Johnny Depp accuses Amber Heard of 'painting on' her bruises, says she attacked HIM - and claims she and her friends defecated in his bed as part of 'sick prank', in new lawsuit
- Johnny Depp filed a $50 million defamation lawsuit against ex-wife Amber Heard
- Heard had accused him of domestic violence during their short-lived marriage
- In his accompanying court declaration he accuses her of being the real abuser
- Depp says she faked her injuries and 'cynically relied on the #metoo movement'
- Heard's lawyer called the litigation 'baseless' and accused Depp of peddling 'conspiracy theories'
After Amber Heard filed for divorce from Johnny Depp images emerged at the time (above) showing her with a bruised eye and face. Johnny Depp has now claimed these were 'painted-on'
Johnny Depp has called his ex-wife Amber Heard's accusations of domestic violence against him a 'hoax' and accused her of wearing 'painted-on bruises' to court.
The actor filed a $50 million defamation lawsuit against Heard after she wrote an opinion piece for the Washington Post - published in December 2018 - in which she described herself as 'a public figure representing domestic abuse.'
And he is now understood to have submitted a declaration to the court, which details his arguments and again denies any suggestion of wrongdoing.
'I have denied Ms. Heard's allegations vehemently since she first made them in May 2016,' the document begins, 'when she walked into court to obtain a temporary restraining order with painted-on bruises that witnesses and surveillance footage show she did not possess each day of the preceding week.'
'I will continue to deny them for the rest of my life. I never abused Ms. Heard or any other woman.
The 55-year-old's legal team say they have numerous pieces of surveillance footage showing Heard without any visible injuries in the days after an alleged brawl between the couple in May 2016.
Heard filed for divorce in 2016 and it was finalized in 2017. She and Depp are shown in February 2016
Depp's declaration goes on to claim that Heard's abuse allegations were also 'conclusively refuted by two separate responding police officers, a litany of neutral third-party witnesses, and 87 newly obtained surveillance camera videos.'
Heard was grilled over the May 2016 incident that year and gave an emotional testimony in which she said Depp had grabbed her by the hair and struck her 'hard and repeatedly'.
Share this article
Asked if she had ever hit him back, she said she had done so only to protect her younger sister.
'He was about to push my sister down the stairs,' the 33-year-old actor said at the time.
Heard was spotted leaving a California court in 2016 with facial bruising (above) after she was granted a temporary restraining order against Depp just days after claiming he attacked her
In her legal filings against Depp, Heard attached these photos of the injuries she says she suffered at the hands of her ex-husband
'When he laid hands on her I don't know what I did, but I know I jumped in between the action that I saw could lead to a fatal accident with my sister.'
In his declaration however, Depp claims that the only 'actual, documented domestic violence in our relationship' was against him.
'She was the perpetrator, and I was the victim,' he claims.
'While mixing prescription amphetamines and non-prescription drugs with alcohol, Ms. Heard committed innumerable acts of domestic violence against me, often in the presence of third party witnesses, which in some instances caused me serious bodily injury.'
'She hit, punched, and kicked me. She also repeatedly and frequently threw objects into my body and head, including heavy bottles, soda cans, burning candles, television remote controls, and paint thinner cans, which severely injured me.'
Included in Depp's court documents are several photos of injuries he says he sustained from Heard in December 2015 and April 2016.
He also addresses in the declaration an infamous alleged incident in which he found human feces in his bed, which, he says, directly led to him seeking a divorce from Heard.
'After I removed myself from Ms. Heard's presence in the penthouse on April 21, 2016, the following morning Ms. Heard or one of her friends defecated in my bed as some sort of a sick prank before they left for Coachella together,' Depp says in the document.
He also claims that Heard told their estate manager that the feces was 'just a harmless prank.'
Johnny Depp allegedly destroyed the $3million penthouse wife Amber Heard used as a closet (above) during a fight in Match 2015, according to a court filing
Depp writes in his declaration that he decided to file the defamation lawsuit - for which he his seeking $50,000 in damages - 'not only to clear my name and restore my reputation, but to attempt to bring clarity to the women and men whose lives have been harmed by abuse and who have been repeatedly lied to by Ms. Heard purporting to be their spokesperson.'
He says that he decided to bring the suit after the 'appearance of new evidence not previously in my possession'.
'After years of asserting my innocence, I am finally in a position to prove it by dismantling each element of her hoax,' he writes.
Heard's 'lies are internally inconsistent, shifting, and directly contradicted by overwhelming sworn testimonial, photographic, audio, video, and other evidence,' he added.
Toward the end of his deposition, Depp summarizes his reasons for suing his ex-wife, who he accuses of 'cynically relying on the concept of #believewomen that has been promoted as part of the important #metoo movement.'
He says the lawsuit was filed owing to his 'possession of eyewitness statements provided under penalty of perjury and photographs of her converse violence committed against me, overwhelming evidence that her various abuse claims and the injuries that she claimed ensued from them are hoaxes, the fact of her own prior arrest and incarceration for domestic violence against her previous wife, and new witnesses who are now coming forward to describe the brutal violence they suffered at her hands.'
Eric George, an attorney for Amber Heard, told The Blast that the evidence clearly shows that Depp repeatedly beat his ex-wife and accused him of peddling 'conspiracy theories' and victim-blaming.
'The increasingly desperate attempts by Mr. Depp and his enablers to revive his career by initiating baseless litigation against so many people once close to him – his former lawyers, his former managers, and his former spouse – are not fooling anyone,' Mr George told the website.
'In light of the important work done by the #TimesUp movement highlighting the tactics abusers use to continue to traumatize survivors, neither the creative community nor the public will be gaslit by Mr. Depp's baseless blame-the-victim conspiracy theories.'
Depp and Heard started dating after meeting on the set of 2011 comedy The Rum Diary. They married in Los Angeles in February 2015.
In May 2016 Heard obtained a restraining order against Depp after accusing him of abuse, which he denied.
The couple settled their divorce out of court in 2017, with Heard donating her 7 million US dollar (£5.5 million) settlement to charity.
Both actors signed non-disclosure agreements barring them from discussing their relationship publicly.
In a joint statement, they said their relationship was 'intensely passionate and at times volatile, but always bound by love'.
They added: 'Neither party has made false accusations for financial gain. There was never any intent of physical or emotional harm.'
