Johnny Depp said Amber Heard was ‘as full of s**t as a Christmas goose’ and blasted her ‘constant insults’ after claiming his wife smashed his hand with a vodka bottle and ‘cut my f***ing finger off’, a court heard today.
The Pirates of the Caribbean star sent a series of texts criticising Heard to his doctor after his finger was severed in Australia in March 2015, and accused her of marrying him because she was ‘so desperate for success and fame’.
He told Dr David Kipper that Heard had said he was a ‘sad old man’ and ‘has been’ and blasted her ‘hideously and purposely hurtful tirades and her goddam shocking treatment of the man she was meant to love’.
Depp said in the texts: ‘I just cannot live like this… She is as full of s**t as a Christmas goose. I’m done. NO MORE…!!! The constant insults, the demeaning, belittling, most heartbreaking spew that is only released from a malicious, evil and vindictive c**t!!!!! But, you know what… ??
‘FAR MORE hurtful than her venomous and degrading, endless ‘educational’ ranting…??? Is her hideously and purposely hurtful tirades and her goddam shocking treatment of the man she was meant to love, above all…
‘Here’s the real deal, mate… Her obsession with herself..?? Is far more important… She is SO F***IN’ AMBITIOUS!!! She’s so desperate for success and fame… That’s probably why I was acquired, mate…!! Although, she has hammered me with what a sad old man, has been I am…
‘Cowan (Dr Connell Cowan, another doctor) has done me the most cruel of favors… I’m so very sad… I cut the top of my middle finger off… What should I do!?? Except, of course, go to a hospital… I’m so embarrassed for jumping into anything with her…’
Meanwhile his former bodyguard claimed in court today that Depp said Heard had ‘cut my f***ing finger off’ after smashing his hand with a vodka bottle and stubbing a cigarette on his face during a blazing row.
Malcolm Connolly, who has worked for Depp and his family for about 16 years, said the actor was ‘in emotional distress and panicking’ after his finger was severed in Australia.
The incident is one of 14 allegations of violent behaviour Heard has made against her former husband which are at the centre of his libel claim against The Sun newspaper being heard at the High Court in London.
Mr Connolly said in a witness statement that when he and another security guard arrived at the property, Depp told him: ‘Look at my finger. She’s cut my f***ing finger off. She’s smashed my hand with a vodka bottle.’
It comes amid another round of bombshell evidence in court this week which has heard claims including:
- Depp has a ‘remarkable’ ability to not get drunk despite drinking ‘a lot of alcohol’;
- The actor is accused of throwing a bottle of champagne at Heard, grabbing her by the hair, and pushing her;
- Depp was shown a photograph, apparently taken by Heard, of him with ‘ice cream spilled all over my leg’;
- Depp’s former personal assistant, Stephen Deuters, alleged Heard ‘was the abuser in the relationship’
- Front desk supervisor said she saw ‘no visible injuries’ to Heard’s face three days after Depp allegedly hit her;
- Elon Musk was staying with Heard on one day she was seen with facial bruises, according to a concierge.
Following the Australia incident, Mr Connolly said the actor also told him Heard had put a cigarette out on his face, and he saw a mark. It took place just one month after Heard and Depp had married in Las Vegas in February 2015.
Johnny Depp (left) and Amber Heard (right) arrive separately at the Royal Courts of Justice in London this morning
Heard leaves Ham Yard Hotel in London’s Soho this morning ahead of legal proceedings continuing at the High Court
The security officer said Heard’s account of the incident bore ‘no resemblance’ to his recollection and that when he arrived at the house, the actress ‘did not have any marks on her face or arms’.
He said he got to the property at about 1.30pm after receiving an urgent call from the head of Mr Depp’s security team Jerry Judge, now deceased, who told him: ‘Malcolm, get in the car, extract the boss from the situation.’
Mr Connolly said: ‘I could hear the ruckus inside. I opened the door, which wasn’t locked, and saw Johnny in the foyer area of the house. He and Amber were screaming at each other.
‘She was wearing a sort of green silk night thing, you might call it a slip. I shouted at Johnny words to the effect of ‘Come with me, you are coming with me’.
‘I then took his arm trying to move him out, but he broke away. I said again words to the effect of ‘Johnny, come with me’. It wasn’t easy but I did get him outside.
‘I had the car door open and when we were outside Johnny said to me words to the effect of ‘Look at my finger. She’s cut my f***ing finger off. She’s smashed my hand with a vodka bottle’. I saw his finger and it was a mess.’
Mr Connolly’s statement continued: ‘Amber appeared at the door and then came close to the car, screaming and crying, calling out words along the lines of ‘Are you just going to leave it like this, you f***ing coward?’
‘Then she was saying ‘I love you, I love you. Is this how you are going to end this?’. She was not making a lot of sense – one second she was begging Johnny not to leave the house and then she was screaming at him for running away.
‘She was absolutely hysterical. I was worried that she might start throwing objects at Johnny, or at myself, as I had seen her throw objects before.
‘For example, I had seen her lob a fork in Johnny’s general direction once; another time I recall she threw a lighter at him, another time a can of coke. I knew that we needed to get out of there as soon as possible.’
Mr Connolly said he could see Heard’s face ‘very clearly’, adding: ‘She did not have any marks on her face or arms. She didn’t look in any physical distress.
‘I was much more concerned about Johnny. He was obviously in emotional distress and panicking. He wasn’t that drunk or out of it though and was easily standing on his own and having a conversation.’
The security guard said the team knew the true cause of Depp’s injury would ‘create extremely bad publicity’ and that Mr Judge suggested they should say at hospital that the actor had injured his finger while slicing onions.
Heard arrives wearing a face covering at the Royal Courts of Justice this morning as legal proceedings continue
Heard (left) arrives at the High Court today for her ex-husband Depp’s (right, also today) libel case to continue
Johnny Depp being taken to hospital with a severed finger, following the incident in Australia in March 2015
Johnny Depp’s severed finger, following the incident in Australia in March 2015, which was released in court proceedings
Pirates of the Caribbean star Depp is pictured outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London this morning
Depp has claimed that allegations of domestic violence made by Heard (pictured today) ‘mirrored’ her abuse towards him
Mr Connolly said: ‘I thought it was fairly obvious that this was not true given the severity of the injury and suggested we say he jammed it into a car door. However we went with the onion cover story. The specialist didn’t believe us for one second.’
He said Depp did not go back to the house over the next few days and stayed at Mr Connolly’s apartment with him instead.
Sasha Wass QC, representing The Sun’s publisher News Group Newspapers, asked Mr Connolly about the incident in Australia.
She said Mr Connolly was told by Jerry Judge, then Depp’s head of security, that they ‘have got to get over to Mr Depp’s house urgently’. Mr Connolly said that when he arrived at the house ‘there was an argument ongoing’.
Ms Wass asked if Mr Connolly could ‘understand what Mr Depp was saying during the course of that argument’.
He replied: ‘No, because I was outside… I could hear a ruckus, but I couldn’t understand the actual words being said.’ Ms Wass asked: ‘Was there a time when you did get inside the house?’ Mr Connolly replied: ‘Yes.’
Ms Wass asked ‘what sort of state’ Depp was in, to which Mr Connolly said the actor was ‘distraught’. She then asked if Depp was ‘coherent’ or if he ‘appeared as if he had been drinking’.
Mr Connolly said: ‘It’s hard to tell with Johnny because it takes some amount of volume of alcohol.’ He added: ‘He didn’t appear that drunk to me.’
Mr Connolly said that after he arrived at the house in Australia in March 2015, Depp was ‘having a conversation with me, straight as a die’.
Ms Wass asked if Depp appeared to be rational, to which the personal security guard said: ‘I don’t know about rational because he was in shock.’
The barrister then asked if Depp appeared to have taken drugs, and whether Mr Connolly was ‘familiar with what he was like when he took drugs’. Mr Connolly said: ‘I’m never privy to that sort of behaviour… I have never seen it.’
Ms Wass suggested: ‘He was absolutely filthy, wasn’t he? Untidy… covered in blood and paint and dirt and he was dishevelled and didn’t appear as if he had washed. He was properly filthy?’ Mr Connolly said that was not the case.
Ms Wass suggested to Mr Connolly that his evidence in his witness statement – that Mr Depp told him, ‘she’s cut my f****** finger off. She’s smashed my hand with a vodka bottle’ – was not true. Mr Connolly replied: ‘I can only say I was there, I witnessed it.’
Ms Wass said Depp had ‘come up with a variety of potential explanations to give to other people about how his finger was damaged’. Mr Connolly said that those explanations were ‘only to protect Amber’.
He added that the story that Depp had trapped the finger in the ‘accordion doors’ in the house was ‘my story’.
Ms Wass asked: ‘You cooked up that lie, did you?’ Mr Connolly said: ‘Yes.’
Ms Wass then took Mr Connolly to a text sent by Depp to his private doctor, David Kipper, shortly after he lost the tip of his finger which read: ‘F*****, man. Had another one. I just cannot live like this. She is as full of s**t as a Christmas goose!!!
‘I’m done. NO MORE!!! The constant insults, the demeaning, belittling, most heartbreaking spew that is only released from a malicious, evil and vindictive c***!!!!!’
The message added: ‘I cut the top of my middle finger off… What should I do!?? Except, of course, go to a hospital…’
Ms Wass asked: ‘Would you agree it appears that Mr Depp was accepting that he cut the top of his finger off in that text?’
Mr Connolly said: ‘Yes, it’s how it’s worded.’
Ms Wass then read out a text sent by Depp to his assistant Nathan Holmes, just five minutes later, which read: ‘Need more whitey stuff ASAP, brotherman. And the E business.’
Mr Connolly said the reference to ‘whitey stuff’ was ‘probably cocaine’ and that ‘E business’ was a reference to ecstasy.
Ms Wass then suggested that the house was ‘completely wrecked’, but Mr Connolly said: ‘I never saw the house completely wrecked. I only got as far as the front foyer.’
The barrister asked: ‘You couldn’t see paint that had been graffitied all over the house? You couldn’t see damage?’ Mr Connolly said: ‘No.’
He also said he did not see any broken windows at the property. Ms Wass then said: ‘As far as you were concerned, Ms Heard was uninjured.’ Mr Connolly replied: ‘That’s correct, yes.’
Ms Wass asked: ‘What opportunity did you have to look at Ms Heard to say that?’ Mr Connolly said that when he was ‘trying to get Johnny in the car, Amber came to the front door screaming and shouting’.
Ms Wass asked if he was ‘absolutely sure’ he did not see any scratches on Heard’s arms, to which Mr Connolly said he was.
She also asked if Mr Connolly saw a ‘bruise on her (Heard’s) face’, to which he said he had not.
Ms Wass asked Mr Connolly about an audio recording, part of which was played to the court, which was made during the incident in Australia in March 2015.
The court heard a male voice, which Mr Connolly said he recognised as Depp’s voice, shouting unintelligibly, and the security guard said the actor was ‘in shock’ at that point.
Ms Wass said the recording was made over five hours and included various conversations, with Depp, his doctor and Mr Judge, all heard on the full audio.
Mr Connolly told the court: ‘It appeared to me at the time that Amber was completely unharmed.’ Ms Wass asked if it was possible, given the circumstances of the situation, that he must have missed something, to which Mr Connolly responded ‘no’.
She said: ‘And you are trying to be fair to both parties – it’s not a question of you simply coming here to support your boss?’ Mr Connolly replied: ‘Not at all, no.’
Ms Wass said that, during part of the recorded conversation, Mr Judge could be heard to say: ‘He is not well, we need to help him out in every way we possibly can.’
Mr Connolly confirmed he agreed with Mr Judge’s remark that the actor was not well.
Ms Wass said Mr Judge could also be heard to say: ‘He basically completely cut the top of his finger off on a broken bottle and we found the piece and we had to put it on ice.’
Mr Connolly said he didn’t remember that and his recollection was Depp telling him that Heard had cut his finger off with a broken bottle.
Ms Wass then asked Mr Connolly about a train trip in South East Asia, which was Depp and Heard’s honeymoon in July 2015.
She read out a diary note written by Heard which said: ‘We finally fell asleep with one another smashed together in desperate, childlike anger, fear and love.’
The note continued: ‘Our fight was terrible. Johnny… at one point found himself with his shirt wrapped around my neck. Amazing to think about (the) precision, co-ordination that required considering the close circumstances…
‘I don’t even know how I wound up with this huge, rather annoying knot on the back of my head. F***, I hate that.’ The note concluded: ‘Where are my lines, do I have any left?’
Ms Wass asked where Mr Connolly was on the train, and he said he was ‘about three or four doors down’ from the couple.
The barrister asked: ‘So, if a fight had taken place at 3.30 in the morning, do you think you would necessarily have known about it?’
Mr Connolly replied: ‘I would never have known about it.’
David Sherborne, representing Depp, then asked Mr Connolly: ‘Did you ever see any injuries to Ms Heard on the trip on the South-east Asia train?’
The security guard said, ‘no, never’, before confirming that Ms Heard had not told him she had received any injuries, nor that Mr Depp had hit her.
Mr Sherborne then asked: ‘If she had suffered injuries, would you or would you not have seen them?’
Mr Connolly replied: ‘I would have seen them.’
Mr Sherborne then asked about the incident in Australia in March 2015, and referred to the recording Mr Connolly had been played which the barrister said was taped by Heard. Mr Connolly said Depp was ‘in a lot of pain, a lot of distress and shock’.
He said the first thing Depp said to him when he tried to remove him from the house was ‘give me a f****** minute’. Mr Connolly said the actor then ‘stood in the driveway holding his hand and he said ‘she just cut my f****** finger off”.
Depp and Heard met on the set of 2011 film The Rum Diary. They are pictured at the London premiere in November that year
Amber Heard photographed Johnny Depp with ice cream spilled on his legs during a private flight from Boston to Los Angeles in May 2014 before showing it to him the next day and saying: ‘Look at what you’ve become’, the court heard yesterday
Photographs show bruising across the bridge of Heard’s nose and under her eyes after Depp allegedly headbutted her in 2015
Mr Sherborne said Mr Connolly was ‘dealing with a difficult situation’, and asked what experience he had of similar situations. Mr Connolly said: ‘I’m an ex-prison officer for HMP Pentonville.’
He explained that he was ‘trained in extraction, I’m trained in pacifying… spotting bruising patterns’. Mr Connolly added that he was trained ‘by the establishment, by the Home Office’.
Mr Sherborne referred to the ‘other explanations’ for how Depp lost the top of his finger and asked Mr Connolly why they were devised.
Mr Connolly said they were ‘to protect the production’ Depp was involved in at the time, as well as Heard.
He added that he had ‘seen it in prison’ that ‘the usual victim pattern is to protect the abuser for some reason, you know the psychological bullying… they fit the same criteria, they never come forward with the information’.
Mr Sherborne asked about the ‘cigarette burn’ on Depp’s cheek after the incident, which Mr Connolly said he saw on the actor’s face.
The barrister then turned to the transcript of the recording Heard apparently made, on which Mr Judge can be heard to say ‘she hit him, she slapped him yesterday’.
Mr Sherborne asked: ‘Ms Heard hitting or slapping Mr Depp, is that something you have heard before?’ Mr Connolly replied: ‘I’ve heard it before, yes.’
Mr Sherborne asked if it was a ‘one-off’, to which Mr Connolly said it had happened ‘in Australia and in Los Angeles’.
He also asked Mr Connolly about a text message, which was sent on an unknown date, sent to him by Mr Depp which read: ‘Please get me out of this room now, she struck me about 10 times. Can’t take anymore.’
Mr Sherborne asked: ‘In your experience, Mr Connolly, of dealing with Ms Heard and Mr Depp over a number of years, was this a one-off type of text or conversation with Mr Depp?’ Mr Connolly said: ‘No.’
Mr Sherborne asked Mr Connolly: ‘Did you ever witness Mr Depp physically attack or hit Ms Heard at any time?’
Mr Connolly said: ‘No – and I wouldn’t tolerate any man striking a woman. No matter who he was, I just wouldn’t tolerate that.’ Mr Sherborne asked: ‘Not even if it was your boss?’
Mr Connolly replied: ‘Not even if he’s my boss. I don’t care if he’s the Pope.’ Mr Sherborne then asked: ‘Not even if your livelihood depended on it?’
Mr Connolly said: ‘I work for Johnny … only three days ago, I was offered a job in Peru. I don’t depend on Johnny for my income.’
Mr Sherborne asked him about the suggestion that ‘you had been pressured to lie and come on Johnny’s side’, and whether that was true. Mr Connolly said: ‘Absolutely untrue.’
Mr Connolly’s evidence came on day six of the trial of the actor’s libel claim against The Sun newspaper over an April 2018 article which labelled him a ‘wife beater’.
The court is also due to hear evidence today from Tara Roberts, the property manager at Depp’s Bahamas home, and Hilda Vargas, Depp’s housekeeper at his Los Angeles properties, as his high-profile libel case over allegations of domestic violence by Heard continues.
Heard’s assistant Savannah McMillan is also due to appear, one day after Depp finally finished giving evidence and claimed that allegations of domestic violence made by Heard, 34, ‘mirrored’ her abuse towards him.
On the final day of his evidence at the Royal Courts of Justice in London yesterday during his libel case against The Sun, Depp said: ‘It seemed like everything she would accuse me of was something she had done to me.’
The actor also accused Heard of throwing a ‘haymaker’ punch at him during a row after her 30th birthday party, just hours after he had learned during a ‘bad’ business meeting that he had lost $650million (£514million).
Yesterday, the High Court also heard that Depp has a ‘remarkable’ ability to not get drunk despite drinking ‘a lot of alcohol’, that cocaine simply ‘brought him to a normal level which normal people might operate at’.
Depp is suing The Sun’s publisher News Group Newspapers (NGN) and its executive editor Dan Wootton over an article in April 2018 which labelled him a ‘wife beater’.
His barrister David Sherborne referred yesterday to a ‘secret recording’ of the former couple in San Francisco in July 2016, after they had split and Heard had obtained a restraining order against the actor.
In the recording, Heard can be heard to say it was ‘unbelievable to imagine’ that she had either been ‘in a secret fight club’ or ‘plotting to do this for three years … just saving it up for the right time’ when she was not asking for any money, adding ‘no-one is going to believe that’.
Depp described Heard’s words as ‘a reverse confession’, adding: ‘It seemed like everything she would accuse me of was something that she had done to me, so I started to see this kind of pattern, a mirroring, and when she said that, I was real taken aback, for sure.’
Mr Sherborne said Depp can also be heard to say ‘you f****** haymakered me, man’ in the recording – which is said to refer to an incident after Heard’s 30th birthday party at the couple’s LA penthouse on April 21 2016.
The actor is accused of throwing a bottle of champagne at Heard, grabbing her by the hair, and pushing her during a row, after he arrived home late for the party. Depp denies the allegations.
Photos after the incident in December 2015 show bruising to Heard’s face after Depp allegedly headbutted her
Depp is alleged to have trashed a penthouse in Los Angeles, California, which Heard used as a colossal closet
Depp admitted to leaving graffiti on a bathroom mirror after the fight with Heard, which resulted in his finger being severed
The actor said that, at a business meeting on the day of Heard’s party, he was ‘in the early stages’ of finding out from a new business manager that ‘the former business managers had (taken) quite a lot of my money’.
Asked how much had been taken, Depp said: ‘It was put to me this way, because I had no idea about money or amounts of money.
‘Since Pirates (Of The Caribbean) 2 and 3, I had – and this is ludicrous to have to state, it’s quite embarrassing – apparently I had made $650million and when I sacked them, for the right reasons, I had not only lost $650million, but I was $100million (£79 million) in the hole because they (the previous business managers) had not paid the government my taxes for 17 years.’
Depp was also shown a photograph, apparently taken by his ex-wife, which showed him in August 2014 with ‘ice cream spilled all over my leg’ shortly before he was due to go to the Bahamas for a detox.
The actor said the picture was taken at a time when he had been working 17-hour days and was ‘very tired, falling asleep’.
The court also heard evidence from Depp’s former personal assistant, Stephen Deuters, who alleged Heard ‘was the abuser in the relationship’.
Mr Deuters, who is now European president of Depp’s production company, Infinitum Nihil, said that during the period in which Depp is alleged to have been abusive towards Heard, he saw her ‘on many occasions’ and ‘at no point’ did she ‘ever mention any physical abuse’.
He told that court that he was ‘extremely surprised and outraged’ when it became public that Heard had filed for a restraining order.
Mr Deuters described the couple’s tempestuous relationship as ‘not great’, saying: ‘I think they were two people that were in love with each other that shouldn’t have been together.’
The front desk supervisor at Depp’s LA penthouse building also gave evidence that she saw ‘no visible injuries whatsoever to Heard’s face’ three days after Mr Depp allegedly hit his ex-wife in the face with her own mobile phone on May 21 2016.
Trinity Esparza said the first time she saw any marks on Heard’s face that week was on May 27, the day the Aquaman actress appeared in court to obtain a restraining order against Depp, which ‘disturbed’ Ms Esparza.
Ms Esparza, who owns the company that provided concierge services at the Eastern Columbia building where Depp previously owned five apartments, said in her witness statement that she ‘saw and interacted with Heard on May 23, May 24 and May 25 with a clear and unmarked face’.
Sasha Wass QC, representing NGN, said to Ms Esparza: ‘Isn’t it more accurate to say you saw her earlier in the week and you didn’t notice it?’ Ms Esparza replied: ‘That is not accurate, I saw her very clearly.’
Ms Esparza also told the court that she saw ‘a number of marks on Ms Heard’s body’ – including bruises on her neck, plasters on her arm and a mark below her left eye – on a day in June or July 2016, shortly after Tesla founder Elon Musk left the building at around 9am looking ‘like he had just woken up with messy hair’.
Depp is suing NGN and Mr Wootton over the publication of an article on April 27 2018 with the headline: ‘Gone Potty: How can JK Rowling be ‘genuinely happy’ casting wife beater Johnny Depp in the new Fantastic Beasts film?’
NGN is defending the article as true, and says Depp was ‘controlling and verbally and physically abusive towards Heard, particularly when he was under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs’.