The second day of Johnny Depp’s libel hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice has heard lurid allegations about the star’s turbulent life with former wife Amber Heard.
The Golden Globe winner is suing The Sun and its executive editor Dan Wootton for libel after having been described as a “wife beater” in a 2018 article.
The Hollywood star maintained that the allegations that he abused Ms Heard were an “elaborate hoax.” But today the court was told that he threatened to throw his former wife’s pet dog Pistol out of a window while high on cocaine.
Sasha Wass QC, representing The Sun, said to the Pirates of the Caribbean star: “At one stage you took hold of Ms Heard’s dog – Pistol – holding her out of the window and you started making howling noises. You thought it was a huge joke.”
Ms heard alleged that Depp threatened to throw her dog out of a window (Image: GC Images)
Depp said that while her allegation was a “very enduring image” it was “fraudulent”.
He said that while his sense of humour was “slightly skewed” that wasn’t the kind of thing he would do.
He did concede that he had joked with Heard and her sister about putting the dog in the microwave. “It was a running joke,” he added.
The couple had a turbulent relationship (Image: WireImage)
Ms Wass read from an email written by Ms Heard. In it the model and actress claimed that Depp had hurt her physically and emotionally and that she did not know if she was dealing with him or “the monster” – his alter ego brought on by anger, jealousy and fuelled by alcohol and drugs.
“It’s like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde,” the email said, adding how friends and assistants had to deal with the actor after he blacked out and soiled himself – later remembering nothing about what he had done.
Depp claims he saw Amber Heard take cocaine in front of him
Pistol was one of two dogs that Heard took to Queensland in 2015 in defiance of Australia’s strict quarantine laws. She had been visiting Depp, who was working on Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales at the time.
The Hollywood couple were fined and forced to apologise for the incident dubbed ‘the war on terrier’ in a humiliating scripted video in which Depp said that Australians are “just as unique” as their wildlife.
The dogs had been brought into the country on a private plane, and the illegal entry was only discovered after a local dog groomer posted a photo of them on social media.
Depp is taking action against Sun publishers News Group Newspapers (Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Wass also told the court that Depp had lost his temper after Heard mocked one of his tattoos which he had changed from “Winona forever” – a reference to his former girlfriend Winona Ryder – to “Wino forever”.
According to Wass, Depp slapped Heard – an act that the Loen Ranger star denied: “That’s not the case, that’s untrue. It didn’t happen,” Depp said. “I don’t recall any argument about any of my tattoos.”
Wass said he had also hit Heard, 34, when he tried to remove a painting from her bedroom given to her by her former partner Tasya Van Ree and tried to set it on fire, one of 14 episodes of violence of which he is accused in the case.
Johnny Depp and Amber Heard are both appearing in court for the libel trial (Image: Getty Images for Art of Elysium)
“I did not hit Miss Heard and furthermore I have never hit Miss Heard,” Depp countered.
Text message exchanges between Depp and British actor Paul Bettany in which they described Heard as a witch were read to the court.
Depp, 57, accused Heard, who is also present at the court, of lying, saying she had attacked him, severing his finger off during one encounter.
The court also heard a detailed account of Depp’s heavy drinking and drug-use, with the actor saying he had tried “every drug known to man” and spent $30,000 a month on wine.
The couple met on the set of the 2011 film “The Rum Diary” and married in February 2015. Heard filed for divorce after 15 months and their divorce was finalised in 2017.
The case is expected to last three weeks.
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
