The case of Johnny Depp and Amber Heard is getting even murkier. Amber is facing a $50 million defamation case in Northern Virginia from Johnny after the former wrote an op-ed talking about the domestic abuse she faced, without naming Depp. Earlier, audio clippings of Heard admitting to hitting Depp came to light. Johnny Depp’s Ex-Wife Amber Heard Pleads Judge to Record Domestic Violence, Drugs and Alcohol Abuse in Response to His $50 Million Defamation Suit.

Depp is in court in London for a pre-trial hearing in his suit against British newspaper The Sun and its executive editor, Dan Wootton, over an article that alleged he had been abusive towards his ex-wife.

As per a report by DailyMail, at the pre-trial, Mr Justice Nicol heard that over 70,000 text messages were 'accidentally' disclosed to the defendants by Depp's former legal team. Some of these texts were read out to the court. In one of these texts, that Depp sent to Paul Bettany, he suggests to burn Amber and drown her. Johnny Depp Declines Ex Amber Heard's Demand for Substance Abuse Documents.

DailyMail reports that Depp allegedly wrote to Bettany on Nov 6, 2013, “Let’s burn Amber,” the court heard. A text followed this one - "Let’s drown her before we burn her!!! I will f–k her burnt corpse afterwards to make sure she is dead.”

More texts to Bettany from Depp were read out: “I’m gonna properly stop the booze thing, darling… Drank all night before I picked Amber up to fly to LA, this past Sunday…Ugly, mate."

“No food for days…powders…half a bottle of whiskey, a thousand red bull and vodkas, pills, 2 bottles of Champers on plane and what do you get..??? An angry, aggro Injun in a f–kin’ blackout, screaming obscenities and insulting any f–k who got near…I’m done."

Depp’s lawyer Adam Waldman accused The Sun of keeping Amber Heard's hoax alive by "cherry-picking a fragment of a single frustrated text message" out of 70000 messages from 500 gigabytes of data.

Waldman further said, "Inconveniently for the Sun, here is what Mr Depp actually said next in his text – that he could never harm Amber: ‘I am admittedly too f–ked in the head to spray my rage at the one I love’."

The full hearing is due to start on March 23.

Adam Wolanski QC is representing The Sun. He told the London court: "These texts go to the very heart of the case, they are really very important and set out the claimant’s thinking in respect of a number of different incidents and his recollection."

Wolanski added that Depp's texts to Bettany in May 2014 were sent out after an alleged altercation on a plane where the actor in a drunken stupor screamed obscenities, slapped and kicked Heard, threw a boot at her and passed out in the toilet.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 27, 2020 09:38 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).