Los Angeles: Actress Amber Heard completed her testimony after four days on the witness stand, defending herself from accusations that she had faked her abuse claims against former husband Johnny Depp.
Heard maintained her composure as Depp’s attorney, Camille Vasquez, accused her of lying and suggested that she was the true abuser.
Vasquez played audio recordings of arguments between the couple and read aloud love notes that Heard had written to Depp after the alleged assaults, reports ‘Variety’.
“You weren’t scared of him at all, were you?” Vasquez asked at one point.
“This is a man who tried to kill me,” Heard responded.
“Of course it’s scary. He’s also my husband.”
Heard is defending herself from Depp’s $50 million defamation suit. Depp’s team alleges that Heard destroyed his career with false allegations of physical and sexual assault.
Depp gave his own account of their relationship over the course of four days in April, and the outcome of the trial will hinge largely on which of the two the jury finds more credible.
“He hated, hated, James Franco,” Heard had testified earlier this month.
Depp has testified that he suspected Franco and Heard were having an affair.
Vasquez also asked about Heard’s role as Mera in ‘Aquaman’, suggesting that Depp had secured the role for her.
“Excuse me?” Heard said. “No, Ms. Vasquez, I got myself that role by auditioning.”
Heard previously testified that she had suffered career damage as a result of the accusations that she is lying about the abuse. She said that she had to “fight” to stay in ‘Aquaman 2’, which is due to be released next year, and that her role has been pared down.
“I don’t know if I will even be in the final cut or how much I will be,” she testified.
Early on Tuesday, Vasquez had a bailiff show jurors a knife that Heard had given Depp as a present early in their relationship.
She asked Heard why she would make such a gift to a man who could be drunk and violent.
“I wasn’t worried he was going to stab me with it,” she said.
Vasquez played audio of a fight in which Heard, through laughter, called Depp a “sellout” and a “washed-up piece of shit”.
“I called him horrible ugly things,” Heard said.
“We spoke to each other in a really horrible way.”
Heard was paid $7 million in their divorce settlement, a portion of which she has donated to charity.
On redirect, Heard’s attorney Elaine Bredehoft noted that Depp had made $65 million in 2015, and that the actress would be entitled to half that, or $32.5 million.
“I didn’t want it,” Heard said.
“I realised that was what I was entitled to, but I didn’t want it.”
The trial is expected to wrap up on May 27, and then it will go to the jury for deliberation.
–IANS
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