Amber Heard arrives to finish her testimony at Johnny Depp libel trial - Culture

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.