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Amber Heard Sobs on Witness Stand While Recounting Sexual Assault

1
Gene Maddaus
·3 min read

Amber Heard broke down in sobs on Thursday as she told a jury that her ex-husband Johnny Depp had sexually assaulted her with a bottle during a fight in Australia.

Heard took the stand for the second day, as she continued to recount a series of violent incidents that marked their relationship. She said the fight in Australia — during filming of the fifth “Pirates of the Caribbean” film in March 2015 — was prompted by Depp’s jealousy and her concern about his drug use.

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She said Depp had repeatedly hit her, threw bottles at her and choked her against a refrigerator, before finally getting her on top of a countertop and penetrating her with a bottle.

“I remember just not wanting to move,” she said. She said she remembered thinking, “Please, God, I hope it’s not broken.”

She said Depp repeatedly said, “I’ll fucking kill you.”

Heard is defending herself in a $50 million defamation trial in Fairfax, Va. Depp has accused her of fabricating her domestic violence allegations to advance her career. His lawsuit alleges that he lost out on the sixth “Pirates of the Caribbean” film and other movie roles after Heard referred to herself as a “public figure representing domestic abuse” in a December 2018 op-ed.

Heard began her testimony on Wednesday afternoon, recounting how she first met Depp and fell in love with him. But she said she also discovered that Depp could become extremely jealous — especially when drunk or high — and fly into rages.

On Thursday, she told the jury about a flight on a private jet in May 2014, when she alleges that Depp slapped her and then kicked her to the floor. She also told the jury of other violent episodes, in Tokyo, and on Depp’s private island in the Bahamas. She said Depp could be verbally cruel, calling her a “whore,” a “slut” and a “fat ass.”

Depp has denied ever assaulting Heard. He already told the jury his own version of events surrounding the Australia fight, alleging that she severed his fingertip when she threw a bottle at him.

Heard has previously testified about these incidents during a trial in the United Kingdom, but the details of the alleged sexual assault were kept confidential in that proceeding.

In her testimony on Thursday, Heard also said she ended up with cuts on her arms and feet from the broken glass. She said, at one point, Depp had held a broken bottle to her jaw, and threatened to “carve up my face.”

She said the next morning she found a series of messages that Depp had written on the walls in his own blood and in paint.

Heard also told the jury about a fight in December 2015, when she said that Depp dragged her by the hair up the stairs. He said the two got into a shoving match, and that Depp head-butted her squarely in the nose. She said she instantly felt searing pain in her nose.

Depp previously testified that he was trying to restrain Heard from hitting him by putting her in a bear hug, and the contact was incidental.

Later that night, Heard said that she told Depp that she was going to leave him. She said that Depp dragged her into another room, threw her on a bed, and kneeled on her back. She said he repeatedly punched her, and screamed in her ear: “I fucking hate you!” She said she could not breathe.

“I thought, ‘This is how I die,'” she said. “He’s going to kill me now. He’s going to kill me, and he won’t even have realized it.”

The trial will take a one-week break before testimony resumes on May 16, when Heard will return to the stand. She has yet to complete her direct testimony, and Depp’s lawyers will then have the opportunity to cross-examine her.

Judge Penney Azcarate told the jury that closing arguments are set for May 27.

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