Johnny Depp has said his relationship with ex-wife Amber Heard was “a crime scene waiting to happen” during the third day of his high-profile libel case against The Sun newspaper.
The Pirates Of The Caribbean star is suing News Group Newspapers, publisher of The Sun, and the paper’s executive editor, Dan Wootton, over an article the tabloid published in April 2018, in which they called him a “wife beater” and referred to “overwhelming evidence” that he attacked Heard during their relationship. He strongly denies the allegation.
On Thursday, he faced further intense questioning over his relationship with Heard, including a visit to Australia in March 2015, when it is alleged he assaulted Heard and “completely destroyed” a house in a drink and drug-fuelled rage.
The trip – during which Depp was filming scenes as Captain Jack Sparrow in the fifth Pirates of the Caribbean film – is one of 14 alleged incidents of domestic violence, all denied by Depp, relied on by NGN in their defence against the actor’s libel claim.
Sasha Wass QC, lead counsel for NGN, told the court that Depp’s former private security guard, Jerry Judge, had told Heard that if he and Depp’s other employees had not stepped in, “either you or he would be dead”.
The barrister said: “It appears Mr Judge is saying that if they hadn’t come along when they did, either you would be dead or Ms Heard would be dead.
“That would be an odd thing to say if it was Ms Heard who was the only violent party – do you agree or not?”
Depp replied: “There are several times when I have spoken to Ms Heard and said, ‘listen, we are a crime scene waiting to happen’.”
Earlier, Wass had said Heard alleges there was a “three-day ordeal of assaults” in Australia, “during which [Depp was] under the influence of drugs including MDMA and you were violent”.
Depp said: “I vehemently deny it and would go so far as to say it is pedestrian fiction.”
The actor was also accused of “reinventing” his account of how his finger became severed during the Australia trip.
Depp claims Heard injured the finger when she threw a vodka bottle at him, which she denies.
Wass put it to him that he had not said that Heard was responsible for the injury when he messaged his private physician, Dr David Kipper, nor in a text to his friend actor Paul Bettany, which said: “Just had the tip of me finger nicked off as it happens.”
She said: “You didn’t tell the hospital, you didn’t tell Dr Kipper, you didn’t tell your sister and you didn’t tell Mr Bettany.”
Depp said he had told Dr Kipper, to which Wass said: “You told Dr Kipper after Ms Heard got a domestic violence restraining order.”
She added: “You have reinvented the account of how this happened,” to which Depp replied: “No, ma’am”.
The court heard a text message from Depp to Kipper said of Heard: “Her obsession with herself is far more important, she is so f****** ambitious, she’s so desperate for fame, that’s probably why I was acquired.”
The court was also told the star had used his severed finger, dipped in paint, to scrawl graffiti in the house.
The actor later said that when he realised the top of finger was missing “and pouring blood profusely and the bones was sticking out, I believe that I went into some kind of breakdown”.
Wass said Heard “came downstairs in the morning … and the house was completely destroyed”.
Depp agreed with the lawyer that the house was “wrecked” after the couple’s argument, acknowledging he’d written on mirrors by dipping his bloody fingertip in paint. However, he said Heard was responsible for most of the damage to the house.
“That is completely untrue,” Wass said.
“Thank you, but it’s not,” Depp replied.
During cross-examination at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, the court also heard about an alleged incident during a trip on the Eastern and Oriental Express in the summer of 2015.
“I didn’t go back to alcohol or substances at this point as I wanted everything to work out,” Depp said. “I knew that the relationship would have a better chance of working if I resigned myself to doing the things that would please Ms Heard.”
Wass said the train journey “ended up with violence, it became physical, as I think you have described it”.
Depp said: “It was one incident in our cabin.”
Wass said: “You hit her around the face, tried to choke her and tore off her T-shirt and you eventually calmed down once ‘the monster’ had gone away.”
Depp said: “I say that that’s not at all what happened.”
Depp also said he accidentally headbutted his ex-wife during a heated argument in December 2015, in which he is said to have been “in an uncontrollable rage”.
The High Court heard a recording of a conversation between the couple shortly after the incident, in which Depp appears to say he only headbutted her in the “f****** forehead” – which he said “doesn’t break a nose”.
In the recording, Heard can be heard to say: “You had been screaming … it’s the end-all-be-all in the sort of offensive thing.
“You can throw a punch but yet screaming’s OK. You can headbutt somebody who’s screaming but don’t scream.”
Depp then seems to say: “I headbutted you in the f**king …” before he is interrupted by Heard, who says: “I couldn’t believe you did that.”
The actor then says: “… forehead. That doesn’t break a nose.”
Depp claimed the allegation was “another wonderful thing to put in the kaleidoscope of her dossier that she (Ms Heard) is building”.
He added: “This injury that she would’ve suffered is not consistent with the photographs that she has given to the court.
“She was swinging wildly at me, and I … from behind, as I was walking away from the argument to my office, she was hitting me in the neck, ear, back, everything.
“I turned to cover my head and she was swinging quite wildly so the only thing I could do in that situation was either to run or to try to get hold of her, to get my arms around her to stop her flailing and punching me, so I did so, as I did so it seems there was a collision.”
Depp demonstrated with his arms how he claims he took hold of Heard and said she was “kicking and moving” so there was “very close contact” between them.
He added: “That is the only collision and the only potential injury that Ms Heard could have had, there is no way I did as she said and broke her nose.”
Wass put it to Depp that, by December 2015, “you were routinely using violence against Ms Heard when you were intoxicated and when you were angry”.
Depp said: “I say that is incorrect. Most of the time I tried to get away.”
He added: “Most of the time, Ms Heard’s problem was that I would run away from fights and I was then called a coward and a pussy for trying to avoid an escalation.”
The actor’s case against NGN and 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 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.