Heard twisted rape story
AMBER Heard has been accused of passing off her personal assistant’s rape story as her own.
Kate James, who worked for Heard between 2012 and 2015, gave evidence in Johnny Depp’s libel case against The Sun newspaper for an article labelling him a “wife beater”.
Ms James told a London court she had received text messages from the actor shortly after his divorce from Heard but denied that she was testifying against Heard because of loyalty to Depp.
Ms James said, when quizzed by Depp’s barrister David Sherbourne, that she was angry at the actress for using a story about when she was raped in Brazil at knifepoint more than 20 years ago.
“Ms Heard referred to a conversation we had about me being violently raped at machete point in Brazil and she used it as her own story,” she said via video link from Los Angeles to London’s High Court.
“She referred directly to a violent rape that occurred to me 26 years ago and she twisted it into her own story and she used it for her own use.”
The court was also told that Heard had described actor James Franco as “rapey” when she had been discussing the way he behaved to her during a filming.
Ms James said for the past five years she had been working in Hollywood for a different boss.
She said Heard was “probably the least-known person I have ever worked with in Hollywood, to be honest”.
And Ms James claimed that Heard, 34, had accessed her account to delete a “barrage of drunk” and “abusive” latenight text messages she had sent to her.
She said Heard had permissions for the iCloud account they were sent from.
Sasha Wass QC, for The Sun, asked Ms James about how Depp had texted her shortly after his divorce from Heard, inviting her for a drink and describing Heard as “scum”.
“Thank you sweetheart. I’m disgusted that I f..king touched that scum,’’ the text from Depp, 57, to Ms James said. “Back on Tuesday and then court.
“Will hit you when I get back … come for a spot of purple and we will fix her flabby ass nice and good. Loveth, J.”
Ms James denied that she had been compelled to lie in the case, saying she had simply forgotten the text message she had received from Depp.
“I had forgotten because I don’t save text messages and that was many phones ago,” she said.
She said that she did not know how much alcohol either Heard or Depp would drink because she did not spend time with them at night, as she had to look after her child.
Depp’s former partner Winona Ryder did not give evidence as planned on Thursday morning Australian time.
The case continues.