Amber Heard’s sister testifies, stated she witnessed Johnny Depp abuse firsthand – Nationwide

Amber Heard’s sister testified Wednesday that she discovered herself in the course of fights — actually and figuratively — between her sister and Johnny Depp throughout their troubled relationship.

Whitney Heard Henriquez is the primary witness to testify on the five-week civil trial to say she personally witnessed Depp hitting Heard. Depp has testified he by no means struck Heard.

Henriquez testified the combat occurred in March 2015 — a month after Depp and Heard’s wedding ceremony — when Heard discovered proof that Depp had already had an extramarital affair.

Henriquez recounted that an inebriated Depp blamed Heard for forcing him into the extramarital encounter.

At one level, she stated, she was caught between Depp and Heard as he charged up a staircase to confront Heard. Henriquez stated she was struck within the again, and Heard grew to become enraged and “landed one” on Depp, with Henriquez caught between the 2.

Certainly one of Depp’s bodyguards intervened and broke up the combat however “by that point Johnny had already grabbed Amber by the hair with one hand and was whacking her repeatedly within the face with the opposite,” Henriquez stated.

It was the one time, Henriquez stated, that she personally witnessed a bodily assault. However she stated she noticed the aftermath of different fights, together with bruises on Heard.

She stated she had the nickname “marriage counsellor” for her frequent efforts to mediate arguments between Heard and Depp.

“Clearly not very nicely,” she stated of her mediation efforts.

However she acknowledged on cross-examination that she sided with Depp at occasions of their disputes, and stated she labored to maintain the couple collectively even after she watched her sister be bodily assaulted.

“If my sister stated that she nonetheless wished to be with Johnny and if I may assist with that in any method I used to be going to assist her. I used to be going to be there for her,” she stated.

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Henriquez admitted that after, she even joked in a textual content message that Depp ought to hit Heard, however she stated she didn’t actually perceive what her sister was going by on the time.

Henriquez additionally informed a narrative about Depp’s behaviour at Heard’s thirtieth celebration in April 2016, one of many remaining fights between the couple. She stated folks took turns sharing favorite recollections of Heard. Depp, who arrived late and intoxicated to the get together, determined to inform a narrative about when he first met Heard as she auditioned for a film and “she sat on the sofa and her good ass left the proper imprint on the sofa.”

“We have been all type of embarrassed,” Henriquez stated.

Depp is suing Heard for libel in Virginia’s Fairfax County Circuit Court docket over a 2018 op-ed she wrote in The Washington Put up describing herself as “a public determine representing home abuse.” His legal professionals say he was defamed by the article regardless that it by no means talked about his title.

Additionally Wednesday, a buddy of Heard testified she noticed the bruises and cuts left within the aftermath of a number of incidents of abuse inflicted by Depp.

In a recorded deposition performed for jurors, Raquel Pennington stated she by no means personally witnessed Depp strike Heard. However she stated she noticed the accidents, and she or he took images of Heard’s face in December 2015 after a combat through which Heard says Depp head-butted her and maybe broke her nostril.

The picture exhibits a swollen nostril, a lower lip, and two reasonably black eyes on Heard’s face.

She additionally took a photograph of strands of hair that she stated have been ripped from Heard’s scalp.

Heard “typically needed to cowl bruises and accidents on her face” with make-up, stated Pennington, one in all many witnesses whose testimony was beforehand recorded.

Pennington stated she doesn’t actually take into account herself a present buddy of Heard, and that the 2 grew aside within the final yr.

The December 2015 combat is one in all a number of disputed incidents. Whereas jurors have seen the images taken by Pennington documenting the accidents, they’ve additionally seen video of Heard’s look on a late-night speak present the subsequent day through which these accidents aren’t seen.

Heard has stated the accidents have been simply lined by make-up.

Pennington’s testimony got here after Heard wrapped up her time on the witness stand Tuesday, together with two grueling days of cross-examination through which Depp’s legal professionals questioned Heard concerning the truthfulness of her allegations of bodily and sexual abuse.

Pennington’s testimony supplies corroborating proof to a number of of the alleged assaults. Along with the December 2015 incident, Pennington stated she noticed cuts on Heard’s ft when she returned from a visit to Australia in March 2015. Heard testified that Depp sexually assaulted Heard with a liquor bottle on that journey and that she lower her ft on damaged glass from the assault.

And Pennington, who lived for a time in a set of penthouses together with Depp and Heard, stated she was the primary individual to see Heard throughout a remaining combat between the couple in Might 2016 that precipitated the couple’s divorce.

Pennington stated she interjected herself between the 2 and Depp knocked her fingers away. She stated she then lined Heard together with her personal physique on the ground as Depp screamed at Heard to rise up. She stated she later noticed Depp wielding a wine bottle to smash and knock issues off the partitions and counters.