Johnny Depp's lawyers have introduced new video evidence from "an anonymous source" which they claim shows that Amber Heard "attacked" her sister, they told Britain's High Court on Friday.
Depp is suing UK tabloid The Sun, its publisher News Group Newspapers (NGN), and its executive editor Dan Wootton over a 2018 story that branded him a "wife beater" in relation to domestic violence allegations Heard made against her ex-husband after they split in May 2016. Depp has repeatedly denied the claims.
The second week of the trial has featured Heard and her sister Whitney Henriquez giving evidence in an effort to corroborate claims Depp was violent towards the actress on 14 occasions.
According to Deadline.com, on Friday, the Pirates of the Caribbean star's lawyer David Sherborne claimed he had received the video from a "confidential source" on Thursday night, after Henriquez gave evidence insisting that her sister had never attacked her.
She also told the court she saw Depp punch Heard "really hard in the head multiple times" in Los Angeles in March 2015 and admitted that her sister punched Depp on that occasion, but only did so in her defence, because the 34-year-old believed the 57-year-old actor was going to push her down the stairs.
Sherborne told the court that Depp's legal team is in possession of "material which we say demonstrates Whitney (Henriquez) was lying yesterday.
"We were contacted to explain that Amber Heard had a history of violence and attacking people and this video, which was attached, of her sister Whitney (Henriquez) was taken shortly after Amber Heard had attacked her and Whitney (Henriquez) was filmed with people commenting on the bruises on her face and body."
The video is reportedly unaired footage from a 2006 reality TV show featuring Henriquez with visible marks chatting to pals, who say Heard "beat your a*s".
Questioned about the video, Henriquez said: "That was a really bad reality show we were referencing a verbal argument that my sister and I had the night before."
Insisting there were no injuries and the video was misleading, she added: "That person was trying to make a storyline, albeit a bad one, interesting. She was trying to create a narrative that was not there."
Sherbourne contended that as Henriquez's evidence about the so-called "stairs incident" is "the only occasion on which any other human being is supposed to have witnessed" Depp being violent towards Heard, and that as such, "the reliability of Whitney (Henriquez) is critical".
The trial continues.
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