WARNING: This story contains details about intimate partner violence.
A friend of the actor Amber Heard testified on Wednesday that she saw bruises and cuts left after the numerous alleged incidents of violence inflicted by Hurd’s ex-husband, actor Johnny Depp.
In recorded testimony played for jurors, Raquel Pennington said she had never witnessed Depp personally hit Hurd. But she said she saw the injuries and took pictures of Hurd’s face in December 2015 after a fight in which Hurd said Depp hit her in the head and possibly broke her nose.
The photo shows a swollen nose, a slit lip and two moderately black eyes on Hurd’s face. She also took a picture of locks of hair that she said were torn from Hurd’s scalp.
Hurd “often had to cover up bruises and facial injuries” with makeup, Pennington said in a January 2022 testimony.
Raquel Pennington testified during a previously recorded video of the defamation trial on Wednesday. (Kevin Lamarck / Associated Press)
Pennington said he was not really considered Hurd’s current friend and that the two had split in the past year.
Depp is suing Hurd for defamation in Fairfax County Court in Virginia over a December 2018 post she wrote in the Washington Post describing herself as a “public figure representing domestic violence.” His lawyers say he was slandered by the article, although his name is never mentioned.
The process is already the fifth week.
Depp says he never hit Hurd and was a victim of Hurd’s violence.
The battle of December 2015 is one of several that has been contested. While jurors saw photos taken by Pennington documenting the injuries, they also saw a video of Hurd appearing in a late-night talk show the next day showing no injuries.
Hurd said the injuries were simply covered in makeup.
Pennington’s testimony came after Hurd ended his time on the witness stand, including two grueling days of cross-examination in which Depp’s lawyers questioned Hurd about the veracity of her allegations of physical and sexual abuse.
Actors Johnny Depp, left, and Amber Heard arrive at Fairfax County Court in Fairfax, Virginia, on April 12, 2022. The defamation trial is in its fifth week. (Samuel Corum / AFP / Getty Images)
The testimony provides corroborating evidence
Pennington’s testimony provides corroborating evidence of several of the alleged attacks.
In addition to the December 2015 incident, Pennington said she saw cuts on Hurd’s legs when she returned from a trip to Australia in March 2015. Hurd testified that Depp sexually assaulted her with a bottle of alcohol during on this trip, she said she cut her legs on broken glass from the attack.
Pennington, who has lived in a penthouse with Depp and Hurd for some time, said she was the first person to see Hurd during the couple’s last fight in May 2016, which accelerated the couple’s divorce.
Support is available to anyone who has been abused or attacked. You can access crisis lines and local support services through the Canadian Violence Cessation Association database. The Canadian Women’s Foundation’s help signal is a silent one-handed gesture to use in a video call to indicate that you are at risk of domestic violence. If you are in imminent danger or fear for your safety or the safety of others around you, please call 911.
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