Johnny Depp libel claim can use Amber Heard PA evidence, says high court

Evidence from a former employee of Amber Heard can form part of Johnny Depp’s case in his libel claim against the Sun newspaper over allegations he was violent to his ex-wife, the high court has ruled.

In an interim ruling in the high court case, Mr Justice Nicol declared that some, limited testimony from Kate James, a former personal assistant to Heard, will be included in the forthcoming trial. She said she had never seen any sign of physical violence.

But the judge dismissed as irrelevant evidence from David Killackey, a mechanic who worked for the couple before their acrimonious divorce. It will not be admitted in the case.

Depp, who starred in the Pirates of the Caribbean movie franchise, is suing the paper’s publisher, News Group Newspapers (NGN), and its executive editor, Dan Wootton, over an April 2018 article that referred to the 56-year-old as a “wife-beater”.

Delivering his written decision, the judge said: “I refuse to the claimant [Depp] permission to call Mr Killackey. I give permission to [Depp] to call Ms James to give evidence [to a limited] extent …”

Nicol said he would admit James’s evidence in relation to having not seen a “a serious or messy fight” and having never seen signs of physical violence.

Other matters in James’s statement which relate to the credibility of Heard in her dealings with the US Department of Homeland Security will also be included in the trial.

At a preliminary hearing last week, lawyers for Depp said his ex-partner Vanessa Paradis has given a witness statement in which she described the actor as a “kind, attentive, generous and non-violent person and father”.

Lawyers for Depp have submitted evidence from Paradis, who has two children with the star, and the actor Winona Ryder, with whom he had a relationship in the 1990s, as part of his case against the publisher. Their statements were not opposed by NGN.

David Sherborne, representing Depp, said in court documents that his relationship with Paradis ended in 2012, shortly before he and Heard were together “and when he is first alleged to have been violent”.

In her statement, Paradis said: “I have known Johnny for more than 25 years. We’ve been partners for 14 years and we raised our two children together. Through all these years I’ve known Johnny to be a kind, attentive, generous, and non-violent person and father.” She added: “He was never violent or abusive to me.”

In her statement, Ryder said: “I cannot wrap my head around [Heard’s] accusations. He was never, never violent towards me. He was never, never abusive at all towards me.”

A spokeswoman for Heard said: “As the judgment today shows, Mr Depp’s team has been attempting to introduce irrelevant evidence. This is one of the defining characteristics of their strategy – to adduce irrelevant evidence designed to smear Ms Heard and distract from the facts so that people do not focus on Mr Depp’s behaviour.”

Depp and Heard met on the set of 2011 comedy The Rum Diary and 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.

A full trial of the libel claim is scheduled for July.