Security backs Depp
Johnny Depp’s security chief testifies that ex-wife Amber Heard physically abused the “Pirates of the Caribbean” star.
Johnny Depp’s security chief has alleged that Amber Heard physically abused Depp during the couple’s tempestuous marriage, giving testimony to support Depp’s libel suit against a British tabloid that accused him of assaulting his former spouse.
Lawyers also released statements from two of Depp’s former romantic partners, Winona Ryder and Vanessa Paradis, who said they could not reconcile Heard’s accusations of violence with the kind and loving man they knew.
Depp is suing News Group Newspapers, publisher of The Sun, and the paper’s executive editor, Dan Wootton ,overan April 2018 article that called him a “wife-beater.” He strongly denies abusing Heard.
In a written witness statement released as he appeared in court Thursday, security officer Sean Bett said that “throughout the course of Mr. Depp and Ms. Heard’s relationship, Ms. Heard was verbally and physically abusive towards Mr. Depp.”
“On many occasions, I witnessed her shout at Mr. Depp. I was also told by Mr. Depp on multiple occasions that Ms. Heard had physically abused him,” he said.
Bett, a former Los Angeles sheriff’s deputy who has worked for Depp for a decade, said he regularly had to remove the “Pirates of the Caribbean” star from bad situations when Heard was in an “abusive mood.”
Depp, 57, and Heard, 34, met on the set of the 2011 comedy “The Rum Diary” and married in Los Angeles in February 2015. Heard filed for divorce the following year, and the divorce was finalized in 2017.
The Sun’s defense relies on 14 allegations made by Heard of violence by Depp between 2013 and 2016, in settings including his private island in the Bahamas, a rented house in Australia and a private jet. He denies them all and claims Heard was the aggressor during their volatile relationship, which he has likened to “a crime scene waiting to happen.”
In a week and a half of testimony, judge Andrew Nicol has heard from Depp — who accused Heard of compiling a dossier of fake claims against him — as well as several current or former employees who have backed his version.
Heard is due to give her side of the story when she enters the witness box next week.