13 h, feb 26, 2020 y - VANITY FAIR Johnny Depp’s Disturbing Alleged Text Messages Read Aloud in Court as Libel Lawsuit Begins

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Johnny Depp’s Disturbing Alleged Text Messages Read Aloud in Court as Libel Lawsuit Begins

The actor is suing the parent company of the Sun newspapers and, back in the U.S., his ex-wife Amber Heard—who is the subject of some of the text messages presented to the court Wednesday.

BY KENZIE BRYANT

Johnny Depp’s life is about to get even more legally complicated. He is currently spearheading two simultaneous lawsuits, one of which is in London, the other which is in Fairfax County, Virginia. The U.K. one is a libel suit; Depp is suing the parent company of the Sun, News Group Newspapers, over a 2018 article alleging Depp abused his ex-wife Amber Heard while they were married. The U.S. case is against Heard herself, who published an op-ed in the Washington Post that referenced his alleged abuse against her without referring to Depp by name.

Page Six’s Emily Smith reports that Depp’s former legal team accidentally shared 70,000 text messages with the defendants in London (but not with those in the U.S.) At the preliminary hearing at the High Court, where the actor was present on Wednesday, the court heard a selection of those text messages, which Depp reportedly sent to his friend, actor Paul Bettany. He allegedly wrote in November 2013, “Let’s burn Amber.” Then later on the same day, “Let’s drown her before we burn her!!! I will f--k her burnt corpse afterwards to make sure she is dead.”

Another string of texts, in which Depp allegedly references “half a bottle of whiskey, a thousand red bull and vodkas, pills, 2 bottles of Champers on plane,” was used by the Sun’s attorney Adam Wolanski as corroborating evidence for an event in which Heard alleges that Depp kicked her and threw a boot at her before passing out on a toilet. (Heard outlined this particular allegation in her filing in the U.S. case, and Depp’s lawyers have denied the account in full. “Mr. Depp never abused Ms. Heard,” they wrote, “Her allegations against him were false when they were made in 2016. They were part of an elaborate hoax to generate positive publicity for Ms. Heard and advance her career.”).

Depp’s U.K. lawyer, David Sherborne, said, “Nowhere, I repeat, nowhere, is there a single smoking gun, text, or email, no document—unlike Ms. Heard’s own taped confession we looked at before; there is no document where Mr. Depp says ‘I hit Ms. Heard’ let alone ‘I hit her on numerous occasions.’” (He is referring to a tape recently released to media sources that allegedly contain Heard admitting to “hitting” Depp. A spokeswoman for Heard said at the time, “Anyone familiar with the dynamics of domestic abuse would immediately recognize what is really going on here. Throughout the extended tape recording that Johnny Depp vindictively turned over to the press, Ms. Heard repeatedly attempts to placate Mr. Depp, ignore his accusations, and force him to acknowledge what was really happening in their relationship.”)

“One person, one side, is lying, and one is not,” Sherborne added. “Obviously, we say that it is Ms. Heard [who is lying], Mr. Depp is 100% clear about that.”

The former couple began dating after filming The Rum Diary in 2011, and were married in February 2015. After 15 months of marriage, they filed for divorce, eventually agreeing to a $7 million divorce settlement in August 2016. The High Court hearing is scheduled to begin March 23.

SOURCE:
US VA Court Documents:
- Amber Heard Exhibit 994

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