Johnny Depp accused of suffering 'blackouts' over violent behaviour

The film star Johnny Depp has been accused in court of suffering “blackouts” and having no recollection of his violent past because of his excessive drinking and drug-taking.

During his second day in the witness box at the high court in London, the 57-year-old actor faced allegations that his self-destructive behaviour and jealousy of his ex-wife Amber Heard led him to assault her repeatedly in the course of their four-year relationship.

Depp is suing the Sun’s publisher, News Group Newspapers (NGN), and its executive editor, Dan Wootton, over an article that called him a “wife beater” and referred to “overwhelming evidence” that he had attacked Heard.

The libel case is expected to last three weeks. Heard, 34, has submitted details of 14 occasions during their relationship when she claims she was assaulted by Depp. He denies ever hitting her.

Challenging his account of a flight on a private jet from Boston to Los Angeles

in May 2014, when he was alleged to have kicked his wife in the back, Sasha Wass QC, representing the Sun, suggested: “You had a blackout, didn’t you? … You may have done some things you don’t remember.”

Depp admitted in court that he may have blacked out but added: “I do have some memories of the flight ... I’m not a violent person, especially not with women … I deny that I kicked her in the back.”

An email from Depp was read out to the court about the flight, in which he later admitted having stayed up drinking the night before and taking “powders”, a reference to cocaine. Depp’s message referred to himself as having consumed a further two bottles of champagne on the flight, resulting in him turning into an “angry, aggro Injun”.

In another text read out to the court, Depp appeared to apologise to Heard for that behaviour. Wass asked why he had sent it if, as Depp alleged, it had been Heard who had been “badly behaved”. Depp said it had been important to “placate” Heard afterwards.

Wass said Depp had been jealous of the fact his wife was playing the “love interest” in a film opposite the American actor James Franco.

Depp has admitted he was addicted to Roxicodone, a narcotic, pain-relief drug he had been prescribed. He denied being addicted to other substances.

Wass asked Depp: “Do you have a problem remembering some of the things you were doing because of your excessive consumption of alcohol?”

He replied: “For someone who was pretty self-destructive during my life, I have been pretty lucky that my brain is