Amber Heard’s former personal assistant accused the actress of ‘stealing’ her own harrowing story of being the victim of sexual violence – and ‘twisting’ it for her own benefit.
Kate James chose to break her anonymity by submitting a statement in the High Court declaring that she was violently raped at knife point when aged 26 while she was travelling in Brazil and that Johnny Depp’s ex-wife subsequently ‘twisted it into her own story to benefit herself’.
Ms James worked as Heard’s PA between March 2012 until February 2015.
She claimed that in 2013, she confided in the actress about what happened to her and her battle to overcome her experience.
She was giving evidence to Johnny Depp’s blockbuster libel trial against The Sun in London as he accuses the newspaper of falsely branding him a ‘wife beater.’
James told the court that Heard asked to hear her story of surviving sexual violence, and as they spoke in her office, Heard suggested that Ms James should buy a gun to which she responded that she saw herself as a ‘rape survivor’ and not a ‘rape victim’.
In her statement, parts of which were read out in court, Ms James revealed that she only received documents related to the High Court libel hearing last month.
She adds: ‘As I perused the documents, much 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.’
In other developments in court today:
- Johnny Depp said he wanted to DNA test faeces to determine its origin and said Amber Heard ‘left a whooper poo on my bed’ after she allegedly defecated on their marital bed following a row
- Depp told Heard he wanted a divorce over the faces after a dramatic conference call in which assistant said she had told him it was a ‘harmless prank’
- A dramatic photograph was today released of the carnage left at a property in Australia after Amber Heard and Johnny Depp had a huge fight which resulted in the actor’s finger being partially severed
- The photograph shows blood spattered on the floor and smashed glass, but the phone handset that Heard claims Depp smashed and cut off his finger with while attacking her is intact
- Amber Heard ignored warnings that it was illegal to smuggle her dogs into Australia, and tried to get an assistant to lie about it under oath to clear her
- Estate manager Ben King said he found Depp’s fingertip while clearing up following the row in Australia;
- Claims over urine in the flat were contested as the Sun’s barrister told of paint and graffiti left on the walls;
- Mr King saw cuts on Heard’s arms and suggested she ‘should put her sleeve down’ after the finger incident;
- The estate manager also said he was never told the couple’s dogs ‘had been brought into Australia illegally’;
- Winona Ryder will later give evidence and has already claimied Depp was ‘never, never abusive towards me’;
- Actress Katherine Kendall will appear and says she has ‘heard several times’ that Heard was abusive to Depp.
Amber Heard (right) in Los Angeles with assistant Kate James (left) on September 27, 2012
Johnny Depp (left, leaving the High Court this afternoon) is suing The Sun’s publisher over an article which alleged he was violent towards ex-wife Amber Heard (right, leaving the court today)
Scene where assistant found Depp’s severed finger: The carnage in a property in Australia after Depp and Heard allegedly had a fight in 2015, which was released today as part of Ben King’s evidence. The picture shows an undamaged phone handset, with Mr King insisting ‘ I did not see any phones which had been broken’, despite Heard’s claims that he smashed it against a wall and cut off his fingertip while attacking her
Court artist sketch by Elizabeth Cook of Kate James, Amber Heard’s former assistant, giving evidence via video link at the High Court in London today
As they spoke in her office, Heard suggested that Ms James should buy a gun to which she responded that she saw herself as a ‘rape survivor’ and not a ‘rape victim’.
In her statement, parts of which were read out in court, Ms James revealed that she only received documents related to the High Court libel hearing last month.
She adds: ‘As I perused the documents, much 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.’
When asked by Sasha Wass, representing the Sun in Johnny Depp’s libel trial, why she was giving evidence Ms James declared: ‘I’m a sexual violence survivor and it’s very serious to take that stance if you are not one and I am one and that’s the reason I’m here because I take offence.’
When further questioned by Depp’s lawyer David Sherborne, Ms James added: ‘Amber Heard referred to conversations about me being raped in Brazil.
She twisted it into her own story, she used it for her own use.’
Ms James earlier told the court that Heard would drink ‘vast quantities of red wine’ each night and then subject her to a ‘barrage’ of abusive texts.
She added: ‘I knew she drank wine because when I would go (to her house) in the morning there would be a lot of bottles there.
I would also receive a barrage of drunken, incoherent abusive text messages between the hours of 2-4 in the morning.’
Ms James, who has been a PA to a number of notable figures in the entertainment industry, described Ms Heard as the ‘least famous person’ she has ever worked for.
Ms James also claimed Heard drank ‘vast quantities of red wine each night’ and would only allow Depp to drink non-alcoholic beer.
Ms James, who worked for Heard for three years until 2015, said in a statement to London’s High Court that she would be asked to buy the 0 per cent beer for Depp.
She added that she ‘never saw any physical violence’ by either Heard or Depp, despite visiting her house in Los Angeles almost every day including on weekends.
And she praised Depp for being ‘calm and quite shy’ as well as ‘always thoughtful and kind and a genuinely decent person’ who taught her son how to play guitar.
Heard was already dating Depp when Ms Jones first started working for her in March 2012, but she claimed the actress only referred to him as ‘dating this old man’.
Heard later said it was Depp, and Ms Jones said her first impression was of a ‘softly spoken and peaceful’ man who was ‘very pleasant and courteous upon meeting me’.
Ms James added that she never saw any bruising or swelling on Heard despite often seeing her naked or semi-naked when she was getting dressed or at fittings.
Amber Heard has rubbished accusations that she defecated in Johnny Depp’s bed, as bombshell photographs of faeces at the centre of their bitter court row were made public for the first time
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