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Tribune News Service
Tribune News Service
Entertainment
Peter Sblendorio and Joseph Wilkinson

At defamation trial, Amber Heard describes alleged sexual assault committed by Johnny Depp

In bombshell testimony Thursday, actress Amber Heard described multiple incidents in which ex-husband Johnny Depp turned physically violent toward her — including claims of a brutal sexual assault with a vodka bottle.

The actress fought back tears as she described the alleged assault by Depp at a home in Australia in 2015, as she spoke at her defamation trial.

“I’m on the countertop, he had me by the neck,” Heard said on the witness stand. “I just remember being really still, not wanting to move.”

Heard said Depp held her down while shoving a liquor bottle into her vagina and threatening to kill her.

“‘I’ll f---ing kill you,’ that’s what he said over and over,” Heard testified.

The actress said her arms and feet were also bruised during the attack. She said before the bottle assault, Depp threw her into a makeshift table, which collapsed when he climbed on top of her.

Heard said that when she woke the next morning, she realized Depp had not slept and instead apparently embarked on a whirlwind tour of destruction through the residence. She said she saw incoherent messages, written in blood and paint, on the walls and on various objects in the house.

“I remember I made him coffee. As soon as I handed it to him he threw it at the TV and started screaming again,” Heard said. The couple eventually called Depp’s security team and multiple nurses.

According to Heard’s testimony, that was far from the first time Depp allegedly attacked her. She claimed that Depp struck her in the face after accusing her of flirting with a woman at the 2014 Met Gala in New York City.

“We get back to the hotel room, and Johnny shoves me and kind of grabs me by the collarbone area. ... I think at that point, while we were still in the living room, I shoved him back, but I don’t really recall too many specifics,” Heard told the seven-member jury at the Fairfax County Circuit Court in Virginia.

“I remember he threw a bottle at me. It missed me but it broke the chandelier. ... At some point, Johnny and I are in a struggle in the living room, and he kind of, like, shoves me down on the sofa,” Heard claimed.

“At some point he just whacks me in the face. I think that was the first time that I was like, ‘Is this a broken nose?’”

Heard claimed another 2014 incident occurred aboard a flight from Boston to Los Angeles, saying Depp became upset after she told him she had a romantic scene with actor James Franco in the movie “The Adderall Diaries.”

Heard claimed Depp slapped her in the face before kicking her in the back, which she says forced her to the floor.

“You could hear a pin drop on that plane,” Heard said. “You could feel the tension, but no one did anything. I just remember feeling so embarrassed. Felt so embarrassed that he could kick me to the ground in front of people, and more embarrassing, I didn’t know what to do about it.”

Depp said he never hit Heard during his testimony last month, and denied blacking out during that flight from Boston to L.A.

The actor sued Heard over a 2018 op-ed in The Washington Post in which she described herself as a “public figure representing domestic abuse.” She didn’t name Depp in the piece.

Heard testified that her career was often a point of contention during her relationship with Depp, whom she was married to from 2015-17.

“It became a real fight,” Heard said. “Every time I got a script, it was (about) how I was dressing, what kind of behavior I’d have, did I have a sex scene? And then I started saying, ‘No, I won’t take the sex scenes.’ Or, ‘I’ll take the part where I don’t play that kind of character.’

“Then I started minimizing the kinds of kissing scenes that I had, and eventually I had to change the wardrobe that I could have in the movie. ... Eventually I found myself pushing as many scripts off my desk as I could,” Heard said.

Heard went on to testify about multiple other 2015 incidents where she said Depp attacked her.

She said on March 23, 2015, she caught Depp messaging another woman using an iPad. She claimed the messages showed Depp had been messaging the other woman around their wedding day, Feb. 3.

Heard said she went ballistic on Depp, screaming at him to the point that the two eventually started shoving each other. The incident occurred shortly after the Australia debacle, but Heard said there was only one thought on her mind.

“I didn’t care, in that moment, if he did kill me,” she said, “which was likely, confronting him at that stage in our lives.”

Heard claimed Depp’s struggle with sobriety caused issues. She told the courtroom Depp missed multiple days of production for the film “Mortdecai” and once was carried home by his assistants.

Heard’s testimony began Wednesday, with the “Pineapple Express” actress describing the first time Depp allegedly hit her. She claimed the “Sweeney Todd” star slapped her three times after telling her a tattoo on his arm read “Wino.”

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