Amber Heard furiously denies assaulting Johnny Depp or previous partners as evidence ends

18 May 2022, 08:40

Amber Heard furiously denied assaulting Johnny Depp or any previous partners as she finished giving evidence in the US defamation trial.

Mr Depp's lawyer Camille Vasquez raised allegations that Heard hit her ex-girlfriend Tasya van Ree in 2009.

Ms Heard was arrested after she allegedly hit van Ree on the arm and pulled her necklace off but charges were quickly dropped.

"Johnny Depp isn't the only partner of yours that you've assaulted," Ms Vasquez said.

Ms Heard replied: "I've never assaulted any partner. I've never assaulted Mr. Depp or any other person I was romantically linked to, ever."

The actress was also grilled on her relationship with James Franco as two days of questioning came to an end.

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Ms Vasquez asked about a visit Mr Franco made to her Los Angeles penthouse in May 2016, which followed an argument with Depp.

She denied knowing Mr Depp was out of town at the time, claiming she "didn't know his schedule".

Ms Heard has claimed he was a friend, adding: "I'd exhausted my support network and I was happy to welcome as much friendship as I could possibly get."

Earlier, she was accused of photoshopping images to make it look like she had been injured by Johnny Depp.

Ms Vasquez showed the court two photos of Ms Heard's face taken in 2016.

The photos appeared to have different colourings, leading Ms Vasquez to accuse the Aquaman actress of editing them to make her face appear redder.

Ms Heard denied the allegations, saying: "No, I didn't touch it."

She said the different colours were due to the fact the pictures were taken in different lighting.

Also on Tuesday, Ms Heard said her 2018 Washington Post article which sparked the defamation case is "not just about Johnny".

The actress said her former partner was "included" in her descriptions of how institutions protect powerful men accused of abuse.

Mr Depp is suing Ms Heard over the piece, which his lawyers say falsely implies he physically and sexually abused her while they were together.

He has denied all accusations.

The article was titled 'I spoke up against sexual violence - and faced our culture's wrath. That has to change' and was published in December 2018, two years after Ms Heard filed for a restraining order against Mr Depp.

During her second day of cross-examination, Ms Vasquez questioned Ms Heard directly about the alleged defamatory statements made in the op-ed.

Ms Heard admitted that she had publicly accused Mr Depp of domestic violence in 2016, after giving testimony during her application for the restraining order, but said the article was about her experiences after the relationship had ended.

"That was the more interesting thing for me to write about," she said.

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Addressing her description of a large ship being hit by an iceberg and being "patched up" by lots of people, she said Mr Depp had been "included" in the analogy, along with other public figures "being accused as well".

"I was talking about a bigger issue than just Johnny... when powerful men do something horrible or that they shouldn't, how there is a system in place to protect them, to clean up after them," she told the court.

"This was a reference to not just Johnny but what was happening as a culture when we were addressing a lot of MeToo issues.

"(It was) not just about him, but he is included in that yes... but I wrote this in the context of many men at the time, public figures in the public eye being accused as well.

"So it was a reference in general to a larger phenomenon, not just Johnny."

Ms Vasquez also questioned Ms Heard about the title of the article that was published and its reference to sexual violence which she published a link to on social media.

"I did not write that," she said, adding: "I may have (seen it), I just didn't notice it."

Asked why she had not asked The Washington Post to change the title, she added: "I didn't ask them, nor did I think I needed to."

Ms Heard was also questioned over multiple alleged violent incidents during the relationship, including one in which she claimed to have been violated by the actor with a bottle.

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Ms Vasquez challenged Ms Heard about the timeline of the incident at a property in Australia in March 2015, in which the top of Mr Depp's finger was cut off.

Ms Heard previously gave a tearful account of the incident in which she claimed Mr Depp had held her by the throat and smashed glass at a property.

She told jurors that following a struggle they had ended up on a counter top and she had seen Mr Depp holding a bottle before feeling "pressure on my pubic bone".

Ms Vasquez suggested to Ms Heard that she was "the one that assaulted someone" during the incident and said she was inconsistent about the "sequence" of events.

"You're putting things in sequence when you use words like 'then'," Ms Heard responded.

The trial continues.