Johnny Depp’s lawyers today revealed a ‘confidential source’ has handed them a video of Amber Heard attacking her own sister – hours after Whitney Henriquez denied under oath that the actress was ever violent towards her.
The bombshell film proves Amber’s younger sibling was ‘lying’ in the witness box at the High Court yesterday because the footage shows ‘bruises on her face and body’, the megastar actor’s barrister David Sherborne said.
Ms Heard was also accused of messaging Whitney during her evidence on Thursday in another extraordinary twist in her ex-husband Johnny Depp’s libel trial in London. All witnesses, including Whitney, have all been ordered by judge Mr Justice Nicol not to communicate with anybody while giving evidence.
As the 14th day of the biggest libel case of the 21st century began this morning, Mr Sherborne asked the judge to keep Whitney out of the court as they produced a new video which shows Amber being violent towards her. Whitney had testified yesterday that Amber had never attacked her. The judge said he would decide later today if it will be shown in court.
Mr Sherborne told the court that Ms Henriquez had ‘tailored’ her evidence ‘to meet her sister’s evidence’. The barrister added that Mr Depp’s legal team had been provided with ‘material which we say demonstrates Ms Whitney (Henriquez) was lying yesterday’.
He said: ‘After she (Ms Henriquez) gave evidence yesterday, one of our team was contacted by an individual, on the basis of being kept confidential.’ He added: ‘We were contacted to explain that Ms Amber Heard had a history of violence and attacking people and this video, which was attached, of her sister Whitney (Henriquez) was taken shortly after Amber Heard had attacked her and Ms Whitney (Henriquez) was filmed with people commenting on the bruises on her face and body.’
The megastar actor’s legal team have also demanded that Ms Heard is not allowed to use her mobile while the court in more high drama at the Royal Courts of Justice this morning.
The requests came before Ms Henriquez was due in the witness box this morning where she was due to finish her evidence in the biggest libel case of the 21st century. Mr Sherborne said: ‘We ask that Amber Herd be refrained from using her phone [while seated in court]. communication may be happening to Miss Whitney Heard as we speak.’
Actress Amber Heard arrives at the High Court in London this morning for Johnny Depp’s libel case to continue. But proceedings were paused as Mr Depp’s legal team claims Amber was texting her sister Whitney (right) while she gave evidence
Johnny Depp waves as he arrives to attend his libel trial against News Group Newspapers at London’s High Court yesterday
It comes after the High Court also heard yesterday that the drug-addled Hollywood legend scrawled messages to his wife in blood on lampshades, cushions, walls and a mirror, using his badly wounded finger as a paintbrush.
The claim was made at the outset of the 14th day of Mr Depp’s libel claim against The Sun over allegations he was violent to his ex-wife. On Thursday, Ms Henriquez denied Ms Heard had ever hit her, or that she was ‘frightened’ of her sister.
She also gave evidence she saw Mr Depp punch Ms Heard ‘really hard in the head … multiple times’ in Los Angeles in March 2015 in the so-called ‘stairs incident’.
Ms Henriquez admitted that Ms Heard punched Mr Depp on that occasion, but only did so ‘in my defence’ because her sister believed the actor was going to push her down the stairs.
Mr Depp, 57, is suing The Sun’s publisher, News Group Newspapers (NGN), and its executive editor Dan Wootton over an April 2018 article which labelled him a ‘wife beater’ over claims he attacked Ms Heard, 34, during their relationship.
Mr Sherborne told Mr Justice Nicol: ‘In the context of the attack, what I will call ‘the stairs incident’, and the evidence we say of the attack by Ms Amber Heard on Mr Depp, Ms Whitney (Henriquez) you will recall protested that it was only in self-defence and it is the one physical attack that Ms Amber Heard admits to.’
He said that, on Thursday, Ms Henriquez was asked ‘whether Ms Amber Heard was violent’ and said that ‘the stairs incident’ in Los Angeles in March 2015 was a ‘one-off’.
Mr Sherborne continued that Ms Henriquez’s evidence about the incident in March 2015 is ‘the only occasion on which any other human being is supposed to have witnessed’ Mr Depp being violent towards Ms Heard.
He added: ‘The reliability of Ms Whitney (Henriquez) is critical.’
Mr Sherborne said Ms Heard’s evidence is that ‘she was never violent, she (has not) physically attacked Mr Depp … and the only occasion is said to be when she was acting in self-defence’.
‘Evidence that Ms Heard was violent towards her sister is relevant to that issue,’ Mr Sherborne said.
He told the court: ‘We are entitled to put (allegations of) violence to Ms Whitney (Henriquez) … we want to play the video tape to her and ask her about the incident in which Ms Amber Heard attacked her.’
Mr Sherborne added: ‘Had we received this before the end of yesterday, we would have been entitled to put (the allegation) to her and we would be entitled to rely on it in our closing submissions.’
Ms Henriquez’s cross-examination concluded on Thursday afternoon and she was due to be questioned by NGN’s barrister Sasha Wass QC on Friday.
Ms Wass said she had not seen the video and was not aware of it until Mr Sherborne told the court about it.
Mr Justice Nicol said he wanted to ‘press on’ with other witnesses’ evidence ‘and, if there is an opportunity for Ms Wass to see the video before we get to the issue, that would be desirable’.
Amber Heard returned to London’s High Court for her sister to continue giving evidence today after the actress said Johnny Depp threatened to ‘slice up my face’ with a bottle before trashing their house with raw meat.
Whitney Henriquez will go back on the stand one day after passionately backing her sister Heard and saying Depp repeatedly attacked her – including once when she saw the actor grab her by the hair and hit her in the face.
Ms Henriquez will finish her evidence this morning before Heard’s acting coach Kristina Sexton appears by video link from Australia and Heard’s friends iO Tillett Wright and Raquel ‘Rocky’ Pennington give evidence from the US.
Yesterday Ms Heard gave a horrific account of the carnage of her husband’s three-day ecstasy and whisky rampage at their rented house on the Gold Coast in Australia, where he was shooting a Pirates of the Caribbean film in March 2015.
She told Mr Justice Nicol: ‘He held me up against the fridge by my neck, screaming at me for ruining his life. He said over again I had ruined his f****** life, and that I did this, I did this to him, I made him mad. He held a bottle to my face and said he would slice up my face.’
She said Depp had washed down ten ecstasy tablets with whisky before he ripped off her clothes and grabbed her breasts, choked and slapped her and hurled her over a ping-pong table.
She said the self-confessed alcoholic pelted her with 30 bottles ‘like grenades’ after she complained about his drinking.
He held her by the neck while smashing a phone ‘repeatedly over and over into the wall, screaming at the top of his lungs’ until the phone ‘disappeared’ into shredded bits, she said.
It was this, she suggested, that cut off the tip of Depp’s finger – later discovered behind the bar – rather than his claim that it was a vodka bottle she hurled at him.
Amber Heard’s acting coach says she heard actress and Johnny Depp argue – but never saw star turn violent against his ex-wife
Amber Heard and her girlfriend Bianca Butti arrive at the Royal Courts of Justice in London today for the libel trial to continue
Kristina Sexton said she met Amber Heard in 2009 and became her acting coach in 2010.
Eleanor Laws QC put it to Ms Sexton that she had ‘enthusiastically supported her (Ms Heard) by making this statement’.
Ms Sexton replied: ‘I disagree with the idea that I was enthusiastically supporting her – I was asked to tell what I saw and I told what I saw.’
Ms Laws said: ‘After she and Mr Depp had separated and before the world knew about it, so the time you found out about the allegations, did you know that during that period of time she was contacting Mr Depp, calling him and telling him that they could stop the whole process?’
She added: ‘No doubt that would have surprised you at the time.’
Acting coach Ms Sexton replied: ‘No… that wouldn’t surprise me at all.’
Ms Laws then asked Ms Sexton about her evidence that Amber Heard told her in 2014 that Mr Depp was ‘was very concerned about her being around James Franco and basically insisted that she had to be on the set with him in Boston, or he had to be on set with her in New York’.
She asked: ‘It wouldn’t surprise you at all either that Mr Franco was visiting Ms Heard late at night (in 2016) the day after Ms Heard and Mr Depp separated?’
Ms Sexton said: ‘I have no idea… I have no knowledge of her personal relationship with Mr Franco.’
Ms Laws also asked about Ms Heard telling Ms Sexton in early 2016 that she was ‘worried about the publicity of leaving’ Mr Depp.
Ms Sexton said: ‘She was worried about repercussions, that was one element of what she was worried about, yes.’
Ms Sexton told the court Amber Heard ‘began opening up’ about the physical violence she alleges took place after the actress’s 30th birthday party in April 2016.
She said she had ‘no reason to believe’ Ms Heard was lying about Johnny Depp, adding: ‘I did experience them arguing in my presence.’
Ms Laws then put it to Ms Sexton that, when Mr Depp arrived to Ms Heard’s birthday party on April 21, the actor was ‘sociable, coherent and affectionate to Ms Heard’.
Ms Sexton disagreed, adding: ‘He was sociable… but his speech was slurred.’
She said he kept trying to go towards Ms Heard and had to be kept upright by friends, adding: ‘He was clearly inebriated.’
She also said Ms Heard and Mr Depp had a disagreement at the dinner table over a story he was telling.
Ms Laws then moved on to ‘what Ms Heard told you had happened in Australia (in 2015) and how Mr Depp had received the injury to his finger’.
The barrister read out a section of Ms Sexton’s deposition in the US libel proceedings, brought by Mr Depp against Ms Heard, which said: ‘She told me that he had broken the bottle and cut himself with the bottle that he had broken.’
Ms Sexton also said in that deposition: ‘She didn’t indicate that he cut off, like went purposely to cut. What it seemed to me is that he had broken the bottle against something and was doing things with the bottle, like shaking it around and that he had cut himself on that.’
Ms Laws said: ‘What you were saying during that deposition was that Ms Heard had told you that Mr Depp had cut his finger off on a bottle… did she give you detail about that?’
Ms Sexton replied: ‘Not a great deal. There was a lot of crying occurring when it happened.’
Eleanor Laws then said: ‘There’s another incident that you were present at, and that at Hicksville (in 2013).’
The barrister put it to Ms Sexton: ‘You didn’t witness any arguments or violence at all.’
Ms Sexton said: ‘I saw the wrecked trailer, I heard them arguing and I heard them being taken to the trailer, but I didn’t see, I heard.’
Ms Laws suggested: ‘The trailer was not trashed, it was just a wall light that was broken.’
Ms Sexton replied: ‘I mean, it was pretty messed up from what I saw. There was broken glass everywhere. I would consider that to be trashed.’
Ms Laws then asked Kristina Sexton about her account of Ms Heard’s 30th birthday party in Los Angeles on April 21 2016, which she described as ‘an ugly night’ in her evidence in the US libel proceedings
In her deposition in the US proceedings, Ms Sexton also said: ‘I was there for a solid two or three hours before Johnny came down and joined us.’
Ms Laws said Ms Sexton’s evidence was ‘a complete mischaracterisation’, adding: ‘What you’re saying (in that deposition) is that he was upstairs refusing to come down and was very late for the party.’