High Court hears 'violent' details of Johnny Depp and Amber Heard's marriage
Video report by ITV News Correspondent Neil Connery
On his fourth day in the witness box, Johnny Depp gave an insight into his tempestuous relationship with Amber Heard - telling the High Court no other woman had ever accused him of hitting them.
Earlier the court heard how the Pirates of the Caribbean actor found it “hilarious” to see photographs of faeces in the bed he shared with Ms Heard and was “convinced” it was either his ex-wife herself, or one of her friends who was involved in the episode.
The Hollywood A-lister said he thought the discovery of faeces in the bed – found by a cleaner in their LA penthouse on the morning of Ms Heard’s 30th birthday – was “a fitting end to the relationship”.
Jokes including “Amber Turd” and “Amber in the dumps” emerged from the April 2016 incident, the high-profile hearing was told on Mr Depp’s fourth day in the witness box.
He told the court it was “a mystery” who defecated in the bed “and it was not left by a three or four-pound dog”, referring to their pets.
Sasha Wass, lead counsel for the Sun newspaper’s publisher News Group Newspapers, suggested Boo, one of the couple’s two Yorkshire terriers, “had problems with her toilet habits”, to which the actor said the dogs “were very well trained”, but that Boo was “not as trained as Pistol”, their other dog.
The night before, on April 21, Mr Depp had arrived late for Ms Heard’s party after being given some “rather unfortunate news” about his financial affairs at a meeting, the court heard.
Asked if he had taken any recreational drugs to relieve his stress, he said it was “very likely that I would have smoked some marijuana to calm myself”.
It was about 10pm when he got to the party at the Eastern Columbia Building in Los Angeles and the rest of the party had finished dinner and were drinking magnums of wine, the court heard.
Mr Depp told the court Ms Heard had been “venting how upset she was that I was so late for her birthday dinner and that I had made a fool of her and that I didn’t care and everybody was talking about how awful it was of me to do such a thing”.
He said it “ramped up and became aggressive”, and that she was “very, very angry.”
He said he went to bed and started reading, “trying to avoid any confrontation with Ms Heard”.
Ms Wass suggested Ms Heard’s upset was taken by Mr Depp as criticism and that it had caused him to become angry.
She put it to Mr Depp that he had got out of bed to argue with Ms Heard, picking up a magnum bottle of champagne and throwing it at her but missing and the glass smashing, Mr Depp denied this.
Ms Wass added: “And that, I suggest, is how you express yourself when you are angry, you smash things”, which Mr Depp disagreed with.
Ms Wass said the actor then “grabbed Ms Heard by her hair and pushed her onto the bed”.
She added: “When she tried to leave, you blocked the bedroom door and you tried to grab her hair.”
The barrister suggested Mr Depp then “pushed her to the ground” and “bumped her chest” before leaving the apartment.
Mr Depp denied that he had grabbed or pushed Ms Heard and said he had sent a text to his security team, who were outside the penthouse, and said “gotta go, got to get out of here”.
Asked if he had left Ms Heard a note which read “happy f****** birthday”, Mr Depp said he did not know but that “it is very, very possible”.
The court briefing went into private on Friday to consider evidence relating Ms Heard’s allegations of sexual violence.
The exact nature of the allegations was not disclosed to the press or public and remain unknown.
The actor’s case against NGN and Mr Wootton arises out of the publication of an article on The Sun’s website 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?”
NGN is defending the article as true, and says Mr Depp was “controlling and verbally and physically abusive towards Ms Heard, particularly when he was under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs” between early 2013 and May 2016, when the couple split.
The pair met in 2011 and began living together in 2012 before marrying in Los Angeles in February 2015.
Johnny Depp accused Amber Heard of defecating in their bed, court hears
Description of Johnny Depp as "wife beater" is accurate, newspaper lawyers say