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Johnny Depp made a surprise appearance in court in London on Wednesday as his libel case against the parent company of the Sun, News Group Newspapers, began.
He is suing the newspaper over a 2018 article in which they wrote that he had abused his ex-wife, actress Amber Heard, reports AFP. Depp has denied claims made by Heard that he abused her and instead claimed she was the "agressor". The case is ongoing and due to start on 23 March.
At his pre-trial hearing on Wednesday, Mr Justice Nicol heard 70 000 text messages that were "accidentally" disclosed to the defendants by Mr Depp's former legal team, including ones sent to fellow actor Paul Bettany in which Depp said he would "burn" and "drown" Heard, according to the Independent.
"Let's drown her before we burn her!!! I will f*** her burnt corpse afterwards to make sure she is dead," he allegedly wrote.
The Sun's attorney, Adam Wolanski, referred to a separate string of texts in which Depp spoke of "half a bottle of whiskey, a thousand red bull and vodkas, pills, two bottles of Champers on plane" as evidence for an event in which Heard alleged in her case against Depp that he abused her before passing out on a toilet, thereby corroborating their claims, reports Vanity Fair.
Depp's lawyers vehemently denied all claims on behalf of the Pirates of the Caribbean actor.
Depp's lawyer in the UK, David Sherborne, said on Wednesday, "Nowhere, I repeat, nowhere, is there a single smoking gun, text, or email, no document – unlike Ms Heard's own taped confession we looked at before; there is no document where Mr Depp says 'I hit Ms. Heard' let alone 'I hit her on numerous occasions.'
"One person, one side, is lying, and one is not."
