Key moments in the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard defamation trial

(Reuters) – Actors Johnny Depp and Amber Heard are suing one another for defamation, every claiming they had been abused earlier than and through their roughly two-year marriage. A Virginia jury is listening to the case, which is anticipated to run by way of late Could.

Beneath are key moments within the trial to date:

— Depp testified that he by no means hit Heard or some other lady. He mentioned she was the one who turned abusive and “bullied” him with “demeaning identify calling.”

“It appeared like pure hatred for me,” Depp mentioned. “If I stayed to argue, ultimately, I used to be certain it was going to escalate into violence, and oftentimes it did.”

— Throughout an argument in Australia in early 2015, Depp mentioned Heard threw a vodka bottle that severed the highest of his proper center finger. The actor mentioned he went into shock and wrote messages to Heard on the wall utilizing blood from the finger.

Heard supplied a special account, sobbing as she informed the jury that Depp sexually assaulted her that night time by inserting a liquor bottle in her vagina. “I used to be scared,” she mentioned. “I had simply married him.”

— A number of months later, Heard mentioned, Depp broke her nostril and ripped out chunks of her hair throughout one other violent encounter.

— Heard’s attorneys launched pictures that they mentioned confirmed accidents after numerous arguments, together with scars on her arm that had been seen as she posed on a purple carpet, and redness and swelling round a watch that she mentioned was struck by a telephone thrown by Depp. Attorneys for Depp confirmed pictures from public appearances that they mentioned had been taken across the time of their fights and appeared to point out no accidents.

— Depp testified that feces had been discovered within the couple’s mattress in 2016. One in all his safety guards mentioned Heard informed him it was “a horrible sensible joke gone flawed.” Heard denied any involvement and instructed one of many couple’s canines was accountable.

— Heard mentioned Depp first turned bodily abusive when he slapped her after she laughed at a tattoo that mentioned “Wino Without end.” The tattoo beforehand mentioned “Winona Without end,” referring to Depp’s former girlfriend, Winona Ryder.

— Jurors heard an audio clip of Depp threatening to chop himself with a knife throughout one in every of their final in-person encounters.

“That is psychologically, emotionally the place I used to be,” Depp mentioned. “On the finish, I used to be damaged … I believed the one reply is right here, take my blood, that is all I’ve acquired left.”

— Heard’s attorneys launched textual content messages during which Depp referred to as Heard a “filthy whore” and mentioned he needed her useless.

Writing to actor Paul Bettany in 2013, Depp mentioned: “Let’s drown her earlier than we burn her” and “I’ll fuck her burnt corpse afterward to verify she is useless.”

(Reporting by Lisa Richwine; Enhancing by Leslie Adler)