Tyre laws to change after mum’s fight
Ex-employee says Heard kicked off rows Depp never ‘violent or unkind’ court hears
TRAGIC Michael & Frances
A BEREAVED mum’s campaign has led to a change in the law surrounding the use of older tyres.
Frances Molloy has been campaigning for a change in the law since the death of Michael, 18, in a coach crash as he came home to Liverpool from Bestival on the Isle of Wight in 2012.
An inquest into the crash found it was caused by a 19-year-old tyre.
Roads Minister Baroness Vere announced yesterday it would be made illegal to have tyres more than 10 years old on the front wheels of lorries, buses and coaches, and all wheels of minibuses.
But Tyred, Mrs Molloy’s campaign group, said that without a complete ban on old tyres, there was still a “significant safety risk” on Britain’s roads.
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 away from arguments.” He added: “I want to make clear I did not see any violence at any time.”
Mr King said before taking the job he was told Depp was teetotal, so he was “surprised” to see “a relatively large” amount of wine at the London home.
During their stay in
2014, he says he did not see Depp drink, but he believed Heard
“would regularly drink at least one or two bottles a night”.
In Australia in 2015, he claims he was called to a house the couple were renting where there was a “significant amount of damage”.
He says he found
Depp’s severed finger-tip on the floor of the bar area while clearing up broken glass.
Depp has been accused of subjecting Heard to a “three-day hostage situation” and trashing the house, which he denies. He claims his finger was severed when she threw a bottle, which she denies.
A photo of the scene shown in court pictured blood splattered on the floor.
Mr King claimed he did “not recall” clearing up a broken phone. Depp earlier said one was broken during the row.
Heard later asked Mr King: “Have you ever been so angry with someone you lost it?”, he claims.
Heard’s former assistant Kate James said the actress acted as if she was “above the law” after “smuggling” her dogs into Australia.
She “did not care about throwing any- one under the bus, if it meant saving her skin”, she alleges. The case continues.