Unsealed Depp vs Heard court documents reveal shocking new details, domestic violence expert weighs in

SHAH ALAM - The defamation trial between celebrity ex-spouses Johnny Depp and Amber Heard caught the world in a whirlwind of their relationship with many siding the Pirates of the Caribbean star.

Despite reaching a verdict in June, more details of the legal battle have come to light in the form of unsealed court documents.

The Daily Beast first reported on Aug 1 that more than 6,000 pages of legal filings from the case were unsealed with information of apparent strategies of both the Depp and Heard legal teams.

The now-unsealed details did not bode well for Depp, who throughout the six-week trial received an overwhelming support.

Among the new information alleges that Depp’s legal team tried to submit several items as evidence that never made it into the trial including nude photos of Heard.

In the unsealed documents, Heard’s lawyers made arguments for the images to be excluded dubbing the proposed submission of evidence as “irrelevant personal matters”.

There were also text messages from Depp and his associates were mentioned in the unsealed court documents, but not read aloud in court, including texts about an alleged incident where Heard claimed Depp kicked her on a flight in 2014.

It was also claimed by Heard’s legal team that Depp along with his lawyers committed evidence fraud as they submitted photos and audios that were edited where a Metadata analysis on the photo and video recording “reveals the items were ‘Modified’ days before their production in this case”.

There were also arguments regarding Depp’s erectile dysfunction submitted by Heard’s team but was denied deeming it inadmissible in court.

However, Page Six reported that the court documents had justified Heard’s team although Depp would “rather not disclose his erectile dysfunction condition, such condition absolutely is relevant to sexual violence, including Mr Depp’s anger and use of a bottle to rape Amber Heard”.

An expert has also come forward on the matter, diverging from the common belief of that Heard was the abuser in their relationship.

In an interview with NowThis, domestic violence expert and United States’s National Coalition Against Domestic Violence president Ruth Glenn said Heard was the victim and not Depp.

“Ms Heard is a victim of domestic violence.

“I firmly believe that there are other things that are present in or were present in their relationship.

“I don’t think that negates the fact that Ms Heard was a victim of domestic violence,” she said.

Heard may be seen to the general public as the abuser due to Depp’s evidence of his bruised face or severed finger, but according to Glenn that could have been Heard’s defence mechanism in the face of violence.

“Many, many times victims of domestic violence will actually respond to the violence with violence. It’s a defence mechanism,” she said.

She affirmed her statement by negating the concept of ‘mutual abuse’ as brought up in the court trials and alleged it to be damaging.

“The idea of ‘mutual abuse’ came up in the trial, and it is something that we don’t recognise as domestic violence experts.

“It’s actually quite harmful to call it mutual abuse because you’re – by calling it that, you’re, you’re blaming the primary victim and not holding the abuser accountable,” she said.

Last month, Heard announced that she would be appealing the verdict from the defamation trial.

Heard was found guilty of defaming his ex-husband Depp in op-ed. article published in The Washington Post where she claimed she was a victim of domestic violence and was ordered by the Virginia Court to pay US$10.35 million to Depp, while she was a counterclaim against Depp of US$2 million.