Hollywood actor Johnny Depp and actress Amber Heard’s defamation lawsuits are ongoing and according to reports, Depp has been accused of sexual assault by Heard’s lawyers. The couple got married in 2015, a year after meeting on the sets of 'The Rum Diary'.
Depp filed a defamation lawsuit against Heard after she published an op-ed piece for The Washington Post in 2018, where she accused the actor of being abusive. However, she did not mention his name.
According to People magazine, during the libel trial is expected to last about six weeks and took place inside the Fairfax County Courthouse in Virginia. Heard’s lawyers have reportedly accused Depp, of sexual assault as the actor set out to prove defamation charges against her. Heard’s lawyers spoke about domestic abuse in ‘many forms’ including physical, emotional, verbal and psychological. Heard’s lawyer, Ben Rottenborn said that Heard spoke about a time when Depp allegedly had a three-day alcohol-fueled blackout while in Australia in 2015 toward the end of their marriage, when he "abused and sexually assaulted Amber, all because she had the courage to confront him about his drinking".
According to Indiatimes, Elaine Bredehoft, Heard's lawyer, also stated that Johnny Depp sexually assaulted her with a liquor bottle. "Some pretty horrendous things happened to (Heard)... he rips off her nightgown, he has her jammed up against a bar... he penetrates her with a liquor bottle," Bredehoft said.
However, Depp`s spokesperson argued, "These fictitious claims were never made at the onset of Amber`s allegations in 2016, and only advantageously surfaced years later once she was sued for defamation after noting in her op-ed that she was a victim of `sexual violence.”
They added, “Words are key in a defamation case and conveniently, this allegation only came after that. This follows a pattern of her elaborate, erroneous claims which have continued to change and evolve over time for the purpose of Hollywood shock value of which Amber has mastered and used to exploit a serious social movement.”
