‘You’re washed up and fat... you’ll die a lonely man’
What Amber ‘screamed at Depp as she attacked husband in the Bahamas’
JOHNNY Depp’s shrieking wife branded him fat and washed up, mocking him, ‘Your career is over, no one is going to hire you’, the High Court heard yesterday.
Amber Heard is said to have added, ‘You’ll die a lonely man’ before hurling away her wedding ring on the actor’s private island in the Bahamas.
Tara Roberts, manager of the 45-acre island, told the court the Pirates Of The Caribbean star was an ‘ unusually kind man’ but Miss Heard was ‘ a thrower – someone who threw projectiles’, saying she saw her ‘ lunge violently at Johnny’ and pull his hair.
Depp, 57, is suing The Sun newspaper for calling him a ‘wife beater’. He denies ever hitting a woman and claims Miss Heard, 34, was a gold-digger who married him ‘for success and fame’ then constantly harped about his drink and drug binges, pillorying him as a ‘sad old man’.
In a text message to his private doctor David Kipper, Depp complained about the actress’s ‘hideously and purposely hurtful tirades and her goddamn shocking treatment of the man she was meant to love’.
Miss Heard has accused Depp of hitting, throttling, and headbutting her, ripping out clumps of her blonde hair and kicking her during 14 separate incidents of drug-fuelled domestic violence.
Giving evidence via videolink from the Bahamas, Miss Roberts said she had worked on Little Halls Pond Cay, which Depp bought for £2.8million in 2004, for 11 years and that ‘prior to Johnny’s marriage to Amber, he was outgoing, friendly and social’ whenever he visited.
Depp drove his beach buggy to her office on the evening of December 29, 2015, ‘to get away from Amber’, who then showed up, she said.
‘Amber repeatedly berated him with increasing ferocity. She was insulting him, calling him names. I heard her say specifically “Your career is over”, “No one is going to hire you”, “You’re washed up”, “fat”, and “You will die a lonely man”. Amber’s screaming and berating rose to a fever pitch, and Johnny continued to yell “go away” and “leave me alone”.
‘I saw Amber lunge at Johnny, clawing, tugging and aggressively pulling him. I never saw Johnny hit Amber, or push her back, nor did he physically react to the attacks. She would calm down and hug and apologise.’
Miss Roberts said Depp had a gash on the bridge of his nose which he told her came from a can of lacquer thinner Miss Heard threw at him. ‘I never saw her
with any sign of injury,’ Miss Roberts said. The next morning, staff searched for the wedding ring and returned it to Miss Heard.
Depp’s bodyguard Malcolm Connolly told how a month after Depp’s wedding in 2015 he went to ‘extract’ him from a blazing row described by Miss Heard as a ‘three-day hostage situation’ which culminated in Depp sustaining a severed finger. Mr Connolly said the panicking actor told him: ‘Look at my finger. She’s cut my ****ing finger off. She’s smashed my hand with a vodka bottle.’
Miss Heard had also stubbed out a cigarette on his cheek, he said.
It has been alleged that Depp went on a three-day cocaine and whiskyfuelled rampage, choking Miss Heard and daubing ‘I love you’ on the mirror with the blood from his finger, which she says was injured when he smashed a telephone against a wall.
Mr Connolly said Miss Heard ‘did not have any marks on her face or arms’, adding: ‘I was much more concerned about Johnny.’
The Sun’s QC Sasha Wass accused former prison officer Mr Connolly of making up a false account to support his boss. Mr Connolly replied his account was the truth.
Miss Heard wrote in her diary of a fight with Depp during their honeymoon aboard the Eastern & Oriental Express, the court heard.
It read: ‘Our fight was terrible. J at one point found himself with his shirt wrapped around my neck. He hit me several times.’ The couple’s cabin was three or four doors from that of Mr Connolly. He agreed he would not have known about the 3.30am argument.
The judge was shown photographs of the soiled sheets at the centre of an incident on April 21, 2016, after Depp was late for his wife’s 30th birthday, prompting a row. Depp claims Miss Heard or one of her friends deliberately soiled the bed.
Hilda Vargas, a cleaner who took the pictures on her phone before clearing up the mess, told Mr Justice Nicol that Miss Heard later accused her of destroying her marriage to Depp with the photos and claimed there had been no defecation.
Last night Miss Heard issued a statement in which she blamed Depp for the mess.
The case continues.
SHOPPERS not wearing face masks are likely to be refused service under new Government rules.
Ministers are drawing up guidance for shop managers on how to enforce the compulsory wearing of face coverings, which comes into force next week.
It is expected to make clear they have the right to refuse customers service – just as they can turn them away if they were being rude or aggressive.
Although shoppers who do not wear a mask can be fined up to £100, police chiefs say they will struggle to enforce the rules which apply from Friday, July 24.
John Apter, of the Police Federation, said yesterday that officers ‘simply don’t have the resources’ and should only be called upon ‘as a last resort’. Martin Hewitt, of the National Police Chiefs Council, revealed ministers had failed to consult chief constables before announcing the new rules on Monday night.
The guidance on the compulsory wearing of face masks – due in the next few days – will also spell out that it will be up to individual shops to decide how strict they want to be with customers.
Outlining the rules in the Commons yesterday, Health Secretary Matt Hancock explained that compulsory face masks would help restore customer confidence. He said: ‘In recent weeks we have reopened retail [areas] and footfall is rising. We want to give people more confidence to shop safely and enhance protection for those who work in shops.
‘Sadly, sales assistants, cashiers and security guards have suffered disproportionately in this crisis.
‘The death rate of sales and retail assistants is 75 per cent higher amongst men and 60 per cent higher amongst women than in the general population.’
Mr Hancock added that children under 11 and Britons with certain disabilities would be exempt from the rules and the ‘liability’ for wearing a mask would lie with individual shoppers.
He stressed: ‘Should an individual without an exemption refuse to wear a face covering, a shop can refuse them entry and can call the police if people refuse to comply. The police have formal enforcement powers and can issue a fine.’ However, Tory MP Sir Desmond Swayne challenged Mr Hancock in the Commons, branding the masks a ‘monstrous imposition’,
Downing Street announced the rules on face masks on Monday night only a day after Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove implied they would not be compulsory in shops.
He told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show that he did not think coverings would be ‘mandatory’ and the Government would be better off trusting the public. Labour’s health spokesman Jonathan Ashworth yesterday criticised ministers for ‘muddle’, pointing out that even US President Donald Trump is now wearing a mask.
He said: ‘After days of ministerial muddle, we finally have a decision. I’ve long warned that this virus exploits ambiguity and that mixed messaging in a pandemic is so damaging. It didn’t have to be this way. We didn’t have to have this confusion. The Royal Society and the World Health Organisation has long recommended wearing face masks.’
Mr Ashworth questioned why the Government was not introducing the rules immediately.
The measures will not apply to shop workers on the grounds that tills are often behind plastic screens and they will be allowed to protect themselves with adequate social distancing.
Meanwhile, the retail industry claimed it should not be responsible for enforcing the rules in case customers become violent or abusive. Helen Dickinson, of the British Retail Consortium, said: ‘While retailers will play their part in communicating the new rules on face coverings, they must not be the ones enforcing these rules.
‘With hundreds of incidents of violence and abuse directed at retail staff every day, we welcome the announcement that enforcement will be left to the authorities, rather than potentially putting hard-working retail colleagues in harm’s way.’
Customers will be allowed to wear any form of face covering and the rules will bring England in line with Scotland, France, Spain and
Italy. The French government yesterday extended requirements for masks, announcing they would be compulsory in all public spaces from August 1, including offices, pubs, restaurants and cinemas.
Environment Secretary George Eustice did not rule out the mandatory use of face coverings being extended to UK workplaces in future. Sources stressed the evidence is constantly under review.
nUp to 5,000 heart attack victims in England have missed out on life-saving treatment due to coronavirus, a study has revealed.
NHS data shows the number of people admitted to hospital with heart attacks plummeted up to the end of May compared to last year. Study author Dr Marion Mafham, of Oxford University, said some of the ‘missing’ patients are likely to have died outside of hospital.
‘Monstrous imposition’
OPTIMISTS crossing their fingers for a V- shaped recovery from the coronavirus crisis will have been bitterly disappointed by yesterday’s gloomy economic dispatch.
True, there was an uptick in Britain’s growth in May as lockdown eased. But it was pitifully small – a worse-than-forecast 1.8 per cent.
Rather than skyrocketing, the economy is in danger of imploding.
Millions of jobs, prosperity and the dreams of our children and grandchildren are dying before our eyes.
While offices, shopping centres and high streets are deserted, in a parallel universe, parks and beaches throng with happy people. This indolence must end. The economic alarm bells are ringing.
Yes, many have worked cheerfully from home. But however reluctantly, employees must change out of their jogging bottoms and get back to business.
It’s not only their jobs at risk. Outlets that rely on passing customers – cafes, dry cleaners, pubs – will also go to the wall. how to tackle this torpor? Boris Johnson should change official advice from ‘stay home’ to ‘go back to work’.
And instead of Whitehall resembling an uninhabited planet, civil servants could set an example by returning to their desks.
even so, if Britons are scared of catching Covid-19, they won’t venture out to spend money. With luck, making face masks compulsory in stores will reassure them it’s safe, especially with experts increasingly adamant that coverings slow the spread of the virus. Of course, muddle- headed ministers should have told us to wear them when the pandemic struck.
And the Mail sympathises with those disquieted at being compelled to wear one under the threat of a £100 fine.
Indeed, the plan might even deter shoppers, with masks emphasising the disease is still circulating.
But, like wearing seatbelts when driving, we trust that the vast majority will accept it is the right thing to do.
Fingers crossed, this small measure can make a big difference.