Johnny Depp swapped ‘joke’ texts with British actor Paul Bettany about setting Amber Heard on fire and ‘f***ing her burnt corpse afterwards to make sure she’s dead’ or drowning his ‘witch’ ex-wife, a court heard today.

The 57-year-old actor was cross examined on the stand by The Sun’s lawyer and asked about the series of text messages with Bettany and whether he thought they were a ‘respectful’ way to talk about his girlfriend.

He admitted it was not as he was peppered with questions in court about his extensive alcohol and cocaine abuse, and alleged complaints about Heard trying to stop him drinking and taking cocaine.

‘She didn’t like me using alcohol and drugs because she had some delusional idea that they turned me into…

this said monster,’ he told The Sun’s QC Sasha Wass.

He is suing The Sun for libel after it labelled him a ‘wife beater’. Depp called the accusation ‘utter falsity’ and ‘fraudulent’ and has claimed Heard, 34, abused him throughout their marriage.

The libel trial will last three weeks and promises to be full of revelations about Depp and his celebrity friends as he fights allegations that he attacked Heard during their five-year relationship.

In other developments at the trial today: 

• The Hollywood legend admitted that he had joked about putting Heard’s dog in a microwave;
• Depp denied holding the tiny Yorkshire terrier Pistol out of a car window and ‘making howling noises’;
• He was accused of slapping Heard while trying to torch a painting by her ex-partner;
• Depp denied slapping his ex-wife three times after she laughed at his infamous ‘Wino Forever’ tattoo;
• Actor allegedly went ‘berserk’ after a woman fondled Heard during an MDMA trip in a trailer park;
• Heard wrote unsent email to Depp in which she compared living with him to living with ‘Jekyll and Hyde’.

Depp said his ‘sense of humour is slightly skewed’ as texts emerged in which he quipped with actor Bettany about ‘shaving Amber Heard’s beaver’ – a reference to a pet beaver they considered buying her.

In an explosive series of messages the pair appear to joke about setting Heard on fire before Depp said: ‘I will f*** her burnt corpse afterwards to make sure she’s dead.’

The court heard how Depp told Bettany to buy Heard a pet beaver and record himself shaving the animal so that they could post the clip online titled: ‘Johnny Depp shaves Amber Heard’s Beaver.’

Reading from the shocking messages exchanged between Depp and Bettany, Ms Wass said: ‘(Depp says) first of all we buy Amber a pet beaver and then we take pictures of you shaving the pet beaver.

‘All this is to create a domain name «Johnny Depp Shaves Amber Heard’s Beaver».

‘Clearly there are many spin-offs.

You could poke, joke, punch.

‘Do you think that’s a respectful way of somebody, here Paul Bettany, talking about your girlfriend?’ the lawyer asked, to which Depp replied: ‘It is not a respectful way to talk about Ms Heard.’

Later in June Depp allegedly received a text saying: ‘I’m not sure we should burn Amber.

She is delightful company and pleasing on the eye. We could of course do the English course of action and perform a drowning test. Thoughts? You have a swimming pool.’

He is said to have responded saying: ‘Let’s drown her before we burn her!!!

I will f*** her burnt corpse afterwards to make sure she’s dead.’

Ms Wass said Bettany replied: ‘My thoughts entirely. Let’s be certain before we pronounce her a witch.’

The actor branded his ex-wife a ‘witch’ simply for trying to help him recover from his addiction, the lawyer said.

But he claimed she reacted ‘aggressively’ to his alleged drug abuse and dismissed her claims he became violent while intoxicated as ‘delusional.’

The QC added: ‘This reference to her being a witch was a reference I say to her trying to stop you taking drink and drugs and you resented her for doing that and (she) was the moral police, that sort of thing.’

Depp replied: ‘(Bettany) knew of our arguments and fighting.

He knew details. 

‘I was resentful of the fact that Ms Heard was very aggressive and quite insulting about my use of alcohol or, if cocaine came into the picture, she did not like Mr Bettany and I’m afraid she didn’t like me very much either and she was constantly harping on things that didn’t exist.’

‘She didn’t like you when you were constantly high on drugs and alcohol did she?’ Ms Wass said.

‘She didn’t like me using alcohol and drugs because she had some delusional idea that they turned me into…

this said monster,’ came the reply.

In a draft email written by Heard and addressed to Depp but never sent, she allegedly lamented the failing relationship and said: ‘I just don’t think I can do this anymore. Half of you I love madly.

The other half scares me.

‘The problem is I never really know which one I’m dealing with until it’s too late. The drinking assures me I’m dealing with the abused, scared, insecure, violent little boy…

‘I just can’t tell where the line starts.

Also drugs seem to guarantee that I will have to deal with the monster again. Sometimes the hangover the morning after is just as bad as the full on disco bloodbath I’ve come to expect.’

The Texan actor allegedly said in the unsent message that Depp’s friends were ‘embarrassed’ about ‘picking up a grown man from his own p*** and vomit.’ 

Depp denies holding Heard’s tiny Yorkshire terrier out of car window in a fit of rage 

The Sun’s lawyer Sasha Wass QC referred to text messages between Depp and his friend Paul Bettany about ‘the fact that Ms Heard was trying to wean you off drug taking’. 

Depp said: ‘She was quite adamant that I not drink anymore and she was quite adamant that I should stop any use of cocaine and recreational drugs.’

Ms Wass asked: ‘How does that last statement square with your suggestion that she didn’t support your sobriety?’ 

Depp replied that if someone was helping ‘an alcoholic or somebody who is believed to be addicted to drugs…

would then themselves stop drinking in front of that person and stop doing drugs around that person’.

He added: ‘I would say that is full support.’

Ms Wass said Ms Heard would have two or three glasses of wine, prompting Depp to say: ‘Two or three bottles.’

The barrister replied ‘that is complete nonsense’ and referred to an incident where Depp was travelling in a car with Heard, her sister Whitney, her pet Yorkshire terrier, Pistol, a driver, and the actor’s assistant Nathan Holmes.

She said: ‘When you were in the car, you were smoking and you opened the window and you were angry and you were aggressive, rather like you were in that clip we saw yesterday – the monster side of your character.’ 

Depp replied: ‘No ma’am, I was not in that mode at all.’

Ms Wass said: ‘And you took hold of Pistol and you held her out of the window and started making howling noises.’ The actor responded: ‘I can say it is a very endearing image, but it is absolute utter falsity, it is fraudulent.’

The barrister then suggested Depp thought this was funny, to which he responded: ‘No ma’am, I don’t think hanging an animal, a small defenceless dog that weighs three pounds out of a window is fun.’

Ms Wass then asked if Depp had laughed at a suggestion of the dog being put in a microwave, to which he replied that was a ‘running joke’ between himself, Heard and others.

The Hollywood legend added: ‘I wouldn’t say that I was the inventor of that particular joke and also I wasn’t the only one who brought anything like that up.’

Ms Wass also asked Depp about an incident in which the dog ‘had eaten some hash, some cannabis – quite a lot’.

The barrister suggested it was about an ounce of hash, but Depp said: ‘I wouldn’t say it was an ounce.’ He added: ‘The puppy got a hold of a little ball of hashish and just scooped it up before I could get to it.’ 

Depp ‘went berserk after another woman fondled Heard during MDMA trip’ 

Depp went berserk and trashed his trailer with Heard inside after a woman touched her sexually, the court heard.

The actor threatened a woman named Kelly-Sue after he suspected she was making sexual advances towards Heard at a party in Hicksville in 2013, it was said.

He said he took her arm and asked her to stop before telling her: ‘Don’t take MDMA if you can’t handle it’ but denied being physically aggressive.

Ms Wass said: ‘You eventually said to her ‘Do you know how much pressure it would take to break your wrist?»

‘No,’ came the reply.

‘It was at nightfall… As the girls were congregating Kelly-Sue began to touch Ms Heard in ways that were beyond what one would accept as normal affection.

‘They were quite sexual and they were quite aggressive and she was clearly very high.

I remember (Heard) was just sort of looking at her smiling. I thought it was an uncomfortable situation.

‘I removed Kelly-Sue’s hand from Ms Heard’s body and I told her not to do that. First of all that’s my girl, second of all it’s rude and invasive.

She was quite glassy-eyed and she seemed pretty unsure of her surroundings… She seemed very stable on her feet.

‘I remember saying to her if you’re going to take this drug MDMA you should know if you’re able to handle it or not.

Don’t take it if you can’t handle it.’ 

Heard allegedly blasted Depp over the altercation when they arrived back at his trailer and made him feel like a ‘bummer,’ he said today.

Giving evidence, Depp said: ‘The argument did start because of this incident with Kelly-Sue because when we arrived back to our trailer.

‘Ms Heard began to yell and scream at me that I had ruined everyone’s weekend and that once again I was the bummer and I had ruined everyone’s good time.

So I was demeaned for being concerned.

‘I did get very, I was very upset at being treated yet again as the, pardon the expression, turd in the punch bowl.

‘That was undeserved. I didn’t feel I deserved to be screamed at and treated like garbage for doing something I felt was right and correct so during the height of the argument I punched the glass art deco light above the bathroom mirror.’

The court heard the wrecked trailer had been booked by a wedding party the following day and staff told Depp he ‘couldn’t just pay.’

Ms Wass said: ‘Do you remember a wedding party was due to arrive in a couple of hours and the owners were saying you can’t just pay for it, we have people coming in two hours?’

‘They never said that to me but I spoke to the manager and brought him to the trailer and he saw the damage.

He said okay. He replaced it, I apologized and he said ‘no problem,» came the reply.

Ms Wass said that when Depp and Heard returned to their trailer that night they had ‘a big argument’, which Mr Depp said was correct.

The barrister said the row was prompted by two things: ‘The fact that you had consumed a lot of alcohol and drugs that night…

and secondly that you were jealous’. 

Depp said: ‘When we arrived back at the trailer, Ms Heard began to yell and scream at me that I had ruined everyone’s weekend and that, you know, once again I was the bummer and that I ruined everyone’s good time, so I was demeaned for being concerned.’ 

Ms Wass suggested that the owners of the trailer park were ‘very upset’ the following morning because a wedding party was due to arrive in a few hours.

But Mr Depp said: ‘I spoke to the manager, brought him to the trailer, showed him the damage and then he went to his office and returned with a replacement bulb.’

Ms Wass referred to Depp referring to Heard as a ‘lesbian camp counsellor’, which the actor said he had not said.

But the barrister took Depp to text messages between him and Heard in which he used the phrase.

The actor replied: ‘Yes, I used those words … in a text. I used that in a text, but the words were never uttered.’

Ms Wass asked if he agreed that it was a ‘highly offensive reference to her’.

Mr Depp replied: ‘Yes, it is.’ He added: ‘That was a very ugly thing to do.’

Depp denies trying to set fire to painting by Heard’s ‘lesbian lover’ 

Depp denied allegations that he slapped Heard while trying to torch a painting by her ex-partner Tasya van Ree. 

Heard claims that the 57-year-old actor hit her several times after an argument about the artwork, which was hanging in her bedroom, and tried to set it on fire.

The fight is said by The Sun to be the first instance of domestic abuse inflicted by Depp during their relationship.

Ms Wass asked if he remembered arriving at Heard’s home in Los Angeles ‘drunk and having consumed a cocktail of cocaine and cannabis’. Depp replied: ‘Not off hand, no.’

The barrister asked: ‘Would you describe yourself as jealous?’, to which Depp replied: ‘I am, yes.

I can be jealous.’

She said: ‘You were very jealous and accusatory of Ms Heard, suggesting that she was having, or continuing, her affair with Tasya van Ree – it became an obsession of yours that night.’ 

Depp said: ‘I remember we had several arguments about Ms van Ree, I won’t elaborate, I will let you…’

The Sun’s lawyer then read out part of Depp’s witness statement in which he said he had asked Heard to remove the painting ‘as a courtesy’ to him.

Ms Wass asked: ‘When you asked her to remove the painting, according to your recollection, what did she say?’

‘Ultimately, no’, the actor replied.

He then denied allegations put to him by Ms Wass that he tried to remove the painting and to set fire to it, saying each time they were ‘not true’. 

Depp denies slapping Heard after she laughed at his infamous ‘Wino Forever’ tattoo   

The 57-year-old actor was cross examined on the stand by Ms Wass who alleged that he slapped Heard in 2013 after she laughed at the tattoo during a period where he was drinking heavily.

Depp originally got the tattoo reading ‘Winona Forever’ in tribute to his then girlfriend Winona Ryder, and changed it after they broke up in 1993.

Today, Depp was asked by Ms Wass QC if he had taken cocaine at the time of the alleged slapping in March 2013.

Depp said it was ‘difficult to recollect’ but it was ‘possible’.

Ms Wass put it to Depp that the actor first hit Heard in early 2013 – one of 14 separate allegations of domestic violence, all denied by Depp, relied on by The Sun in their defence. 

The barrister asked Depp about a tattoo he had done on his arm during his relationship with actress Winona Ryder, which read ‘Winona Forever’ and which he had changed to ‘Wino Forever’ after they split.

Ms Wass asked if he thought it was a joke at the time, to which he replied: ‘Yes, it seemed fitting.’

She then probed the actor further about the alleged incident in March 2013, which Depp agreed was at a time when he had ‘fallen off the wagon’ following about 160 days of sobriety.

The barrister put it to Depp that he had slapped Heard three times after she laughed at the ‘Wino Forever’ tattoo during a period where he was drinking heavily.

Ms Wass said: ‘You have had a tattoo on one of your arms when you were having a relationship with Winona Ryder and after you separated from Winona Ryder and after you separated from Ms Ryder you took the last syllable of her name and it read ‘Wino Forever’.

That presumably was a joke at the time.’

She asked: ‘You don’t really like to have your nose rubbed in it that you’ve failed do you?’

Depp said: ‘I suppose the image of having my nose rubbed in something is I would say not a very nice way of dealing with someone who, especially if you think someone has a drink problem, rubbing their nose in it is in my opinion the wrong way to go.

That’s what people have done to dogs for years.’ 

Ms Wass continued: ‘It was when Ms Heard laughed at the tattoo that read Wino Forever because at that stage you were in fact acting like a Wino, like an alcoholic, and you were acting very sensitive about it.

Do you agree?’

‘I would say I was initially very disappointed in myself that after 160 days having broken my sobriety,’ Depp replied.

She said: ‘Do you accept that Ms Heard was making a joke out of your tattoo, ‘Wino Forever’?’

Depp replied: ‘I don’t recall any conversation.’ 

Ms Wass continued: ‘I suggest that that provoked disappointment, firstly, in you, and then anger in you, but you don’t remember.’ Depp replied: ‘I don’t recall any argument about any of my tattoos.’

Ms Wass said: ‘You then, Mr Depp, slapped Ms Heard across the face.’

The actor responded: ‘That is not correct, it’s untrue.

It didn’t happen.’ 

Ms Wass said: ‘You slapped her more than once, because after you slapped her the first time, she didn’t react, she just eyeballed you, she just stared at you, and that made you more angry and you slapped her again.’ 

Depp answered: ‘That is patently untrue.’

Ms Wass then put it to the actor that he slapped his former wife three times in total during the incident, to which he replied: ‘I’m sorry but that is not true, you are mistaken.’

The barrister said Depp told Heard ‘for the first time about the person you have been calling ‘the monster’, your alter ego, the person who took over when you were under the influence of drink and drugs’. 

Depp replied: ‘No, ma’am.’

Ms Wass also told the court that Heard had told Depp ‘that she knew all about addiction because her father and, indeed, also her mother had also been drug users’. 

Depp said that was true and that he became ‘very close’ with Heard’s father and mother.

But the actor denied that Heard had said ‘she could help him’ with his drug use.

The actor was read extracts from an exchange of text messages between him and Heard on March 12, 2013, in which he wrote: ‘Just thought you should know, there exists a book entitled Disco Bloodbath.

That is all.’

The court heard Heard replied: ‘We need that book… is it about last Friday night by any chance?’ Depp then said: ‘How can you make me smile about such a hideous moment?’