Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Litterbugs scourge still same despite NI lockdown
OUR streets are just as dirty as they were before lockdown, it has emerged.
Surveys by Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful have also found discarded PPE – flagged early on as a new potential scourge on marine life – was less prolific than first feared.
Earlier this year, the organisation revealed more than 1.3 million bits of litter are on our streets at any one time – around 28 tonnes of rubbish.
Chief Dr Ian Humphreys said the pandemic was a chance for people to reset their behaviour.
He added: “Early indications are the cleanliness of our streets is not much different from before the pandemic.
“People have shown huge care for other people during the pandemic so extending that care to the environment is also caring for ourselves and our neighbours.”
Around 3,000 people are fined for dropping letter and Dr Humphreys would like to see that number triple.
He added: “That would have a very real impact if we fined more people.”
AMBER Heard “goaded” Johnny Depp to try to provoke him as the couple regularly argued “like schoolchildren”, the High Court has heard.
Rows had “banal beginnings” before escalating, Depp’s former estate manager claimed in a witness statement.
Ben King, employed on and off by the Pirates of the Caribbean star between 2014 and 2016, said Depp often left notes saying things such as “let’s not do this again”.
Depp, 57, is suing News Group Newspapers over an April 2018 Sun article which called him a “wife beater”.
The piece, which the publisher is defending as true, related to allegations by Heard, 34, who was married to Depp from 2015 to 2017. Depp’s ex-fiancée, Winona Ryder, who says he was “never violent” is set to appear at the High Court in London today to back his claim. Mr King said in his statements he “frequently witnessed Ms Heard goading and attempting to provoke Mr Depp”, adding he never saw him “be violent or unkind”. He also said: “In London, I recall Ms Heard complained Mr Depp had removed his hand from hers, and complained along the lines of, ‘Maybe you don’t love me’. “The argument escalated seriously.
“The way they argued could make them seem like schoolchildren. “During the month in London, and in Australia, I saw Ms Heard as the antagoniser. Mr Depp seemed keen to walk