Witness: Depp grabbed Heard by the hair and hit her repeatedly

Washington: Johnny Depp grabbed his then-wife Amber Heard by the hair and repeatedly struck her in the face during a heated argument about a month after their marriage, her sister said.

Heard also punched Depp during the March 2015 fight at their Los Angeles penthouse, Whitney Henriquez testified at the high-profile defamation case between the celebrity couple.

Depp filed suit against Heard over an op-ed she wrote for The Washington Post in December 2018 in which she described herself as a “public figure representing domestic abuse”. Heard did not name Depp in the op-ed, but he sued her for implying he was a domestic abuser and is seeking Us$50mil (Rm219mil) in damages.

Heard countersued, asking for Us$100mil (Rm439mil) and claiming she suffered “rampant physical violence and abuse” at his hands.

Depp, during his four days on the witness stand, denied ever striking Heard and claimed that she was the one who was frequently violent.

Henriquez, who lived for a time in the same penthouse complex as Depp and Heard, said the couple had a volatile relationship.

Henriquez recounted in detail the March 2015 incident at Depp’s Los Angeles penthouse complex.

She said Heard woke her up in the middle of the night to tell her that Depp had been cheating on her and that the newly married couple then got into a fight.

“They were saying really nasty things to one another,” Henriquez said. “Johnny runs up the stairs. He comes up behind me, strikes me in the back kind of.”

“I hear Amber shout ‘Don’t hit my f ***** g sister,’” she said. “She smacks him, lands one.”

Henriquez said Depp’s bodyguard moved to intervene, “but by that time Johnny had already grabbed Amber by the hair with one hand and was whacking her repeatedly in the face with the other”.

The bodyguard pulled them apart, she said, and Depp then proceeded to trash the penthouse, breaking numerous items in the kitchen and emptying racks of Heard’s clothes on the ground.