Amber and £3m broken promise
‘Police could investigate’
Actress ‘may face perjury probe’ after she admits not paying all cash she pledged to charities
AMBER Heard could face a perjury probe by police over a claim she made in the High Court that she would donate £2.8million of her divorce settlement to charity, a legal expert said yesterday.
After her marriage to Pirates Of The Caribbean star Johnny Depp ended in 2017, Miss Heard said she would split the $7million (£5.6million) settlement between two good causes.
However, giving evidence in the couple’s defamation trial in Virlion ginia, US, on Monday, the actress said she has yet to make the full donation to a Los Angeles children’s hospital and the American Civil Liberties Union ‘because Johnny sued me for $50million [£40million] in March of 2019’.
She had previously stated on several occasions that she had made the donation – including under oath at her 2020 High Court libel case with Depp in London.
Depp, 58, who lost the London case, is suing his ex-wife for $50mil
over a piece she wrote in The Washington Post in 2018 in which she said she survived domestic abuse. Miss Heard, 35, is countersuing for $100million and claims his lawyers shredded her reputation by calling her a liar.
Depp’s lawyer Camille Vasquez argued earlier that Miss Heard had the money she pledged to donate for months yet failed to hand it over as she promised. The disclosure has led to accusations she misled the public when talking about the donations on talk shows and may have lied under oath.
Sean Caulfield, of law firm Hodge, Jones and Allen, told MailOnline that Miss Heard could face a perjury probe in the UK as misleading a court ‘cuts to the core of our justice system’. Asked if he could see police investigating the claims, he added: ‘Yes, I think so. While it [the donation] may not be a central issue to the case, perjury is the single biggest threat and cuts to the core of our justice system.
‘So the police may be invited to investigate to show that any mem
ber of the public who lies to the court can be prosecuted for perjury.’ The US court heard Miss Heard was paid the £5.6million in instalments with the final payment of £1.8million arriving in February 2018.
Depp sued Miss Heard in 2019 after her Washington Post piece in December 2018. Miss Vasquez asked Miss Heard: ‘You had all of $7million for 13 months and you chose not to pay it to the charities?’
Miss Heard said: ‘I disagree with your characterisation of that’.
Miss Vasquez continued: ‘Sitting here today, you still haven’t donated the $7million divorce settlement to charity?’ The actress replied: ‘Incorrect, I pledged the entirety... I intend to fulfil my obligations.’
Miss Vasquez said: ‘As of today, you have not paid $3.5million of your own money to the ACLU?’
Miss Heard responded: ‘I have not yet.’ The court was told yesterday that the actress told Depp she wanted to ‘rip him apart and devour him’ in a ‘Love Journal’ shown at the trial. The actress said that she wanted to ‘savour the taste’ of the Hollywood star in the intimate diary they both wrote in.
In another entry, Miss Heard wrote: ‘I am sorry I can get crazy... I can get wicked when I get hurt’.
In a diary entry on May 22, 2015, Miss Heard wrote: ‘True love isn’t about just the madness of passion or picking the safety of peace. It’s about having both. I still more than ever want to rip you apart, devour you and savour the taste’.
The court was also shown photographs from a fashion shoot
‘I want to rip you apart’
that Miss Heard took part in on Depp’s private island in the Bahamas in 2015. She alleged that Depp head-butted and repeatedly beat her weeks earlier – yet the photos showed no sign of injury to her face.
She claimed she suffered a suspected broken nose and he tore clumps of hair out of her head.
The black and white fashion shoot was with English photographer Greg Williams.
Asked if she was wearing makeup at the time, Miss Heard said: ‘Yes – it’s a photoshoot.’ Closing arguments in the six-week trial are scheduled for May 27.