Johnny Depp's former employee tells court Amber Heard was 'the antagoniser' of rows
Words by ITV News Correspondent Juliet Bremner
A witness who used to work as Johnny Depp’s house manager has claimed that Amber Heard used to drink an average of two bottles of wine a night.
Ben King said that she sometimes left an empty glass next to her bed and he was “surprised” that she was drinking so much when Mr Depp was sober.
He told the court that he remembered the actor smoking cannabis most days around the house but didn’t recall him taking any other drugs like ecstasy or cocaine.
During the period when he looked after their house in London in 2014, he confirmed that there were domestic arguments and he had the impression that Ms Heard was “the antagoniser” but he didn't become involved or know what they were about.
Mr King said that he did not ever see Johnny Depp smashing things up or being violent.
The court was again shown a video of Mr Depp slamming kitchen cupboard doors, which the court was shown last week.
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Questioned about what he had seen during the arguments in the London house, Mr King said that “yes absolutely” he was sure that Ms Heard provoked the arguments.
“I know Mr Depp is a non-confrontational person. He would try and extract himself from the argument, go to another room, get away.”
He said that he had on some occasions seen Ms Heard “follow him (Mr Depp) into another room”.
Mr King was also present during one of the couple’s biggest rows in Australia, during the filming of Dead Men Tell No Tales in 2015.
He says that after Mr Depp had lost the end of his finger in the dispute, he found it in the house.
He described the mess that was left in the house after the argument describing “broken glass, paint, blood, liquid spillages and broken china” around the house but said that he did not find any urine on the carpets.
It had earlier been alleged that Mr Depp urinated “inside and outside the house” but Mr King said he was “quite sure” that there was none when he supervised the clean-up of the building.
He accompanied Ms Heard from Australia to Los Angeles and told the court he had seen “some kind of cuts on her arm” and suggested she should cover them up by pulling down her sleeve but she declined to do this.
He also claims that Amber Heard said to him “have you ever been so angry with someone that you just lost it?” but he replied he had not.
He told the court that she did not say who or what she was referring to and he did not know.
In his witness statement, Mr King told the court that he saw Amber Heard “goading” Johnny Depp and he thought her behaviour to the actor was “cruel”.
Mr King described the couple as “like school children”, he claimed that often their arguments started from very banal incidents.
On one occasion he witnessed a row that started when Ms Heard claimed that Mr Depp had removed his hand from hers while they were watching television and it escalated into screaming at one another.
Johnny Depp, 57, is suing The sun’s publisher News Group Newspapers (NGN), and its executive director, Dan Wootton, over a 2018 article that called him a “wife beater” and referred to “overwhelming evidence” that he had attacked Amber Heard.
Depp denies ever hitting Ms Heard, 34, who has submitted details of 14 occasions during their relationship when she claims he assaulted her. The Sun must prove that the allegations are substantially true.
On Tuesday afternoon, the trial is due to hear from actor Winona Ryder, a former girlfriend of Johnny Depp, via video link.