Yahoo News Johnny Depp friends and aides to take stage in second week of libel case against The Sun
Film star Johnny Depp’s friends and aides will take centre stage this week in his High Court showdown with ex-wife Amber Heard and The Sun newspaper.
The 57-year-old Pirates of the Caribbean actor spent four days in the witness box last week in the blockbuster trial, answering questions on his appetite for drug taking, drinking, and allegations of violence.
Today, Depp’s personal assistant Stephen Deuters is due to give evidence as well as a friend of the star who stayed in the same Los Angeles suite of penthouses where Depp lived with Heard during their volatile marriage.
Mr Deuters was present on a private jet flight from Boston to California in 2014 where Depp is accused of kicking Heard in the back, slapping her across the face, and pelting her with ice cubes in a drug and drink haze.
Heard claims Depp was in a “blind rage” and jealous that she had been shooting intimate scenes with actor James Franco, however Depp denies any violence on the flight and insists claims he was “raging like a monster” are untrue.
The star told the court Heard was the one “screaming” at him during the flight, and he decided to go and sleep on the floor of the plane’s bathroom to avoid a confrontation.
Also due to give evidence is Isaac Baruch, an artist friend of Depp’s who lived in the penthouse apartment complex where Heard claims she was subjected to violent attacks.
On Friday, the court heard how Depp had arrived late for Heard’s 30th birthday party due to a meeting with his business advisors about his parlous financial position.
Depp said he went to bed to read as Heard was berating him for being late, accusing him of “embarrassing her in front of her friends and for ruining everyone's weekend”.
He denied allegations that he had thrown a bottle of champagne at his wife, thrown her to the ground, and tried to grab hold of her hair.
The court also heard evidence about the final collapse of their marriage in 2016, when Heard says Depp struck her with a phone during a meeting at the penthouse.
Depp denies the allegation, insisting he is the victim of a “hoax” orchestrated by his ex-wife to slur him as a domestic abuser.
Heard had a visible bruise on her cheek when she went to court in May 2016 to obtain a restraining order against Depp and made the first public complaints of domestic violence.
LA Police Department officer Melissa Saenz she said was called out to the penthouse following the alleged telephone attack.
She saw Heard red-eyed, apparently from crying, but told the court she did not see any evidence of injuries to her face.
“Her face was red, it was clear that she was crying, but it did not appear redness as if it would have been from an injury, from my training and experience”, she said.
Mr Justice Nicol asked: “It did not appear that there was injury on her face, is that what you are saying?
Ms Saenz replied: “Correct, no injuries.”
Depp is suing The Sun’s publisher News Group Newspapers and the paper’s executive editor Dan Wootton for libel, over a 2018 article calling him a “wife-beater”.
The trial continues.
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