Johnny Depp’s lawyer Adam Waldman accused of witness ‘coercion’
A former aide of Amber Heard has lashed out at the biggest a***hole under the sun’, as a photo of the Aquaman actress with a “redenned” face was released by the court.
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Johnny Depp’s lawyer was described as the “biggest a***hole under the sun” as a new photograph emerged of the injuries the actor allegedly caused to his ex-wife Amber Heard.
Mr Depp’s lawyer Adam Waldman was accused of pressuring Ms Heard’s former interior designer into making a statement against her, a London court heard.
The details emerged on day nine of Mr Depp’s libel case against The Sun newspaper over a 2018 article that claimed he was a “wife beater”
Laura Divenere told the court that she was bullied into giving a statement against Ms Heard.
The statement claimed she had not seen any injuries on the 34-year-old’s face in 2016 when she had claimed Mr Depp had thrown a mobile phone at her face.
But a photograph was shown to the court, which had the correct time and date stamps, showed redness on Ms Heard’s cheek.
The image emerged as a text message from the Pirates of the Caribbean actor’s lawyers read out in court sent to Ms Divenere demanding she give evidence supporting Mr Depp against Ms Heard’s “hoax.”
Ms Divenere did sign a statement claiming that she did not see evidence of injuries on Ms Heard after she claimed Mr Depp assaulted her on May 21, 2016.
However, Ms Divenere later said in a conversation recorded by Ms Heard that she did not want to testify against her.
“He was the biggest a***hole under the sun. They made me sign a declaration,” Ms Divenere remarked about Mr Waldman in the recording.
“I didn’t know anything, Amber, you have no idea, I absolutely adore you.”
She said that Mr Depp’s lawyers demanded to know whether flowers that she delivered to Ms Heard were from Tesla billionaire Elon Musk.
Ms Heard started dating Mr Musk after she split with Mr Depp, but the Edward Scissorhands actor claimed that the couple had an affair while he was still married to the Aquaman actress.
Mr Musk has outside court denied that he had an affair with Ms Heard, with the court hearing conflicting claims about when he was first seen at the Eastern Columbia apartment building where Ms Heard lived.
The audio recording, which Ms Divenere did not realise was being taken, also revealed claims from Ms Heard that Mr Depp’s lawyers had tried to coerce other witnesses.
“They are threatening people to coerce statements out of people and people are able to be tricked if you don’t know anything about,” Ms Divenere said.
“It’s all manipulation. They literally made up this thing about Whitney (her sister) practising hitting me. It’s literally just made up.”
And Ms Heard said that she had kept the alleged abuse hidden.
“It’s not your fault, you didn’t know - I hid it from everyone. It’s what people do,” she said.
The court also heard from actress Katherine Kendall, a victim of Harvey Weinstein who was quoted in The Sun’s article which claimed he was a “wife beater.”
Ms Kendall claimed that a “persistent” Sun reporter had spoken to her briefly and recorded the conversation that was used in the article.
She claimed that she was misquoted and taken out of context.
The article quoted her as saying that “it seems Amber got hurt”, adding “I cannot advocate violence.”
Ms Kendall later texted the reporter saying that she had not wanted to be quoted attacking Depp because “I told you I heard Amber had hit him, which is what as you know I don’t condone ‘any’ violence.”
Mr Waldman was photographed outside London’s Royal Courts of Justice on The Strand on Saturday morning Australian time.
Mr Depp’s barrister was taking snaps on a mobile phone of Mr Depp and Mr Waldman, who was wearing clear rimmed dark glasses.
Ms Heard was due to begin giving evidence on Monday.
PHOTO OF HEARD’S ‘REDENNED FACE’ RELEASED
Elon Musk was seen staying at Amber Heard’s apartment in a luxury art-deco building in Los Angeles after she had broken up with Johnny Depp, a neighbour told a London court.
But a building manager, who accepted he could have the dates “messed up”, claimed that Mr Musk began visiting after Mr Depp injured his hand in 2015, while they were still together.
Mr Depp’s libel case against The Sun newspaper for an article that called him a “wife beater” in 2018 took a diversion into when Ms Heard and Mr Musk started dating.
It comes as a photo of Heard with a “redenned” face was released by the court.
Mr Depp, 57, had claimed that Ms Heard, 34, had an affair with the green car billionaire while she was still with him, which outside court Mr Musk has denied.
Ms Heard split from Depp in May 2016 but was still living in the glamorous Eastern Columbia tower in penthouse three, alongside neighbours who were close friends of Depp.
She changed the locks on the apartment and hired private security the day after she claimed that Mr Depp had hit her and thrown a telephone at her.
Isaac Baruch, an artist that Depp has known for 37 years, gave evidence from the United
States via video link on day 9 of the trial, which was on Friday night Australian time.
Mr Baruch said that he had only seen Mr Musk after May 21, which was when Ms Heard had broken up with Mr Depp.
“Yes, I saw him twice around the building and it was after May 21st,” he said.
“I saw him the first time coming out of the elevator and I was going into the elevator.”
Mr Baruch, who lived in a penthouse rent free provided by Mr Depp, on the same floor as Ms Heard.
“Second time I saw him was in the morning time, I’m looking out my bedroom window and he’s walking next door from Johnny and Amber’s apartment. He was walking from the balcony to the connecting walkway,” he said.
“Maybe he’s going to the gym, maybe he’s going to the roof, it’s a nice view.”
David Sherbourne, barrister for Mr Depp, asked Mr Baruch to clarify if it was possible that Mr Musk had been in the building before May 21, but not been seen.
“Me, no, from my apartment how am I going to know who’s anywhere?” he said.
Mr Baruch was grilled about what he had seen at the apartment after the incident on May 21 where Ms Heard claimed she was attacked and he was shown a photograph of her injuries.
He stuck to his witness statement where he claimed he could not see any of the marks on Ms Heard’s face in person that matched what was in the photographs.
Another staff member, Alejandro Romero, a manager at the Eastern Columbia building claimed that Mr Musk was visiting “a few times a week” when Mr Depp was not at home.
The visits included a time where he arrived shortly before midnight before he was eventually given a fob key to the apartment and access to the building’s car park.
Mr Romero said that he could only remember that Mr Musk’s visits started about the time Mr Depp severed his finger on the Gold Coast, which happened in 2015.
He said that Mr Musk came to the building the day after Mr Depp hurt his hand.
When under questioning from Sasha Wass, QC, for The Sun, he said he could have mixed the dates up.
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“Probably I have got the dates messed up, I’ve got 147 units, I cannot remember everything,” he said.
The court also heard Mr Depp called Heard a “c***” after they split up and he sold apartments in the Eastern Columbia building.
“I hate it but I’ve got to lose those f****** penthouses. That c*** ruined such a f****** cool life we led for a while. I can’t even look at the building anymore,” Mr Depp wrote.
“F***** up. I really loved that spot.”
The case continues.
stephen.drill@news.co.uk