Vanessa Paradis And Winona Ryder Will No Longer Testify In Johnny Depp’s Libel Trial, But They’ve Both Defended Him In Statements

The courtroom battle in London between Johnny Depp and The Sun over The Sun calling him a “wife-beater” rolls on. Johnny’s team has continued to defend him over the accusations that he was a “wife-beater” and violent toward Amber Heard during their marriage. Amber’s team continues to deny that she was the violent wreck and that he was the abusive one. This shit show is such a shitty mess that an actual shit has made an appearance during the trial.

Johnny’s lawyers were expected to call his exes, Vanessa Paradis and Winona Ryder, to testify as character witnesses for him via video call, but that’s not going to happen anymore. Johnny’s team has decided their appearances will not be necessary. So the court won’t get to see Winona Ryder’s face go through a rollercoaster of emotions as she’s asked about Johnny’s alleged abusive ways.

But before we get to Vanessa and Winona……

The Telegraph says that Johnny’s former head of security, Sean Bett, told the court there was a “recurring cycle” of abuse from Amber in the relationship. He detailed pretty much the same things we heard from Johnny’s other witnesses. In his witness statement, Sean said:

“Throughout the course of Mr Depp and Ms Heard’s relationship, Ms Heard was verbally and physically abusive towards Mr Depp. On many occasions, I witnessed her shout at Mr Depp. I was also told by Mr Depp on multiple occasions that Ms Heard had physically abused him… A very common occurrence throughout the relationship would be that Mr Depp would have me, and other members of his security team, take him away from Ms Heard, due to her behavior… This happened on so many occasions that it is not possible for me to remember them all in detail. However, I would describe it as a recurring cycle that Ms Heard would abuse Mr Depp, who would then remove himself from the situation.”

Sean claimed that when Amber drank too much, she’d start fights with Johnny. Sean admitted Amber was always “perfectly polite” when she wasn’t being aggressive, but remained clear he had never seen Johnny get violent with anyone.

Sean also testified to taking pictures after a March 2015 where he alleges Amber hit Johnny:

Johnny Depp libel trial: Amber Heard ‘punched actor’ in row over birthday party, court hears https://t.co/cShub5zl7K

— Seaplay Radio (@Seaplayradio) July 16, 2020

The Sun’s lawyer, Sasha Wass, accused Sean of lying for his old boss and he denied it.

In another car crash moment in this 200-car pile-up of a trial, Amber’s ex-assistant, Kate James, testified from Los Angeles that Amber would regularly send her red wine-induced incoherent and abusive texts between 2 and 4 in the morning. Kate also accused Amber of going so low that Amber touched the Earth’s core. Kate says she was a victim of a violent sexual assault in Brazil in her 20s and that Amber stole her rape story and used it as a submission in this case. via The Guardian

When she read Heard’s submissions, James said, “to my utter shock and dismay, I discovered that Ms Heard had in fact stolen my sexual violence conversation with her and twisted it into her own story to benefit herself. This of course caused me extreme distress and outrage that she would dare to attempt to use the most harrowing experience of my life as her own narrative.”

Kate was asked by Sasha Wass if she worked with Johnny to smear Amber and Kate denied that.

As for Winona and Vanessa, they both prepared statements for the court and were supposed to appear via video this week. But now Johnny’s lawyer, David Sherborne, said they won’t need to testify since this is about violence toward Amber and no one else. Sasha Wass wanted to cross-examine Winona and Vanessa, but the judge declared that since they both submitted statements, there’s no need for them to testify.

Both Winona and Vanessa have defended Johnny before and their new statements echo the same things. Vanessa’s statement reads in part (via Deadline):

“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… He was never violent or abusive to me.”

Vanessa also talked about how everyone on movie sets loved Johnny because of how “humble” and “respectful” he is. And Winona basically said the same thing (via Telegraph):

“I truly and honestly only know him as a really good man–an incredibly loving, extremely caring guy who was so very protective of me and the people that he loves, and I felt so very, very safe with him.

I do not want to call anyone a liar but from my experience of Johnny, it is impossible to believe that such horrific allegations are true. I find it extremely upsetting knowing him as I do.”

What a fucking mess. And there’s still a lot of testimony ahead, like Amber Heard’s. When all of this is said and done, the world’s supply of sage will run out from that court room needing to be cleansed of all of this horribleness.

Pic: Wenn.com