Teo kin to stand trial
THE daughter of acclaimed neurosurgeon Charlie Teo will stand trial on a dangerous driving charge over a serious crash in NSW last year that left an ex-bikie boss critically injured.
Nicola Annabel Teo, 24, will fight a charge of dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm after pleading not guilty in court yesterday.
Police allege Teo crossed on to the wrong side of the road and crashed into a Harley-Davidson driven by former Comanchero boss William George “Jock” Ross on September 25, 2019. Mr Ross, 76, suffered critical leg and internal injuries.
MOVIE star Johnny Depp is alleged to have sent a series of text messages begging for drugs before he allegedly assaulted ex-wife Amber Heard while filming Pirates of the Caribbean in Queensland. The texts, aired in the High Court in London amid calls for his libel claim against The Sun to be thrown out, allegedly show he tried to buy “MDMA and other narcotics” while on the Gold Coast with ex-wife Amber Heard in 2015. The texts allegedly include references to “happy pills” and “whitey stuff”. Depp is suing the newspaper’s publisher, News Group Newspapers (NGN), and executive editor Dan Wootton over a 2018 article claiming the actor was violent and abusive to Heard over three days in Australia.
The paper’s lawyers have urged a UK judge to throw out Depp’s libel claim because the actor failed to disclose the text messages as evidence relating to his drug use. At a preliminary hearing on Thursday, The Sun’s lawyer, Adam Wolanski, said withholding the texts was a breach of a previous court order requiring Depp to provide all documents from separate libel proceedings against Heard in the US.
Mr Wolanski said a series of messages, which he referred to as the “Australia drugs texts”, between Depp and Nathan Holmes, an assistant, show that the actor tried to get drugs in Australia. He read out messages sent in late February
and early March 2015 – shortly before the alleged incident between Depp and Heard – and told the court the texts included references to “happy pills”, which he said referred to MDMA, and to cocaine.
According to Daily Mail Australia, Mr Wolanski went on to say the texts showed Depp’s “increasing exasperation about the fact that he doesn’t have any drugs there and then” which “set him off” on an alleged violent rampage against Heard.
He said texts obtained by his client allegedly sent to Depp’s assistant Mr Holmes on March 7, 2015 said, “May I be ecstatic again?” The barrister said that was “a reference to ecstasy” and that the use of the word “again” meant it was “a request for further ecstasy”.
On the same day, Mr Wolanski said Depp texted Mr Holmes “need more whitey stuff ASAP”, which Mr Wolanski added “must be a reference to cocaine”.
Mr Wolanski said Depp began to grow frustrated in subsequent texts.
He said another text read: “F--king give me the goddamn numbers, I will take care of this s--t, don’t bother,” later adding that he did not want anyone to “lecture” him about drugs.
Mr Wolanski read out passages of Ms Heard’s evidence in which she claims she was subjected to “a three-day ordeal of physical assaults” by her former husband, during which time he was taking MDMA and drinking heavily.
A decision will be made regarding the paper’s application to dismiss the case in light of the absent texts in coming days.
Depp, 57, and Heard, 34, met on the set of the 2011 film The Rum Diary. Depp strenuously denies the violence allegations against him, and has counter-accused Heard of being abusive.
Depp and Heard are both expected to give evidence at the London trial, which begins July 7 after being postponed from March because of coronavirus. Witnesses are likely to include Depp’s ex-partners Vanessa Paradis and Winona Ryder.