Johnny Depp tells court Amber Heard hit him with ‘haymaker’ punch – Sydney Morning Herald

Depp said the couple separated after an argument that followed Heard’s 30th birthday party in April 2016. The actor said that just before the party he had attended a meeting and been told that his former business managers had “stolen my money.”
Asked how much was stolen, Depp said “this is a ludicrous amount to have to state, its quite embarrassing apparently I had made $US650 million,” much of it through his involvement with the Pirates of the Caribbean films.
Depp added that in addition to losing the $US650 million he was “$US100 million in the hole because they had not paid the government my taxes for 17 years.”
Depp and his former business managers settled a legal dispute over the alleged fraud in 2018.
Depp alleges that after the party he went to bed to read, and that Heard began accusing him of ruining her birthday dinner before throwing a “haymaker” at him.
Depp’s lawyer, David Sherborne, asked him to explain the American slang term for the judge, Andrew Nicol.
“A haymaker is a type of a wild swing, a roundhouse punch effective if it reaches the target,” Depp said.
“I have come across it,” noted the judge.
Heard is attending the three-week trial and is scheduled to give her own version of events later.
During five days in the witness box, Depp depicted a tumultuous relationship with Heard during a period when he was trying to kick drugs and alcohol, and sometimes lapsing.
He called the relationship “a crime scene waiting to happen.” But he denied hitting Heard and accused her of compiling a dossier of fake claims against him as an “insurance policy.”
The Suns defence relies on a total of 14 allegations by Heard of Depps violence between 2013 and 2016, in settings including his private island in the Bahamas, a rented house in Australia and a private jet.
Amber Heard is scheduled to give her own version of events later in court.Credit:AP
Depp was followed into the witness box by his former personal assistant Stephen Deuters, who contradicted Heards account of an incident during a flight by private plane from Boston to Los Angeles in May 2014. Heard alleges the actor went into a rage, slapped her and kicked her in the back because he believed she was having an affair with actor James Franco.
Depp has denied assaulting Heard or being out of control.
Deuters, who is now the European head of Depp’s production company, said Depp was quiet and “introverted” on the plane. He said the couple had “an argument of sorts,” but “it didnt seem to be a screaming-obscenities slanging match.”
In a written witness statement, Deuters said the actor “made a playful attempt to tap (Heard) on the bottom with his shoe” but didn’t kick her.
He also alleged that Heard “was the abuser in the relationship She had subjected Mr Depp to years of abuse.”
Depp has strongly denied all of Heard’s allegations, including a claim that he subjected her to a “three-day ordeal of assaults” in March 2015 in Australia, where Depp was appearing as Captain Jack Sparrow in the fifth Pirates film.
He agreed that the couple had an altercation, which ended up with their house being trashed and Depps fingertip being severed to the bone.
Depp accuses Heard of cutting off his fingertip by throwing a vodka bottle at him, a claim she denies.
Depp said on Monday that he had surgery on the severed finger when he returned to the US and developed a “painful” superbug infection, MRSA.
Depp says the marriage broke down for good after an incident in which he accused Heard or one of her friends of defecating in the couples bed after the April 2016 birthday party, a mishap Heard blamed on her Yorkshire terriers.
“I thought that was an oddly fitting end to the relationship,” Depp said on Friday.
AP

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