Johnny Depp trial live: Amber Heard portrays self as victim but abused actor,

Judge calls morning recess as Depp’s legal team finishes their opening statement.

Heard is being characterised by the plaintiff’s legal team as a compulsive liar who covers up one lie with another and used the allegations against Depp to advance her own career and portray herself as a heroic and innocent survivor of abuse.

Depp’s team acknowledge his use of drugs and alcohol but that does not make him an abuser.

Johnny Depp will testify in the defamation trial.

Depp’s legal team says that the evidence supports aggressive behaviour by Heard towards Depp and not the other way around, and testimony will reflect that.

Depp’s team are also emphasising his childhood growing up with an abusive mother and that his sister will testify.

His dating life and long-term relationships are also referenced including Winona Ryder, Kate Moss, and his 14-year relationship with Vanessa Paradis.

They say that Heard is a “profoundly troubled person” who manipulates those around her and was often angry, taunting Depp who would retreat to get away from her, often into bathrooms as she screamed and chased him.

When they travelled his team would often book a separate room for him to retreat to when she became aggressive.

Depp’s lawyers say there was no evidence of physical abuse and police officers who responded to a call placed by Heard will testify to that.

Mr Chew is keen for the jury to remember key dates in May 2016 when Depp ended the relationship with Heard, and six days later when she filed a restraining order against him while he was out of the US with no ability to respond.

Their divorce was settled out of court, but two years later at the height of the Me Too movement, and shortly before the release of her own movie Aquaman, was when Heard wrote her article.

Depp’s team argue that he was tainted with the allegation of abuse and his career suffered.

The jury is being shown the opinion piece written by Heard and published in The Washington Post in 2018.

Three statements are highlighted in the article.

— “I spoke up against sexual violence — and faced our culture’s wrath. That has to change.”

— “Then two years ago, I became a public figure representing domestic abuse, and I felt the full force of our culture’s wrath for women who speak out.”

— “I had the rare vantage point of seeing, in real time, how institutions protect men accused of abuse.”

Heard did not use Depp’s name in the article.