Skyes on the Late, Late Show with James Corden on December 16, 2015
Heard claimed that Depp attacked her just 24 hours before she appeared on the Late Late Show with James Corden show on December 16, 2015.
She claims that Depp launched a vicious attack which left her with ‘tons of injuries’ including bruised ribs and arms, bruises all over her body, two black eyes, a broken nose and a broken lip.
The court was then played footage of Heard’s appearance on the show, with her face immaculately made up and no visible marks on it.
Ms Laws said: ‘That’s what you looked like on the show, no injury is there?’
Heard replied: ‘I have tonnes of injuries.’
Ms Laws alleged that the night before her appearance on the James Corden show, it was Heard who was violent towards Depp and that she attacked him.
Heard claims that during the fight, Depp dragged her around their Los Angeles penthouse by her hair, knocked her to the floor, pushed her onto a bed and then jumped on top of her so hard that it broke and also headbutted her.
Describing the headbutt, which Depp claims was accidental and not forceful in the way Heard claims, she told the court: ‘His head came into contact with mine very deliberately. He clenched his fists, leant back and slammed his head into my nose.’
Ms Laws claimed that prior to appearing on the James Corden show she was seen without any make-up by her stylist Samantha McMillan and that she did not notice any injuries to her face.
The court was also shown photos of Depp’s face taken by a friend after Heard claims he headbutted her
Photographs were issued by Heard’s legal team of her with injuries to her face around the time of the alleged attack on December 15, 2015, showing bruising across the bridge of her nose and under her eyes after Depp allegedly headbutted her. Depp is believed to have been shown these pictures in court last week while he was giving evidence
Ms Laws said: ‘Do you agree that you caused injury to Mr Depp’s face on that night?’ Ms Heard replied: ‘I don’t see how I could have, I’m sorry.’
Ms Laws put it to Heard that a photograph of her with bruises on her face taken after the alleged December 2015 incident was ‘completely set up’, which Heard denied.
Ms Laws then said: ‘If someone is grabbing you by the hair and pulling your hair out, it would come out at the root.’
Heard said: ‘No of course not, of course not. It comes out wherever it breaks.’
Ms Laws then asked the actress why she took a photograph of her scalp, and Heard said her scalp was ‘in pain’ and her friend Raquel Pennington took a photograph because she had red spots on her head and it was ‘pussy’ from where it had been pulled out.
A short clip of Heard’s appearance on The Late Late Show was then played to the court, following which Ms Laws said: ‘That is what you looked like on the show, there is no injury, is there?’
Heard replied: ‘I had tonnes of injuries.’ She then said she had makeup on covering the injuries and added: ‘You can tell by the size of my lip alone.’
Ms Laws asked Heard about her first allegation of violence against Depp, which she says happened after she remarked on his ‘Wino Forever’ tattoo.
Heard said it was the ‘first time I had been hit like that since I was a child’, adding: ‘It didn’t feel painful necessarily, it just felt like a pop.
‘The first time he hit me, I didn’t even know he was serious, I was laughing, I thought he was joking … I just didn’t know.’
She said she was left with ‘just redness’ on her face, adding: ‘My eye didn’t pop out.’
The actress then said she had told her therapist about it at the time.
Ms Inglessis said Heard told her that Depp ‘tried to suffocate her with a pillow … those were her words’.
Heard also told her that ‘she felt he tried to kill her that night and she said he dragged her by her hair’, Ms Inglessis said.
Ms Inglessis told the court that she arrived at Depp and Heard’s Los Angeles apartment to do Heard’s make-up for the taping of the Late Late Show.
She said Heard had ‘discolouration under her eyes, on the inner corner or her eyes by her nose. I recall her left eye being a little more bruised than the right eye’.
She added: ‘I remember the bridge of the nose being red and swollen (and) like a cut or a scab on her lip.’
Ms Inglessis said Heard told her she had ‘missing chunks of hair on the top of the crown’, but said she ‘did not recall’ if she had checked herself.
Asked ‘how keen’ Heard was to appear on TV that day, Ms Inglessis said: ‘Not that keen. It was back and forth … if she would attend or not.’
Ms Wass asked what make-up she put on Heard, to which Ms Inglessis said: ‘Obviously concealer, trying to conceal some of the bruises.’
She added that she told Ms Heard that there was ‘no other choice’ but to put red lipstick on her ‘to cover the injury on her lip’.
Inglessis said the concealer was ‘very effective’ at covering up the bruises ‘because, to my recollection, they were not that dark or that inflamed … I don’t remember having trouble covering them’.
Asked if they were ‘still visible or not’ after she applied make-up to Heard, Ms Inglessis said: ‘No.’
Eleanor Laws QC, for Mr Depp, asked: ‘Did you ever see Mr Depp be violent to Amber Heard?’
Ms Inglessis said: ‘No.’
Ms Laws asked: ‘Did you ever see Amber Heard be violent to Mr Depp?’
Ms Ingless replied: ‘No.’
Ms Laws then suggested: ‘Ms Heard did not have the injuries that you say. Ms Inglessis said: ‘I’m not lying.’
‘You are making this up as you go along’: Heard is accused of lying about Depp’s Thanksgiving attack as court is shown video of them celebrating and laughing about ‘the monster’ with actor’s son and Marilyn Manson
Heard was yesterday accused of ‘making up’ claims Depp was violent after being shown a video of the couple partying happily with friends including Marilyn Manson on the night the actress claims her ex-husband threw her across the room and ‘busted’ her lip.
Heard alleges that Depp also threw a glass and a heavy glass decanter at her, ripped her shirt and left her with a ‘lump’ on the back of her head on Thanksgiving in November 2015.
Yesterday two videos were played in court from the holiday weekend where people can be heard talking excitedly and laughing with Heard and Depp, who filmed the group enjoying themselves.
When asked by Eleanor Laws, Depp’s QC, to explain the footage, which showed no violence taking place, Heard replied: ‘Our fights never happened in front of the family. They typically happened after everyone had gone to bed.’
Ms Laws alleged that Heard was lying about the entire incident and said: ‘You are making up this up as you go along’.
Not all the faces of those in the darkened video are visible, but Heard can be seen picking up a drink and revealed that she could tell that Marilyn Manson was present after recognising his fingernails.
She also told the court that others present were her friend Rocky Pennington, Depp and his son Jack, Heard’s father David and Erin Boerum, Heard’s nurse and friend.
Heard has claimed that her megastar ex-husband would blame his ‘alter ego’ called ‘the monster’ for the alleged violence while intoxicated with copious amounts of drink and drugs. In the film Depp can be heard joking with Jack Depp about a monster being in the room while Amber exclaims to a guest: ‘What are you doing? Get away get away’.
Ms Laws said: ‘This is a happy family event we saw on that second video, a Thanksgiving dinner for family and friends. There was no violence that day or anything at any stage was there?
Heard replied: ‘That’s not true. The two are unrelated.’ Ms Laws pointed out that the video is time stamped after midnight, adding: ‘In your account Mr Depp had already been violent to you.’
Heard replied: ‘Yes, we had an altercation on the top of the stairs.’
Heard said their fights never happened in front of the whole family, and typically took place behind closed doors when everyone had gone home or to bed.
Amber Heard picks up her drink while partying with Johnny Depp and friends including Marilyn Manson on the night she claims her ex-husband hurled her across a room and ‘busted’ her lip
Ms Heard was accused of ‘making up this up as you go along’ by Mr Depp’s QC on her third day of evidence
Questioning: Amber Heard was cross examined by Johnny Depp’s QC Eleanor Laws, she is pictured outside court, far right
Ms Laws, pictured, alleged that Heard was lying about the entire incident and said: ‘You are making up this up as you go along’.
Heard was shown further photos and asked about the incident, including whether her nurse and friend Erin Boerum was present for any of the alleged violence.
Heard said: ‘No, she (Ms Boerum?) was there downstairs in penthouse 5 for the bottle throwing, the decanter breaking, the painting breaking.
‘I remember there’s a slight altercation on the stairs involving wine and Johnny grabbed me by the shirt collar.’
She added: ‘There was a slight altercation, but it wasn’t what it became after everyone left.’
Ms Laws asked: ‘So she was downstairs during part of the assault on you?’
Heard replied: ‘Part, yes.’
Ms Laws then asked if ‘the second part’ of the alleged incident happened after Ms Boerum and Ms Pennington had left.
Heard said: ‘Yes, it got much worse later.’
Ms Laws said: ‘It’s just a lie, isn’t it?’
Heard said: ‘No, ma’am.’
Ms Laws then asked Heard about what she has called ‘the monster’ – Depp’s ‘alter ego’ – which was referred to in the Thanksgiving 2015 video.
The barrister said: ‘That’s just a joke, isn’t it?’
She added: ‘Those words, ‘monster’ and ‘savage’, are all part of the vocabulary that you and your friends would use, aren’t they?’
Heard replied: ‘No … it’s coming from Johnny’s friend in the transcript.’
Ms Laws said: ‘In a joke, isn’t it?’
Heard said: ‘Are you asking me if Marilyn Manson is joking?’
She then said it ‘makes me wonder if he (Mr Manson) was writing the apology texts’.
Ms Laws said that, on the video, ‘we have Mr Manson saying ‘he’s a monster, monster, he’s scaring me”, adding: ‘These are the sorts of words that you and your friends would use in jest.’
Heard said: ‘No, it was with Johnny and his friends.’
Cell phone photographs’s of Amber Heard and Depp’s son Jack on Thanksgiving 2015 were also presented as evidence at the trial
Wrong door: Ms Laws then asked Ms Heard about an alleged incident in the Bahamas in August 2014, when the couple were staying on Mr Depp’s private island while he was detoxing. She read out part of Ms Heard’s witness statement where the actress referred to a door being splintered during the violent episode. Ms Heard admitted including a picture of another door that was not in the Bahamas in evidence
Ms Laws then asked Heard about an alleged incident in the Bahamas in August 2014, when the couple were staying on Depp’s private island while he was detoxing.
She read out part of Heard’s witness statement where the actress referred to a door being splintered during the violent episode.
The barrister then read from notes of Depp’s doctor, Dr Kipper, which stated that Heard went to get him and nurse Debbie Lloyd and described Depp as ‘erratic and paranoid’.
The notes said the pair found Depp ‘sitting quietly on his porch’ and that he was calm and said he was frustrated with the detox process.
Ms Laws said: ‘I suggest to you that he didn’t assault you in any way on that day.’
Clarifying the question, Mr Justice Nicol said: ‘Did Mr Depp assault you on that day?’ To which Heard replied: ‘Absolutely.’
Ms Laws then asked about photographs of the broken door, saying: ‘That is not a photograph from the Bahamas, is it?’
Heard said: ‘No. It was a mistake in the divorce.
Ms Laws said: ‘You just include any photographs, anything you can, in a very cavalier way, don’t you?’
Heard explained there was a large bundle of evidence in the divorce proceedings, adding: ‘This is a different door he kicked.’
‘The Bahamas incident’
Ms Laws probed further about ‘the Bahamas incident’, which involved Tara Roberts – Depp’s property manager there – and her husband.
The barrister said Heard had ‘given an account in evidence of an incident whereby Tara Roberts’ partner had to, in effect, take Mr Depp away from you’.
Heard said: ‘My recollection is that, towards the end of that attack, Johnny only had me by the hair and I was trying, there was a bit of a scuffle, trying to bring myself from his grasp and they both approached us, I think at the same time.
‘It’s my recollection that Tara leaned towards me and CJ, her partner, leaned more towards Johnny and put his hands on Johnny’s chest or upper shoulder and we had about two feet of separation for a moment.’
Ms Laws referred to Ms Roberts’ witness statement, which said Heard was ‘insulting him, calling him names and, in the middle of this onslaught, I heard her say specifically ‘your career is over’, ‘no one is going to hire you’, ‘you’re washed up’.’
Heard said it was Depp who said them to her and ‘continued to say them … as he continued to threaten my job’.
Asked about throwing a can of mineral spirits at Depp, Heard said: ‘As I was running away from him, I had my back to him, so I don’t know if it actually made contact with him.’
She added: ‘He had just threatened my life.’
Ms Laws said: ‘What you have done in response to that statement (by Ms Roberts), where you are being accused of really serious violence, is to concoct an account of violence by Mr Depp where, yet again, you are defending yourself.’
Heard replied: ‘I have to defend myself sometimes.’
Heard was asked about an alleged incident in Tokyo in January 2015, during which the actress claims Depp slapped her, grabbed her hair and knelt on her back.
Ms Laws asked if she attended a film premiere while there and when it was, and Heard said she did and it was two days after the alleged attack, adding that she was concerned about bruises on her back.
Ms Laws said: ‘Do you remember wearing a backless dress to that premiere?’ Heard replied: ‘Very well.’
The barrister asked: ‘You didn’t have any injury on your back, did you?’ Heard replied: ‘Not visible … I remember checking obsessively.’
Johnny Depp’s nose showed visible signs of injury after Amber Heard ‘lost her temper’ on their Orient Express honeymoon, star’s QC claims
The High Court was shown this picture of Amber Heard and Johnny Depp on their honeymoon on the Eastern and Oriental Express in South-east Asia in 2015 with his QC claiming his reddened nose is a sign of injury inflicted by his then wife
Depp’s QC Eleanor Laws had earlier discussed the ‘train incident’, when Depp is said to have been violent to Heard on the Eastern and Oriental Express in South-east Asia in August 2015 on their honeymoon.
Heard alleges Depp picked a fight with her, hit her and pushed her against a wall by the throat, causing her to fear for her life. This is denied by Depp.
The barrister said: ‘This is yet another occasion when you had a row and it was you who lost your temper.’
Heard said: ‘No, I disagree.’
Ms Laws showed Heard a photo of Depp, taken on the train, which she said showed ‘an injury on his face’.
Heard said she could not see any injury to Depp.
Ms Laws continued: ‘This is yet another occasion where you have completely turned an incident around and blamed Mr Depp.’
Heard said: ‘No, I have tons of pictures from this vacation and these days and he’s uninjured. He strangled me.’
Amber Heard’s ex admits never seeing Depp hit her, but denies ‘concocting’ story
the ex-husband of Amber Heard’s friend Raquel ‘Rocky’ Pennington (pictured with Heard) gave evidence from Los Angeles by videolink on Wednesday afternoon.
Joshua Drew, the ex-husband of Heard’s friend Raquel ‘Rocky’ Pennington gave evidence from Los Angeles by videolink on Wednesday afternoon.
Ms Laws
asked Mr Drew about Heard’s 30th birthday party on April 21 2016, saying: ‘Mr Depp turned up and he was in a coherent, sociable, friendly mood, wasn’t he?’
Mr Drew said: ‘He was.’
Ms Laws said: ‘He was affectionate towards Ms Heard.’
Mr Drew replied: ‘Correct.’
Ms Laws continued: ‘And he wasn’t inebriated.’
Mr Drew said: ‘My perception was that he was slightly inebriated.’
He also agreed that it was ‘a nice fun evening’.
Ms Laws then asked about the incident on May 21 2016, saying: ‘We know that there was a row on May 21 that marked, effectively, the end of the relationship between Mr Depp and Ms Heard.
‘After those events of May 21, after you had spoken to the police officers, which we know you did, and after in fact you separated from Ms Pennington in 2017, do you remember after that meeting with Ms Heard shortly before you gave your deposition (in the US)?’
Mr Drew said he did, and Ms Laws asked: ‘Did you discuss what you were going to say?’
He replied: ‘No, I did not.’
Ms Laws suggested to Mr Drew that ‘a lot of the information that you had about the relationship between Mr Depp and Ms Heard in fact came from your then partner, Raquel Pennington’.
Mr Drew said: ‘A fair amount, yes.’
Ms Laws then said: ‘You never saw Mr Depp hitting Ms Heard. You never saw him throwing a phone or anything else at her, did you?’
Mr Drew said he did not, to which Ms Laws said: ‘And you never saw him strike her?’
He replied: ‘No, I did not.’
Ms Laws said: ‘You would have seen some rows between the two of them.’
Mr Drew said: ‘On rare occasion, yes.’
He added that he also saw ‘both of them shouting at each other on occasion’.
Mr Drew told the court that he had seen Heard ‘drink to excess’ and taking illegal drugs – including magic mushrooms and ecstasy – ‘on occasion’.
Ms Laws then returned to the incident on May 21 2016.
She said to Mr Drew that, when his then partner Ms Pennington received a text from Heard to come over to the apartment she was in, Ms Pennington ‘was not with you’.
Mr Drew said: ‘No, that’s not the case.’
Ms Laws said: ‘What happened on the night of May 21 is that you got involved, along with your partner Raquel Pennington, in supporting Amber Heard and then lying for her afterwards.’
Mr Drew replied: ‘I certainly don’t agree with that statement.’
Ms Laws asked: ‘You didn’t see any assault, did you?’
Mr Drew said: ‘I didn’t, as I’ve said repeatedly.’
Ms Laws said that he spoke to the police but ‘did not show them any damage in the property’.
Mr Drew said: ‘I showed them all the damage in penthouse 3, the hallway and penthouse 5.’
He added that photos were taken of the damage to the penthouses before the police arrived.
Mr Drew said that ‘there was a pretty substantial pool of red wine’ in the hallway, ‘a dent in the door of the apartment’ and ‘there were parts of the kitchen strewn about, broken glass on the kitchen island and the floor’.
He also told the court that, in the other apartment, ‘there were a variety of things in the living room that had been thrown about’ and broken glass on the floor from ‘two broken picture frames’.
Ms Laws asked Mr Drew if he had caused the damage and he said he had not.
Mr Drew said the police would have seen the ‘puddle of red wine in the hallway’ and had ‘walked them through the damage myself, pointing it out’.
Mr Drew said that one of the police officers asked to speak to Heard privately while he waited outside with the male police officer.
He added that he asked the officer what they could do because ‘we were obviously very worried about her and we wanted to be helpful and protect her’.
Mr Drew said the officer ‘looked at me square in the face and said something to the effect of ‘her face is red, there’s damage in the apartment, there’s enough here that, if she wants, we can go pick him up”.
He told the court that he thanked the officer, but knew it would not happen as Heard was not willing to report the incident.
Ms Laws suggested that Mr Drew had ‘concocted a story’ and asked if he had ‘tailored your evidence in order to support Ms Heard in this case’.
Mr Drew said: ‘Absolutely not.’
Johnny Depp ‘threw 30 bottles at me like grenades’
Proceedings began when Heard denied severing the tip of Depp’s finger or stubbing out a cigarette on his face during a violent argument in Australia claiming the Hollywood star was lobbing up to 30 booze bottles at her ‘like grenades’ while holding her hostage for three days in a mansion.
The actress, who accuses the 57-year-old Pirates of the Caribbean star of physical abuse on at least 14 occasions, was questioned about an incident Down Under in March 2015 on her third day in the witness box at the High Court in London.
Depp says the tip of his finger was severed during an argument when Heard threw a large vodka bottle which struck his hand, but Heard hit back yesterday saying: ‘I only threw things to escape Johnny when he was beating me up’.
Describing the row she said she had taken a bottle from Depp from which he was drinking and smashed it on the floor, prompting a furious response from him. Heard said the majority of bottles were thrown downstairs, before giving a long answer in which she said Depp had thrown ’30 or so bottles’ towards her ‘like grenades’.
She said he threw all the bottles within reach bar one, saying: ‘He picked them up ad started using them like grenades or bombs…throwing one after another in my direction.’
Depp’s lawyer said Heard’s account that the actor had severed his finger by smashing a phone against a wall and then continued to assault her was a lie. ‘No it’s not,’ she replied. ‘I don’t think he meant to sever the finger but yes he carried on attacking me.’
Ms Laws also accused Heard of stubbing a cigarette out on Depp’s cheek. ‘No, Johnny did it right in front of me. He often did things like that,’ she said. It came after Heard claimed Johnny Depp and his lawyers have run a four-year campaign to ‘harass’ and ‘abuse’ Heard as well as wreck her career after they split up.
Amber Heard strides into the High Court with her girlfriend Bianca Butti as she prepares to give evidence for the final time in the bombshell libel trial. Mr Depp (pictured yesterday) is accused of going into rages while on drink and drugs and since splitting with Ms Heard she alleges he has run a campaign of harassment
The carnage in a property in Australia after Depp and Heard allegedly had a fight in 2015, which was released as part of Ben King’s evidence a week ago
Depp is on the stand at the High Court for a third day yesterday and was questioned about the incident after he previously claimed the injury was sustained when Heard threw a vodka bottle at him during the fight in Australia. Mr Depp also has a cigaretted burn on his right cheek, but is ex-wife denies it was her
Depp insisted that the only attack on the trip had been launched by Heard when she hurled a vodka bottle at him and caused the infamous injury which cut off the top of his finger
Heard’s third day of cross-examination by Depp’s lawyers began on Wednesday with Ms Laws asking about the alleged incident in Australia in March 2015, which Ms Heard has described as a ‘three-day hostage situation’.
Ms Laws put it to the actress that she ‘worked yourself into a rage, screaming at him’ and threw a glass bottle, adding: ‘Because you would get yourself into rages on occasions.’
Heard said: ‘No, I got angry at times but not into a rage that would cause me to throw anything at him.’
Mr Justice Nicol clarified her answer by repeating that she would sometimes get angry, and Heard continued: ‘But not to the extent where I would throw anything at him offensively.’
Ms Laws said: ‘I’m going to suggest you threw a bottle at his head and it smashed the mirror behind him.’
Heard said the majority of bottles were thrown downstairs. She told the court: ‘I would like to be clear, I did break a bottle but it was very early on in that evening, it was the second evening, if I recall correctly, and it was before Johnny had started to throw the bottles at me.
‘We were in an argument about whether he was going to drink … the liquor. When I confronted him about it he offered me the bottle … he said, ‘here, take it’.
‘He said, ‘Oh yeah, you want it? Here, take it’, and at that point drinking had already been … he had already given it up for a while and it was on the list of ‘if this happens, I leave’ sort of thing. It was no fly.
‘And he gestured to offer it to me and I reached to take it and he pulled it back.
‘He was teasing me to take it and would revoke it when I reached (for it).
‘Then he did it again and I have in my head all the times that he said that I saved his life, and I thought honestly I could short circuit (a row about drinking).
‘So I reached for it a second time and I smashed it on the floor in between Johnny and I.
‘I regret I did that.’
Describing the alleged bottle attack, Heard said: ‘He started picking them up one by one and throwing them like grenades.
‘One after the other after the other, in my direction, and I felt glass breaking behind me, I retreated more into the bar and he didn’t stop.
‘I was too scared to look behind me. He threw all the bottles that were in reach, all except for one which was a celebratory magnum-sized bottle of wine.’
Heard said she remembered that was the only bottle not smashed out of 30 or so.
The actress then said: ‘He (Mr Depp) told me over and over again that my work in trying to get him clean and sober … when he was clean and sober he would tell me I saved his life.’
In response to Ms Laws disputing her version of events, she said: ‘Absolutely not, Ms Laws, I was there, I watched it.
‘I would be shocked if Johnny remembers any of this himself, but I was there.’
Ms Laws put it to Heard that Depp’s finger was not severed as a result of his hand smashing against the wall, which the actress disagreed with.
The barrister then said: ‘This injury was you throwing a bottle in his direction, smashing it down and severing the tip of his finger with glass, wasn’t it?’ Heard replied: ‘No.’
Ms Laws referred to a photograph showing a mark on Depp’s face and accused Heard of stubbing a cigarette out on his cheek, which the actress denied, adding: ‘Johnny did that.’
Ms Laws said: ‘You did it, didn’t you?’ To which Heard replied: ‘No, Johnny did it right in front of me, he often did things like that.’
Ms Laws said: ‘According to you, Mr Depp sliced his finger off all on his own … and then carried on attacking you.’
Heard said: ‘Yes, he did. I don’t think he meant to sever the finger but yes he did continue the attack.’
Ms Laws said: ‘This was a nasty incident in which you were extremely violent.’ Heard replied: ‘Absolutely not.’
Eleanor Laws QC then said: ‘And afterwards, we have got those tapes… when security arrived, you were screaming at Mr Depp not to leave and then in another moment calling him a f****** coward for going.’
Heard said: ‘I didn’t hear it on the audio files.’
Pressed further she added: ‘No on both of those accusations, absolutely not. I was just in another room crying.’
There was an exchange between Ms Laws and Heard about whether she had listened to the audio file and she confirmed she had only listened to part of it, but said it was the relevant part.
She told the court: ‘At the beginning of the tape, you can hear how it ended. It ended with Johnny (shouting) incoherently and I was in the bathroom crying.’
Ms Laws then asked the actress about her using the phrase ‘have you been so angry you’ve lost it?’
Heard said: ‘I have referred to losing your cool as ‘losing it’. I specifically denied referencing it to Ben King.’
She added: ‘I said if I did use that phrase or anything like it, I would’ve been asking about Johnny’s behaviour, not my own.’
Ms Laws put it to Heard that it was a phrase she had used about herself, and played part of an audio recording to the court, which was mostly inaudible in the overspill courtroom where the media are listening to proceedings.
The barrister then asked: ‘Is it true that sometimes you get so angry you lose it?’
Heard replied: ‘Sometimes I get angry enough that I lose my cool.’
Depp also admitted to doing graffiti on a bathroom mirror after the fight with Heard, which resulted in his finger being severed. He admitted that some of it was done with his blood and some with paint
During their visits to Australia in 2015, the couple stayed in this mansion owned by former MotoGp champion Mick Doohan
Heard claims the megastar actor, 57, and his allies have tried to ’embarrass and harass me and the people around me, including potential witnesses’ ahead of his extraordinary London libel trial.
In a new witness statement published yesterday, the actress, 34, said she was ‘eager for this trial to proceed’ claiming her ex-husband’s ‘campaign has affected my professional life, my personal life and my well-being. It has been extremely upsetting’.
She said: ‘Johnny is so much more powerful than I am, in every way: physically, financially, and professionally. By leaving him I escaped the physical abuse, but for the past four years he has used his power and resources to continue the harassment and abuse through the various legal proceedings he has dragged me into and the publicity campaign his team has run alongside those proceedings’.
She added: ‘I have been subjected to a campaign of targeted online abuse on social media, as well as online petitions calling for me to be removed from any future sequel to Aquaman and from my association with L’Oreal. It has also been aimed at what is most important to me: my humanitarian work, including my partnerships with the United Nations (UN) and non-governmental organisations, like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and many others, and the important work that these organisations do’.
Heard is expected to give her final evidence with her ex-husband Depp feet away as the biggest English libel trial of the 21st century comes to a head.
Heard, who smiled and waved as she walked into the Royal Courts of Justice with Bianca Butti, has been in the witness box for the past three days where she claimed she feared Depp was ‘going to kill’ her on several occasions.
Amber has said that the megastar would blame his ‘alter ego’ called ‘the monster’ for the alleged violence while intoxicated with copious amounts of drink and drugs.
On another extraordinary day at the Royal Courts of Justice, Heard claimed that Depp once pushed supermodel Kate Moss down the stairs during their relationship in the 1990s. The actress said that was why she had punched the actor – over fears he was about to do the same to her younger sister Whitney.
Heard also denied that she had an affair with Elon Musk, James Franco or ‘anybody else’ while she was with Depp, who she claimed was ‘jealous’ and accused her of sleeping with at least eight co-stars and also Leonardo DiCaprio after an audition, giving DiCaprio the nickname ‘pumpkin-head’.
But the actress was accused of changing her story about being ‘backhanded’ by Depp in a so-called ‘disco bloodbath’ – after she saw a picture of the couple with Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards in which Heard does not have any visible injuries to her face.
Amber Heard and her girlfriend Bianca Butti went sightseeing through Central London yesterday after her court appearance
The couple were having a ‘nasty row’ at the top of stairs in March 2015 when Whitney, then 26, tried to intervene, the court heard.
Accused of punching the Pirates Of The Caribbean star with her closed fist, Heard, 34, replied: ‘I did strike Johnny that day in defence of my sister.
‘He was about to push her down the stairs and, the moment before that happened, I remembered information I had heard that he pushed a former girlfriend – I believe it was Kate Moss – down the stairs. I had heard this rumour from two people and it was fresh in my mind. And in a flash I reacted in defence of her.
‘I have been for years Johnny’s punching bag – it was the first time I actually struck him back.’
Ms Laws, for Depp, accused Heard of ‘just making this up as you go along’, saying she had ‘added’ Miss Moss – whom Depp dated in the 1990s – to her evidence. Heard admitted she had never mentioned it before, in any statements or previous explanations of the incident.
Heard said: ‘He was about to push my sister down the stairs. My baby sister. She has never hurt anyone in her life.
‘I would have done anything to prevent her being pushed down a flight of stairs.’
Ms Laws said: ‘You are making this up as you go along, throwing in details, new details, which you have thought of literally on your feet to make your account more credible.’
Heard replied: ‘Of course not.’
Ms Laws said: ‘You don’t want to admit the truth, which is that you are violent, do you?’
Heard said: ‘Only in self-defence.’
There was no response from Miss Moss’s spokesperson yesterday for requests to comment.
Ms Heard sketched giving evidence during the bombshell libel proceedings brought by Mr Depp against The Sun after being branded a ‘wife-beater’
Amber Heard made the sensational claim that Johnny Depp pushed British supermodel Kate Moss down the stairs while they dated in the 1990s (pictured together in New York in 1994)
‘Johnny’s the boss’: Amber Heard claims it was Depp’s decision to bring their terriers Boo and Pistol into Australia illegally
Heard denied it was her decision to take their dogs Boo and Pistol into Australia illegally in 2015 and said: ‘When Johnny wanted something it happened’
The actress said she took the blame to avoid disrupting her then-husband’s filming schedule for Pirates of the Caribbean.
The barrister read a series of emails sent between Heard and Depp’s then-estate manager Kevin Murphy, in which Mr Murphy told her that ‘the dogs will not be allowed to fly commercial in the passenger compartment to Australia’.
Heard told Mr Murphy that she did not want to put the dogs in ‘cargo’, and said: ‘Unless there’s another way to get them there or get them on the plane with J.’
A photograph of Amber Heard and Johnny Depp’s pet Yorkshire Terriers Pistol and Boo, who were taken into Australia illegally
Heard and Depp at Southport Magistrates’ Court in Australia in April 2016. Heard received a $1,000 fine and a one-month good behaviour bond after pleading guilty to one count of falsifying border protection documents when entering the country with the dogs
Ms Laws said: ‘You were told by Kevin Murphy, who had been doing quite a lot of work on this, that he wasn’t able to get the documentation ready in time.’
Heard said: ‘No … this is a process that had been going on for about six months and I was out of the country filming a movie, I wasn’t there with Johnny so it was quite confusing to me.’
She added: ‘When Johnny wanted something it happened. He always found a way to make it work.’
Heard continued: ‘He told me when I landed. I was only in LA for a matter of hours before we got on his plane for his movie on his flight with his staff.’
She said Depp told her ‘everything had been taken care of’, adding: ‘I had no reason to get any clarity.’
Ms Laws put it to Heard: ‘You took a decision to take them (the dogs) anyway.’
Heard replied: ‘It wasn’t my decision.’
She added: ‘Johnny’s the boss.’
Ms Laws said: ‘You are the boss, aren’t you?’
Heard said: ‘I didn’t call any of the shots. This is Johnny’s plane, Johnny’s crew, Johnny’s staff.’
She also said: ‘We both filled out the same entry cards… we both filled out the same thing, yet I took the charges because if Johnny got charges it would have further compromised Pirates (Of The Caribbean), which was already compromised.’
Ms Laws suggested that every time Heard was asked a question ‘you used it as an opportunity to say something negative about Mr Depp’.
She added: ‘You knew full well that you shouldn’t have taken those dogs.’
Heard replied: ‘Johnny told me that we would bring the dogs in.’
Ms Laws asked: ‘What about Kevin Murphy?’
Heard said: ‘That’s Johnny’s staff.’
She also said: ‘I was the only one to get charged so I plead guilty… I took the blame.’
Ms Laws then suggested that Heard tried to ‘shunt the blame’ on to Kate James, her former assistant.
Heard replied: ‘I plead guilty, why would I need to do that?’
Amber Heard accuses Johnny Depp of a four-year harassment campaign after split
Heard claimed Depp and his lawyers have run a four-year campaign to ‘harass’ and ‘abuse’ their as well as wreck her career after they split up.
Heard claims the megastar actor, 57, and his allies have tried to ’embarrass and harass me and the people around me, including potential witnesses’ ahead of his extraordinary London libel trial.
In a new witness statement published yesterday, the actress, 34, said she was ‘eager for this trial to proceed’ claiming her ex-husband’s ‘campaign has affected my professional life, my personal life and my well-being. It has been extremely upsetting’.
She said: ‘Johnny is so much more powerful than I am, in every way: physically, financially, and professionally. By leaving him I escaped the physical abuse, but for the past four years he has used his power and resources to continue the harassment and abuse through the various legal proceedings he has dragged me into and the publicity campaign his team has run alongside those proceedings’.
She added: ‘I have been subjected to a campaign of targeted online abuse on social media, as well as online petitions calling for me to be removed from any future sequel to Aquaman and from my association with L’Oreal. It has also been aimed at what is most important to me: my humanitarian work, including my partnerships with the United Nations (UN) and non-governmental organisations, like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and many others, and the important work that these organisations do’.
Self-harm
Johnny Depp’s lawyer Eleanor Laws QC challenged Amber Heard’s testimony of the incident, suggesting that scars she claims were inflicted by Depp depicted in photos shown in court were ‘far more akin’ to self-harm scars
Scars on Heard’s arm were the result of self-harm rather than a brutal attack by Johnny Depp, his QC suggested.
Heard said they were inflicted during a terrifying ordeal in Australia in March 2015 – which she has termed the ‘three-day hostage situation’ – at a house they rented while Depp filmed one of the Pirates Of The Caribbean movies.
She said yesterday: ‘I had been strangled, assaulted, punched, sexually assaulted, strangled, among other things.’
She claimed that Depp had guzzled whisky and ecstasy tablets before hitting and choking her, smashing bottles and throwing her around on a kitchen top strewn with broken glass in the incident in which he drunkenly severed his own finger before daubing ‘I love u’ with his blood on a mirror.
She told the court, her voice cracking with emotion: ‘I was trying to push him off me. I was saying, ‘Johnny, it’s me, you’re really hurting me, stop please’ – it’s like he couldn’t hear me.’
She added: ‘He pulled me around by my neck and pushed me down against the bar, I was against the bar, naked, bent over backwards, my back against the marble.
‘He was pressing so hard on my neck I couldn’t breathe. I was trying to tell him that I couldn’t breathe. I remember thinking he was going to kill me in that moment. The floor was wet and I was slipping.’
She said she could not get any purchase on the floor or the countertop ‘from all the broken bottles’.
Heard said she still bore scars on her arm. A photo taken on April 18, a month later, at the Tribeca Music Festival in New York, was shared on Twitter, and the court also saw other photos.
Ms Laws asked her: ‘These are not scars sustained while you are writhing around, trying to get away from Mr Depp – jagged, uneven – they are straight in line, aren’t they?’
Mr Justice Nicol intervened to ask: ‘It is suggested these are not scars sustained in the Australia attack – do you agree?’ Heard did not.
Miss Laws said: ‘These are far more akin to self-harm scars, straight and inflicted by you, and certainly not in a struggle with Mr Depp.’
But Heard replied: ‘I have had these scars on my arm since that evening and I have never self-harmed.’
And she added: ‘Johnny’s a self-harmer, I’m not a self-harmer.’
KEITH RICHARDS PHOTO
The actress was accused of changing her story about being ‘backhanded’ by Depp in a so-called ‘disco bloodbath’ – after she saw a picture of the couple with Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards in which Heard does not have any visible injuries to her face.
The photo was taken on March 23, 2013. Heard had initially claimed Depp smacked her on March 21 but she later changed this to March 8.
She said Depp had become jealous of a painting her ex-partner Tasya van Ree put up in their bedroom, and that in a drug-fuelled rampage he had tried to set fire to it and had hit her so hard that the wall was ‘spattered’ with blood from her lip.
Ms Laws suggested Heard had altered her account after seeing the photo of her, her sister Whitney and Depp with Richards, saying: ‘You have changed the date in order to explain away the clear face in the photo.
‘You have woven a web of lies that you have had to shift and change according to when evidence has emerged.’
Heard replied: ‘I disagree.’
PLASTER CAST
The actress was also accused of ‘a complete lie’ over her claims that Depp grabbed her hair with one hand and punched her with the other in March 2015.
It was impossible, said Miss Laws, since the actor’s right hand was swathed in bandages – Depp had chosen a children’s dinosaur design for fun – following the severing of his finger in Australia during a previous row. Miss Heard told the court she wasn’t lying, saying: ‘He grabbed my hair with this hand, and hit me with the hard plastic cast. It was especially unpleasant.’
Miss Laws said the actress had not mentioned the plaster cast before, and suggested that if it had been true it would have been ‘a primary feature of the assault’ that Heard would have wanted to record.
‘BLACKMAIL’
Heard was accused of trying to extort and blackmail the star as they divorced. Her list of demands included three LA penthouses and a black Range Rover.
A letter from her lawyers demanded Depp’s ‘immediate co-operation’ to complete the divorce quickly and without publicity. She also peppered the star with text messages saying ‘Please call me, it’s important’, ‘please!’ and ’emergency!’, the court heard.
Miss Laws said: ‘It’s blackmail, isn’t it?’ The actress said: ‘No.’ Heard filed her divorce declaration on May 26, 2016 – five days after the alleged phone-throwing incident – and obtained a court restraining order the following day, saying she was ‘petrified’ that her husband would return to the apartment.
Miss Laws suggested this was ‘not true’. The actress replied: ‘I was petrified of the monster that Johnny could become.’
OUT WITH FRIENDS
Heard was also pictured apparently enjoying herself with friends in the days after the May 21 phone-hurling incident, during which she claimed her husband had been ‘drunk and high’ and smashed ‘everything he could’ in the apartment with a magnum bottle of champagne.
Three days later, CCTV footage from the lift of her apartment building showed her going out with her sister Whitney and friend Rocky Pennington, coming back at 11pm with wine.
Heard has been accused of faking her injuries with help from her friends, in what Depp’s legal team claims was part of a ‘hoax’.
FAECES ON THE BED
Amber Heard has rubbished accusations that she defecated in Johnny Depp’s bed, as bombshell photographs of faeces at the centre of their bitter court row were made public for the first time
In the latest twist to what was dubbed ‘Poogate’ by Heard and her friends, the actress vehemently denied she was responsible for leaving ‘disgusting’ human excrement on the bed she shared with Depp in their Los Angeles penthouse on her 30th birthday. She blamed it on their dog Boo, who was unwell after it ate some of the star’s drug stash, the court heard.
Depp says he made up his mind to divorce his wife after being informed about the faeces.
Miss Laws asked Heard: ‘You left human excrement on the bed?’ Heard responded: ‘That’s absolutely disgusting.’
Asked if any of her friends had left it, she replied: ‘No, of course not. That’s unimaginable to me.’
She claimed Boo, Depp’s Yorkshire terrier, had had a problem with her bowels since eating cannabis that belonged to Depp when she was a puppy.
The case continues.
