The case is currently on recess.
Johnny Depp’s legal team have claimed that Amber Heard’s bloody lip picture, which she tried to use as evidence of the actor’s spousal abuse, is a fake – or at least the timings don’t line up.
Heard’s lawyers attempted to supply the photo as evidence in this latest defamation trial but it was ultimately rejected by Depp’s team and the judge as it wasn’t submitted in time.
However, after having been given access to the metadata of the image by Depp’s representation, TMZ claims that the metadata indicates the photo is from 2012 and not 2013 when Heard claimed the first incident of violence took place.
TMZ obtained the photo Amber Heard's legal team wanted to show the jury after an alleged attack, but Johnny Depp's team objected … saying Amber's lawyers never submitted the photo during the discovery phase of the case. https://t.co/EBzjTZtgPP
— TMZ (@TMZ) May 11, 2022
In the initial UK defamation case, where the 58-year-old sought damages against The Sun for calling him a “wife-beater” in 2018 – a case which he ultimately lost – Heard’s initial statement alleged that the first incident of assault took place in 2013.
A source close to the defendant has since argued that she got her dates mixed up when citing the abuse the first time around and that her therapist records confirmed it was indeed 2012 when she first spoke of the incident.
Since the snap was never entered as official evidence, the details will remain largely tangential to the case itself but it serves as yet another aspect in which the veracity of the allegation is being disputed and the truth behind very serious accusations of abuse continues to elude the court.
Numerous pieces of photographic and audio evidence aside, both sides are denying having assaulted one another – Heard having only admitted to slapping Depp in self-defence.
Depp’s lawyers have claimed that Heard is putting on “the performance of her life” in her recounting of the alleged incidents – a suggestion which her own legal team responded to by arguing that Depp has an “inability to distinguish fact from fiction – a malady which appears to have spread to his legal team”, as well as slamming him for his behaviour throughout the trial.
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