Johnny Depp admitted to sending horrifying texts about ex-wife Amber Heard, including one mentioning having sex with Heard’s corpse “to make sure she’s dead”.
The cross-examination of the actor continued Thursday (April 21) at his defamation trial, with a lawyer for Heard reading aloud graphic and violent-natured text messages the actor wrote and questioning him about his drug use.
Heard’s lawyer, J. Benjamin Rottenborn, referenced multiple messages Depp sent about Heard in 2013 to his friend and fellow actor Paul Bettany.
In addition to the one that mentioned having sex with Heard’s corpse, another read: “Let’s drown her before we burn her.”
Depp confirmed that Rottenborn was reading the messages correctly as the lawyer presented them to the Fairfax County Circuit Court in Virginia.
On Thursday, Depp also told the courtroom Heard would use the term “monster” as a “way of referencing whether she perceived that I was on substances or taking substances”.
He said drugs and alcohol were a point of contention during their marriage, and that he’d tried a variety of drugs by the time he turned 15.
“They have always been a medicine for me, yes,” Depp, 58, told the court. “A numbing agent .... It is to numb the residual pain that I carry from my youth.”
Heard’s lawyer read multiple messages during the hearing in which Depp appeared to reference drug use, including an April 2015 text where the actor raved about his relationship with Heard.
“All I had to do was send the monster away and lock him up,” Depp wrote to Jerry Judge, his longtime security guard. “We’ve been happier than ever.”
Depp sued Heard for defamation over a 2018 op-ed she wrote for the Washington Post, in which she described herself as “a public figure representing domestic abuse”. Heard didn’t name Depp in the piece, but had previously accused the actor of physical and verbal abuse, which he denies.
The cross-examination at the Fairfax, Virginia, courtroom began Wednesday afternoon following two days of testimony from Depp.
During Tuesday’s hearing, Heard told the seven-person jury: “I’m not some maniac that needs to be high or loaded all the time. On film sets, there have been no moments where I would have been considered out of control.”
Depp on Tuesday said he’s never struck Heard or any other woman, and claimed Wednesday that Heard would often “strike out” at him.
“It could begin with a slap,” Depp said. “It could begin with a shove. It could begin with throwing a TV remote at my head. It could be throwing a glass of wine in my face.”
Depp claimed he suffered a severed middle finger in 2015 after Heard allegedly hurled a vodka bottle at him.
During Thursday’s questioning, Depp denied saying at the hospital that he injured his own finger with a kitchen knife.
“No, that’s not true,” Depp said. “I believe there was one of my team who might have said that to the doctor, but those were not my words. At any rate, we were looking to keep Amber’s name out of it.”
Rottenborn also read a message Depp sent to his doctor that reads: ”I have chopped off my left middle finger as a reminder that I should never cut my finger off again.”
Heard, who has been present each day Depp took the stand, will have the opportunity to testify during the trial. The 35-year-old actress and Depp were married from 2015-17.
Depp, a three-time Oscar nominee, previously lost a libel lawsuit against the publisher of British tabloid The Sun over an article painting him as a “wife beater”.
A judge ruled in 2020 the claims were “substantially true”, and Depp was denied the opportunity to appeal the decision last year. – New York Daily News/Tribune News Service
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