Depp vs Heard: 20 bombshell moments
Jurors in the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard defamation trial have finally come to a decision. Here are 20 big moments of the trial that captivated the world.
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It had all the pace, intensity and intrigue of a Hollywood blockbuster.
The Johnny Depp and Amber Heard defamation trial saw the leading man and woman play almost every role imaginable: star witness, ruthless abuser, battered victim.
Depp, 58, sued Heard, 36, for defamation and $US50 million ($A69.6 million) in damages over a 2018 article in The Washington Post in which his former wife described herself as “a public figure representing domestic abuse”.
His lawyers argued his reputation was damaged, even though the article never mentioned his name.
Heard filed a $US100 million ($A139 million) counterclaim against Depp after his lawyer called her allegations a hoax.
The twist was the audience didn’t know which one of the professional actors was telling the truth – and which one was lying.
That decision rested with the jury at Virginia’s Fairfax County Circuit Court, which ruled in favour of Depp on Wednesday (local time).
The jury had front row seats to the best drama in town, with lurid and graphic evidence of the glamour couple’s explosive short marriage.
They found that Heard defamed Depp in the article that they agreed was false, defamatory and with malice, on all counts, and awarded him US$15 million damages, comprised of $10m compensatory and a further $5m punitive.
Here is what the jury heard and what they used to decide their verdict.
ASSAULT WITH A BOTTLE IN AUSTRALIA
Heard’s lawyer alleged Depp sexually assaulted his then-wife with a bottle during a violent fight in Australia, where the couple were living when he was filming the fifth instalment of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.
“I didn’t know if the bottle he had inside me was broken,” she said.
“I couldn’t feel it. I couldn’t feel anything.”
CAVITY SEARCH FOR DRUGS
Heard said Depp performed a “cavity search” on her in a trailer after they took psychotropic mushrooms.
She alleged he accused her of hiding his drugs, ripped her dress off, and patted her down.
“He was telling me, ‘We’re going to do a cavity search. He just shoved his fingers inside me’,” she said, claiming he twisted his fingers around inside her.
THREATS TO KILL
Heard alleged Depp threatened to kill her when the two were holidaying in the Bahamas in July 2013.
“He slams me up against the wall … slams me up by my neck. Holds me there for a second and tells me he could f—king kill me. [That] I was an embarrassment … I made him feel sick,” she claimed.
‘MUTUAL ABUSE’
Heard and Depp’s former marriage counsellor Dr Laurel Anderson said the couple were “both victims of abuse in their own homes”.
Asked whether Heard had ever reported any physical violence by Depp to her, Dr Anderson said yes.
Asked in court whether “there was violence from Depp toward Amber”, she said: “Yes, you’re right.”
“He had been well controlled for, I don’t know – 20, 30 years, and both were victims of abuse in their homes, but I thought he had been well controlled for decades. And then with Heard he was triggered and they engaged in what I saw as mutual abuse.”
DEPP REVEALS POST-TRAUMA
The actor spoke about abuse he suffered from his mother Betty Sue Palmer, who “had the ability to be as cruel as anyone can be”.
Depp said the family learned to live with the physical abuse – but the psychological torture “tore us up”.
After his “kind”, “quiet” and “shy” father left his mother, Depp’s mother spiralled into depression.
It also led to his own drug taking, telling the court he took all the drugs “he was aware of” by the age of 15.
THE FINGER INJURY
Depp claims his finger tip was sliced off by a vodka bottle thrown at him by Heard.
“I felt no pain at first all,” he said.
“I felt heat and as if something was dripping down my hand.
“I was looking directly at my bones sticking out. Blood was just pouring out.”
The incident happened in March 2015, in Australia.
Heard claims he suffered the injury while drunk.
MESSAGES SCRAWLED IN BLOOD
After his finger was severed, Depp said he started “to write in my own blood on the walls”.
“Little reminders from our past that essentially represented lies that she had told me and lies that I had caught her in,” he said.
The court heard their temporary Aussie home was heavily damaged, with “a coffee cup stuck into the screen” of the TV, and messages written in paint and blood on the walls and furniture.
FAECES IN DEPP’S BED
Depp said he was shown a photo of “our bed and on my side of the bed was human faecal matter”.
Depp said his “initial response” was to “laugh”.
“It was so outside, it was so bizarre and so grotesque that I could only laugh.”
Heard claimed the dog left the faeces in the bed.
TEXT MESSAGES
“Let’s drown her before we burn her!!! I will f*** her burnt corpse afterwards to make sure she is dead...” Depp said to a friend in one text exchange presented to the court.
In another, to Heard’s sister he wrote: “I never ever want to lay eyes on that filthy whore Amber”.
In another, to his doctor, he called himself a “monster”, something he later said he did to placate Heard.
COKE WITH MANSON
Depp said he took cocaine a few times with Marilyn Manson.
“I once gave Marilyn Manson a pill so that he would stop talking so much,” he said.
SECURITY REVEALS HEARD PUNCHED DEPP
Depp security guard Travis McGivern said Heard allegedly punched his client in the face during a fight in March 2015
He said he “heard and saw a closed fist contact Mr Depp in the left side of his face”, saying that it was Heard’s fist.
“The initial look on” Mr Depp’s face was “shock”, Mr McGivern said.
HEARD’S RECORDINGS: ‘SEE HOW MANY PEOPLE BELIEVE YOU’
Heard’s legal team presented this recording to the court.
“By the way, my family, my friends, everyone around me saw all the bruises, a broken blood vessel under my eye, bruises on my head, the missing chunks of hair, the split lip, the black eye, the swollen nose,” Heard could be heard saying.
In a recording played to the court, Heard tells Depp to go public about their relationship.
“Tell them, I, Johnny Depp, I’m a victim of domestic abuse … and see how many people believe or side with you.”
MET GALA ‘BROKEN NOSE’
Heard told the jury she suspected Depp broke her nose after punching her during a fight after the 2014 Met Gala.
“At the Met Gala, he was accusing me of flirting with a woman. We get back to the hotel room, he shoves me and grabs my collarbone. I remember he threw a bottle at me, missed me, hit the chandelier...at some point, he just whacked me in the face.”
HEARD’S ‘BORDERLINE PERSONALITY’
Dr. Shannon Curry, a clinical and forensic psychologist, was asked by Depp’s lawyers to provide a psychological evaluation of Heard.
She assessed Heard to have borderline personality disorder, and a histrionic personality disorder, which is behaviour that shows a pattern of excessive attention-seeking
Dr Curry said Heard does not suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder from her relationship with Depp and accused her of “grossly exaggerating symptoms”.
‘I’LL GIVE YOU CRAZY’
In a video of an argument, Depp is seen slamming cabinets and pouring out a so-called “mega pint” of wine out before he sees the camera.
“Want to see crazy, I’ll give you [expletive] crazy. I got your crazy. All you’re crazy,” he said on the video.
In court, he added: “Clearly I was having a bad time … I did assault a couple of cabinets but I did not touch Ms Heard.”
THE KNIFE
A large knife Heard gave Depp for his birthday was shown to the court, something Depp’s legal team raised to suggest she wasn’t afraid of him.
“This is the knife you gave to the man who would get drunk and violent with you, right?” Camille Vasquez, Depp’s lawyer, asked.
“This is the same knife that I gave him as a present in 2012, yes,” Heard replied.
IMAGES OF DEPP PASSED OUT
Heard said she started gathering evidence so people would believe her.
Jurors were shown images of Depp passed out in various locations. “He was drinking at the restaurant and [his] kids were kind of noticing, but not really sure what to make of it … Johnny became upset with me for judging him,” she said.
The jury also heard audio of Depp “howling like an animal” on a domestic US flight.
HEARD’S AIRPORT ‘ASSAULT’
A witness for Depp testified she saw Heard in an altercation with a woman, her then partner, in 2009 at Seattle Airport.
She said Heard was “aggressive” and appeared to rip a necklace off her partner’s neck, leaving an abrasion.
FIGHT OVER FRANCO
Depp allegedly hated Heard working with James Franco and called her a “slut” for filming sex scenes with him.
On a private plane, during an argument about Franco, she said Depp, threw things at her and slapped her.
KATE MOSS BOMBSHELL
Kate Moss denied a rumour spread by Heard, that Depp pushed her down a flight of stairs.
Moss said she did fall down stairs in Jamaica, but she slipped.
“Did Mr Depp push you in any way down the stairs or during the course of your relationship?” she was asked.
“No. He never pushed me kicked me or threw me down any stairs.”
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