Amber Heard has accused ex-husband Johnny Depp of abusing her each bodily and verbally and that at varied occasions throughout their tempestuous relationship she feared for her life.
On the primary day of her testimony at Britain’s High Court in London on Monday in Depp’s libel trial towards The Sun newspaper over an April 2018 article that labelled him a “spouse beater,” Heard additionally denied accusations she was a heavy drug-taker and drinker in addition to being controlling and abusive herself.
“I used to be by no means violent in direction of him,” she mentioned in court docket. “When I felt my life was threatened, I attempted to defend myself.”
Depp, 57, is suing The Sun’s writer, News Group Newspapers, and the paper’s government editor, Dan Wootton, over the article. The Hollywood star, who strongly denies abusing Heard, was on the court docket to listen to his ex-wife’s proof. Heard’s testimony is because of final for 3 days.
She additionally described an incident in January 2015 in a resort room in Tokyo over a prenuptial settlement between herself and Depp, and advised there was an argument about it.
“There was an argument in a resort room in Tokyo that resulted in Johnny kneeling on my again and hitting me on the again of the pinnacle,” she mentioned.
In written testimony launched as she took to the witness field, Heard mentioned she frightened Depp would kill her at varied occasions throughout their relationship that noticed her enduring “punching, slapping, kicking, head-butting and choking.” She additionally mentioned “some incidents had been so extreme that I used to be afraid he was going to kill me, both deliberately or simply by dropping management and going too far.”
According to the 34-year-old Heard, Depp “explicitly threatened to kill me many occasions, particularly later in our relationship” and that he blamed his actions on “a self-created third occasion” that he known as “the monster.”
Heard mentioned Depp has “a singular skill to make use of his charisma to convey a sure impression of actuality” and that he’s “superb at manipulating folks.”
Heard has been current all through the trial, watching the proceedings as her ex-husband gave proof over 5 days.
She is dealing with questioning over 14 allegations of home violence that The Sun’s writer News Group Newspapers is counting on in its defence of the April 2018 article.
Depp and Heard met in 2009 on the set of the movie The Rum Diary, which was launched two years later. They married in Los Angeles in February 2015. Heard filed for divorce the next yr, and the divorce was finalized in 2017.
The Sun’s defence depends on the 14 allegations made by Heard of violence by Depp between 2013 and 2016, in settings together with his personal island in the Bahamas, a rented home in Australia and the couple’s downtown Los Angeles penthouse.
Depp claims Heard was the aggressor throughout their unstable relationship, which he has likened to “against the law scene ready to occur.”
In 9 days of testimony on the High Court, decide Andrew Nicol has heard from Depp and from a number of present or former workers who’ve backed his model of occasions.
Heard claimed in her written testimony that Depp “typically did not bear in mind what he had achieved” as a result of of the quantity of alcohol and medicines he had consumed, and that “it was as if it hadn’t occurred for him.”
