Amber Heard‘s sister Whitney Henriquez has claimed the actress’ rented house with Johnny Depp was covered in so much blood it looked like a scene from The Shining.
Heard, 34, returned to London’s High Court today for her fourth day giving evidence in Depp ‘s libel case against News Group Newspapers and finished up in the witness box this morning.
Depp, 57, is suing NGN over a story published in The Sun in 2018 which branded him a “wife beater” – a claim which he strenuously denies.
Henriquez was called to give evidence after her sister, and in her witness stament, which was presented to the court today, she opened up about the former couple’s fiery row at a rented home in Australia in 2015.
Henriquez said she was not in Australia at the time, but said Heard showed her pictures of the house covered in blood.
In her statement, she said: “I was not in Australia, but Amber told me about this when she got back to LA – at least in headline terms.
I saw her when she got back to LA. She sobbed telling me about the fight and what happened. She was not hiding the abuse from me at this point.
“I also saw her injuries, so there was no hiding it. Her lip was swollen and busted up a bit, and she also had these horrible cuts on her arms – like gashes – and I asked her ‘Is he coming at you with knives now?’
“Then she told me that the cuts on her arms were from the broken glass that was all over the place from him throwing bottles and smashing glasses…
“She told me he had been on a bender of drinking and doing drugs, this time ecstasy and that he had hit her – and repeatedly. She explained that it was the most violence she had ever suffered from him. At some point, he had cut his finger somehow and was writing on the wall in his own blood and Amber showed me the pictures she took of it.
“I remember thinking it was really messed up, ‘This is like something out of The Shining or something’. I remember her being really shaken by what had happened.”
Jack Nicholson’s 1980 horror classic The Shining featured a famous scene known as the River Of Blood, in which a wave of blood pours out of a lift and along a corridor of the haunted Overlook Hotel.
Depp claimed Heard severed his finger during a row at the Australia house by throwing a bottle at him.
Heard alleges Depp caused the injury himself by smashing a phone against a wall.
During his time in the witness box, Depp admitted he’d used his bloody stump to scrawl messages across the walls of the house.
Heard has finished giving evidence, and earlier today she told the court Depp left their house with blood dripping down the walls, raw meat smeared everywhere and set fire to a sofa in a “24-hour binge” in Australia in 2015.
She also admitted she lied to her mum about the star hitting her during their relationship.
The actress claimed she told her mum Depp wasn’t violent towards her because she didn’t want her dad to find out the truth about her relationship.
Depp has denied he was ever violent towards his ex-wife and has accused her of abusing him during their marriage.
Lawyers for NGN are defending their case based on Heard’s 14 allegations of abuse, which include claims of bust-ups between 2013 and 2016.
The actor has argued his ex-wife was abusive towards him during the marriage, which collapsed in 2016.