American actress Amber Heard is accused of “stealing” a story of sexual assault from her former personal assistant Kate James and “twisting” it into a different narrative for her own benefit, according to the ex-employee’s comments to the UK’s High Court, as quoted by the Daily Mail.
During her second witness statement in relation to the ongoing libel trial that Johnny Depp brought against the Sun’s publisher, Kate James, who worked for Heard between March 2012 and February 2015, discussed her own experience of sexual violence back in her twenties. While giving evidence remotely from Los Angeles, Heard’s former employee noted that she was in “shock and dismay” after reading the actress’ submissions and discovering that there were some similarities between her own story and the one Johnny Depp’s former wife gave to the court.
“…I discovered that Ms Heard had in fact stolen my sexual violence conversation with her and twisted it into her own story to benefit herself”, James told The Sun’s QC Sashsa Wass, during cross-examination. “This of course caused me extreme distress and outrage that she would dare to attempt to use the most harrowing experience of my life as her own narrative”.
James also told the court that she was giving evidence because she was “a sexual violence survivor and it’s a very serious to take that stance if you are not one”.
When questioned by Johnny Depp’s representative David Sherborne in relation to Heard’s alleged drinking habits, the actress’ former aide said that she used to “receive a barrage of drunken text messages between 2am and 4am that were incoherent and abusive”. She also described Depp’s ex-wife as a person who “would drink vast quantities of red wine each night”.
Johnny Depp’s Libel Lawsuit and 'Dirty' Details
Pirates of the Caribbean star Depp is currently suing the Sun’s publisher, News Group Newspapers (NGN), and its executive editor Dan Wootton over a 2018 article that referred to him as a “wife beater” citing “overwhelming evidence” that he has abused his ex-spouse Amber Heard. The 57-year-old actor denies these claims and is seeking to prove that Heard’s allegations are untrue, while also suing his former partner in a separate lawsuit in the United States for making similar accusations in a Washington Post article.
The 34-year-old actress, who was married to Depp for slightly more than a year, argues that he was physically abusive towards her on at least 14 occasions. One of the alleged instances of assaults she described in her court submissions involved the actor allegedly throwing a bottle of champagne towards her after her 30th birthday bash. There was also a claim that another row took place between the two after Depp found poo left by Heard or some of her friends in their bed. The actor insists that it was in fact his former wife who was “physically and verbally” abusive towards him during their brief marriage.
