The 57-year-old "Pirates of the
Caribbean" star is suing the Sun's publisher,
News Group Newspapers, at London's High Court
after the tabloid labelled him a "wife beater"
in a 2018 article.
The court has heard evidence from the paper's
lawyer that Depp violently attacked his former
wife on at least 14 occasions over three years
from 2013, when enraged by jealously and having
consumed large amounts of alcohol or drugs.
The actor would become, according to Heard, 34,
and by his own account, "the monster", the Sun's
lawyer Sasha Wass has told the court.
Depp rejects all the allegations that he
attacked his wife and says Heard was lying,
making up a choreographed hoax as part of an
"insurance policy" dossier, and that she had
attacked him.
The court was told on Monday that one incident
occurred after Heard's 30th birthday party in
2016 which Depp had been late to following a
meeting with his business advisers.
At that meeting, he was told his previous
managers had lost $650 million he had made from
films, a "ludicrous" sum, he said, and that he
owed $100 million because he had not paid tax
for 17 years.
He told the court Heard accused him of making
her look foolish in front of her friends and had
attacked him while he was reading in bed,
throwing a "haymaker" wild, swinging punch at
him.
Appearing in the witness box for a fifth day,
Depp was also asked by his lawyer David
Sherborne about the transcript of a conversation
the couple had in 2016 after Heard had gone
public with her accusations.
"Either I'm in a secret fight club ... (or) I
have been plotting to do this for three years,"
Heard said, according to Sherborne. "No one is
going to believe that."
"REVERSE CONFESSION"
Depp said he believed what Heard was saying was
a "reverse confession". "It seemed everything
she accused me of was something she had done to
me," he said.
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Heard and Depp met in 2011
while co-starring in the film "The Rum Diary"
and married in 2015. Heard filed for divorce 15
months later when she first said publicly Depp
had abused her and the divorce was finalised the
following year.
The court has been shown a number of pictures
Heard took of herself with injuries she says
Depp inflicted. Wass, the Sun's lawyer, said the
photos were taken to show the Hollywood star
when he had sobered up and in her witness
statement Heard had said she "never imagined"
they would form part of a court case.
Depp said he was never shown the pictures.
The court heard from Depp's assistant Stephen
Deuters, who was asked about a text he sent to
Heard the day after she says the actor kicked
her in a drunken rage while on a private jet.
"When I told him he kicked you, he cried,"
Deuters wrote in the text. He told the court
Depp had only made a playful attempt to tap her
on the bottom with his foot and that he
described it as a kick simply to appease her. He
said he never saw Depp being violent towards
her.
The libel case has heard some extraordinary
revelations and allegations about the couple's
relationship.
Judge Andrew Nicol was told Depp had headbutted,
slapped, kicked, threatened and thrown bottles
at Heard during heated arguments.
Depp has previously recounted how in one
incident, Heard had severed the tip of his
finger when she threw a bottle of vodka at him.
He used his damaged finger to scrawl messages
across the house using his blood and paint, the
court heard.
A few weeks after that incident Depp is accused
of repeatedly punching Heard. The actor said on
Monday he could not have done so as he had a
cast on his hand because of his damaged finger.
Heard is due to start giving evidence on Friday
with the trial expected to last three weeks.
(Reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Janet
Lawrence)
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