Featured Image Credit: Court TV
Topics: Johnny Depp, Amber Heard, US News, Celebrity
Tom Fenton
Amber Heard's former assistant has alleged that the actress was verbally abusive towards her during their time working together.
Citing alleged text exchanges, Katherine James, who worked in the role for several years, made the claims at the libel trial between Heard and her former partner Johnny Depp.
Depp, of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas fame, is currently suing his ex-wife for libel in the US state of Virginia, following a very public break up.
The point of contention for Depp stems back to a 2018 article written by Heard in the Washington Post, where the 35-year-old described her experience as a 'public figure representing domestic abuse'.
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"I felt the full force of our culture's wrath for women who speak out," she wrote, which Depp construed as an attack on his reputation - even if we wasn't mentioned by name.
"I had the rare vantage point of seeing, in real time, how institutions protect men accused of abuse," Heard added in the article.
The libel hearing is now firmly underway, which is due to last six weeks in total. James is just the latest witness to be called up to stand to deliver her testimony - but her as yet unproven allegations could have an impact on the outcome of the trial.
During her testimony, she was asked to talk about times she says Heard was verbally abusive while she worked for her.
Heard screamed at her once in person, she tells the court, and there were 'multiple times' that she screamed at her over the phone. James adds that her former boss would send 'barrages of abusive text messages...day and night'.
These texts would often be 'incoherent' and 'not really making sense'.
She also tells the court that Heard was verbally abusive to her sister, Whitney Heard, and describes it as a 'kick the dog' kind of relationship.
Trial Network executive producer Kathy Russon shared a video clip of the moment in question on Twitter, where she also describes the audience present at the trial laughing at the suggestion that James was paid 'very poorly' by Heard during her time working as an assistant.
"Kate James: Is this relevant? She goes on to explain everything she did for #AmberHeard (with a bit of an attitude). You were paid for that work, correct?" Russon captions the video clip on Twitter.
"James: Very poorly. (laughter in the courtroom)."
While currently unproven, James' account of her time working for Heard could have a bearing on the outcome of the trail.
Over the coming weeks, the likes of James Franco, Paul Bettany and even Elon Musk are expected to be called up to the stand to testify in the trial.
This is the second libel trial involving a Depp and a newspaper, as back in 2018, the film star unsuccessfully sued British newspaper The Sun for branding the 58-year-old a 'wife beater'.