Amber Heard: Barnaby Joyce slams Johnny Depp’s ex-wife over her role in Pistol and Boo saga
Barnaby Joyce says Amber Heard must be investigated for perjury after a court hears allegations about her role in the infamous incident involving her dogs on the Gold Coast.
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EXCLUSIVE: Barnaby Joyce has demanded that Amber Heard be investigated for perjury after a London court was told Johnny Depp’s personal assistant was allegedly forced to make a false statement about Pistol and Boo.
The couple’s dogs were at the centre of an international media storm in 2015 when they were brought into Australia in breach of biosecurity laws.
Former Nationals leader Mr Joyce, who was deputy prime minister at the time, threatened to euthanise the Yorkshire terriers because they did not have the correct paperwork and were not subjected to quarantine.
He told News Corp Australia on Tuesday night authorities should consider taking action after evidence was aired in Depp’s blockbuster libel case against The Sun that Heard was warned not to bring the dogs to Australia.
“Is the defence for perjury that you have got to be able to act?” Mr Joyce said. “What is the point of having laws if they are not pursued?”
Depp is suing The Sun newspaper over a 2018 article that he says falsely claimed he was a “wife beater”.
Kevin Murphy, an assistant who worked for Depp until 2016, told the High Court in London that Heard had pressured him to lie under oath about when the couple were charged with bringing the dogs into Australia illegally.
Mr Murphy claimed in his witness statement that Heard said, “I want your help on this. I wouldn’t want you to have a problem with your job.”
He said that he had told Heard “by email, telephone and in person that she could not take the dogs to Australia because the relevant paperwork and permits were not complete and the required 10 day quarantine arrangements had not been put in place”.
“I also informed her that the criminal penalties for knowingly smuggling animals into Australia without following the correct procedures could be severe.”
Mr Murphy said in his statement that he warned Heard that Australia was more strict than the Bahamas on biosecurity “where Ms Heard had previously smuggled the dogs on a prior occasion.”
He alleged in his statement that “Ms Heard later told the court in Australia that I had told her it was fine to bring the dogs into Australia. That is false and I never told her this.”
Mr Joyce criticised Heard for what he said was her lack of regard for Australia’s biosecurity laws.
He claimed he was still waiting for an apology from US talk show hosts who pilloried and mocked him in 2015 at the height of the scandal.
Heard had said in a statement to the Southport Magistrates Court about the smuggling of the dogs into Australia that it fell to “her husband’s people” and that she “did not recall” whether she ticked no to the quarantine question about whether she was bringing animals into Australia.
Heard received a one-month good behaviour notice without conviction in April 2016 after she pleaded guilty to producing a false document to Australian customs officials.
The couple later apologised for breaching biosecurity laws in a bizarre video.
stephen.drill@news.co.uk