Johnny Depp is the victim of "career-ending" false allegations, his lawyer has claimed on the final day of the star's libel case over an article published in The Sun.
Mr Depp, 57, is suing the tabloid’s publisher, News Group Newspapers (NGN) and its executive editor, Dan Wootton, over a 2018 article which labelled him a “wife beater”. NGN relies on 14 alleged incidents of domestic violence against the star by ex-wife Amber Heard. Mr Depp denies the allegations of violence and claims Ms Heard, 34, was the one who was abusive.
The Hollywood star accused Ms Heard of severing his finger by throwing a vodka bottle at him when the pair were in Australia in 2015. Ms Heard said the injury to Mr Depp’s finger took place during what she described as a “three-day hostage situation”, and in her statement she said she “figured it might have happened when he was smashing the phone on the wall by the fridge”.
Mr Depp also claims that Ms Heard "or one of her cohort" defecated in his bed as a "prank", an event which he calls a "fitting end" to their relationship. Ms Heard strenuously denies the accusation and maintains it must have been one of their pet dogs.
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Ms Wass claims Mr Depp's employee 'falsified evidence for their boss'
Sasha Wass then moved on to “the penultimate incident” on April 21 2016, and said Johnny Depp “suggested that it was Ms Heard who had been the violent party and that she had punched him in the face”.
She said one of Mr Depp’s security guards Sean Bett “claimed to have taken a photograph of (a) visible injury” after that incident, but that “the photo Mr Bett produced was taken on March 23 2015, over a year before”.
Ms Wass said this was one of the “clearest examples of one of Mr Depp’s employees falsifying evidence for their boss”.
She added: “Mr Bett, as a former police officer… would know better than any other witness how important it is to be accurate when producing exhibits.”
Ms Wass also said that “on Mr Depp’s account… there would be no reason to have any broken glass” in the couple’s bedroom following that alleged incident.
But the barrister added that Amber Heard’s friend Raquel Pennington saw “glass shattered all over the floor” when she went to wake up Ms Heard the following day, which Ms Wass said supported the account that Mr Depp smashed a bottle of wine against the wall the night before.
Mr Depp accidentally 'headbutted Ms Heard' says Ms Wass
Sasha Wass also referred to a text exchange between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s father David sent shortly after the alleged incident in December 2015.
Mr Heard says in the text to Mr Depp: “I understand a man’s got to be a man and I’m not saying you were completely justified but I understand.”
Ms Wass said Mr Heard was “clearly talking about the assault” and described the text as “one abusive man talking to another on equal terms”.
Mr Heard also says to Mr Depp that “Amber needs help with her temper” and that the actor needed help with with drink and alcohol.
Ms Wass said that, in his reply to Mr Heard, Mr Depp admitted “he went too far in the fight”.
The barrister then referred to a recording of a meeting between Mr Depp and Ms Heard in San Francisco in July 2016, after Ms Heard obtained a restraining order, in which Mr Depp “admitted headbutting Ms Heard” by accident in December 2015.
She said that, in response to “that evidence (which) came to light shortly before this trial… Mr Depp has now changed his evidence and has accepted that he may have headbutted Ms Heard accidentally”.
Ms Wass said: “That being the case, Mr Depp is saying for the first time that there is a possibility that, accidentally, he could have caused some injury to Ms Heard on December 15 (2015) and, that being the case, where does this leave the evidence of Ms (Samantha) McMillen who claims to have seen no injuries… before the James Corden show?”
Johnny Depp's witnesses stuck to 'a repeated mantra', says Sun lawyer
Sasha Wass QC told the court: “In this case, there are disconcerting similarities as to the phraseology between the statements made by Mr Depp’s dependants and employees, particularly when it comes to the question of make-up and injuries.
“They all come to say that they saw Ms Heard on a given occasion with no make-up and no injuries and they have not left any room for mistake.
“The evidence might have been more credible had they said… ‘it didn’t look to me like she was wearing make-up’ or ‘I certainly didn’t notice any injuries’, but that is not what they have said in their statements.”
Ms Wass referred to the evidence of 13 of Johnny Depp’s witnesses who claimed to have seen Amber Heard shortly after alleged incidents of domestic violence, who she said all stuck to “a mantra that is repeated: wearing no make-up, no bruises, cuts or injuries”.
Sun lawyer suggests Johnny Depp's stylist did not tell the truth
Sasha Wass said Samantha McMillen, Johnny Depp’s stylist who worked for Amber Heard during the relationship, “gave a different account in support of Mr Depp” in relation to the aftermath of the alleged incident on December 15 2015.
She said: “She claimed to have seen Ms Heard with no bruises and no make-up and she could not be budged from that position, so there is a direct conflict in this case (between) the person who did the make-up (Melanie Inglessis) and would have seen Ms Heard at close range and the stylist who was present when the make-up was being done.”
Ms Wass said that what Ms McMillen “did confirm was that, at the end of the James Corden show, Ms Heard said to her ‘I don’t know how I got through the show with two black eyes’”.
She continued: “Ms McMillen said that, despite being given what was extraordinary information, she failed to ask Ms Heard anything about it. We suggest Ms McMillen has not told the truth.
“Whether she is lying to protect Mr Depp or lying because she fears being blacklisted by Mr Depp, it is not possible to say but she has lied.”
Ms Wass reminds court of incident where Ms Heard's hair 'had been torn out'
Sasha Wass reminded the judge of the evidence of Amber Heard’s friend Raquel (Rocky) Pennington, who said when she went to penthouse three in the aftermath of the alleged December 2015 incident she could see Ms Heard’s head was bloody and “chunks of her hair had been torn out”.
She said Ms Pennington told the court she noticed Ms Heard’s face was red, her nose swelled up, and her lip was bleeding.
Ms Wass said Ms Pennington was able to give an account of what Ms Heard told her had happened at the hands of Johnny Depp, and that she took photographs of Ms Heard’s injuries at the time.
She said there were photographs taken on December 16 which showed injuries to Ms Heard’s face.
The barrister said there was also a text sent on the morning of December 16 to Ms Heard’s friend iO Tillett Wright, in which the actress said: “I need you. Johnny beat me up… Rocky’s on the couch with me now. I’m hurt and don’t know what to do.”
'No room for accident in Amber Heard's injuries', her lawyer tells court
Sasha Wass told the court Amber Heard described an alleged incident in December 2015 as one of the most violent nights of the couple’s relationship, and the barrister said the allegations were again “supported by a wealth of evidence”.
She said: “Mr Depp was intoxicated and violent. He headbutted her, he chased her up the stairs, grabbed hold of her hair and dragged her by the hair into PH (penthouse) four.
“He threw her onto the bed and hurled himself on top of her with such force that the bed frame was damaged.”
Ms Wass said Johnny Depp then went to the kitchen in penthouse three and wrote in gold paint: “Why be a fraud? All is bullshit.”
She said that after that incident, Ms Heard messaged her publicist Jodie Gottlieb to say she had had “an accident” and was “really bruised and might have a black eye or two”.
Ms Wass said: “If this was an elaborate hoax, why would Ms Heard be protecting Mr Depp at this stage?
“Because she is not telling her publicist she was assaulted by her husband – which is, we suggest, the truth.
“She is pretending it was an accident and, for the avoidance of doubt, there is no room for accident in the injuries Ms Heard suffered, because it was not only the headbutt… but it was the pulling out of her hair in clumps and the damage caused to her scalp.”
Ms Wass said Mr Depp admitted in evidence that there may have been a headbutt, but it was accidental.
However the barrister said there was “no way he was dragging Ms Heard by her hair in a way that was anything other than deliberate”.
Depp 'appears to accept he is culprit majority of the time in recording', Heard's lawyer claims
Sasha Wass told the court about the evidence in relation to the couple’s honeymoon in July 2015 on a train in south-east Asia.
She said Amber Heard described an argument during which Johnny Depp assaulted her, while the actor’s evidence was simply that he had not been violent towards his wife in any way.
The barrister referred to Ms Heard’s handwritten diary entry from July 27 2015, in which she said the actress gave a “graphic description” of Mr Depp trying to strangle her with her own shirt.
Ms Wass said that, despite Mr Depp saying he was not violent towards Ms Heard in his evidence, the actor said in a September 2015 audio recording of the couple discussing their relationship that they had a great time “other than we had a fight on the train which was physical”.
She said the conversation was not simply about Ms Heard being responsible for all the violence, but that Mr Depp was also accepting being physical, which she said was “completely absent from his witness statement or his evidence in this case”.
Ms Wass said in another part of the conversation, Mr Depp “appears to be accepting that he is the culprit the majority of the time” and that he says sometimes “I just freak out”.
The barrister said: “That is exactly what this case is about, Mr Depp freaking out after he has taken too many illegal drugs and drunk too much alcohol.”
Kevin Murphy 'feared his job was at risk'
Sasha Wass said Kevin Murphy’s evidence was that if he did not give a statement in the Australia court proceedings over the dogs, his job would have been at risk.
She told the court: “Had such a threat been made, it would have been inconceivable that Mr Murphy did not go to Mr Depp about this matter.”
The barrister said in his first witness statement for this trial, Mr Murphy gave the “misleading impression” that, having been threatened to make the statement in the Australian proceedings, he in fact did not make it.
Ms Wass said when Mr Murphy suggested that he believed Kate James, Ms Heard’s former assistant, had arranged the paperwork for the dogs, that was “not true”.
She said Mr Murphy had accepted in his evidence that was a lie in the Australian proceedings, adding: “And the lie was for Mr Murphy to cover up his own incompetence for not doing his job properly.
“But the importance is Mr Murphy was clearly willing to lie to a court and that is exactly the suggestion that is levelled at him in these proceedings.”
'Considerable amount of evidence' given about couple's dogs being illegally taken to Australia
Sasha Wass said a “considerable amount of evidence” was given about the couple’s pet Yorkshire terriers, Pistol and Boo, being illegally taken to Australia in April 2015.
She said Pistol was Amber Heard’s pet and Boo had been bought by Johnny Depp for his mother, but she later gave the dog back to the actor, so the couple “effectively owned a dog each”.
The barrister said the dogs were taken on a private plane, chartered by Mr Depp, to Australia.
She said both Ms Heard and Mr Depp would have had to sign a declaration on entry to Australia, but that Mr Depp was “shielded from responsibility by a combination of his lawyer…and Ms Heard accepting responsibility”.
Ms Wass said: “To suggest that this episode is a sign of Ms Heard’s deceit or mendacity, and failing to mention any part Mr Depp played, is utterly misleading.”
She said the suggestion made by Mr Depp’s former estate manager Kevin Murphy, whose responsibility Ms Wass said it was to make sure the paperwork in relation to the dogs was completed properly, that he was bullied by Ms Heard was untrue.
She added that it was “another distraction, another red herring, that is being concocted so as to distract from the central issue which is whether Mr Depp is a wife beater or not”.
Depp 'made another attempt to remain clean and sober' after 'staircase incident'
Sasha Wass QC said that, following “the staircase incident”, Johnny Depp “made another attempt to remain clean and sober, or I should say get clean and sober”.
She told the court: “He had to return to film Pirates Of The Caribbean in Australia and Ms Heard agreed to go with him.”
Ms Wass added: “It was suggested to Ms Heard that she would never have returned to the house in Australia had it been the scene of such a dreadful assault and, yet again, we suggest this belies what is known about the complexity of domestic violence.
“Assaults on Ms Heard took place at a number of addresses the couple had shared.”
She continued: “But, most importantly, the Mr Depp who went back to Australia on April 21 2015 was a very different man from the monster who had been present at the early part of April and it appears that Mr Depp had made a real effort to renounce drink and drugs.”
Ms Wass referred to a text from Mr Depp to Jerry Judge around that time in which the actor said the couple were “perfect – all I had to do was send the monster away and lock him up”.
The barrister said: “This text demonstrates that Mr Depp was perfectly aware that taking drink and drugs led to a lack of control and unleashed a violent monster, the Mr Depp who was the hopeless addict.”