Raquel Pennington

In video testimony, Raquel 'Rocky' Pennington, Amber Heard's best friend during her marriage, backs up allegations of violence by Johnny Depp.

The shots allegedly show injuries on Heard’s face and head, which Pennington said accurately reflected what she had seen in person. I just put my body over her.” Pennington said Depp kept coming closer and closer to them in a menacing way, and remembered that she noticed a big ceramic ashtray on the coffee table and thought to herself that if he came too close, she would pick it up and use the ashtray as a weapon. A while later, Pennington said, she was alerted that something was happening in the couple’s penthouse and went to check on Heard. She testified that she heard Depp yelling inside, though she didn’t remember what he was saying. “I thought it was a really bad idea, but you can’t stop somebody from coming over to their own home,” she said in her deposition, which was shown as the trial was broadcast and streamed live on CourtTV. Pennington, who appeared via a video deposition recorded in January, described injuries she said she saw on Heard’s face and head, and property damage caused by Depp, after the altercation that allegedly occurred at the couple’s penthouse on May 21, 2016.

Ms Pennington said that she was afraid for Ms Heard because Mr Depp “could be very unpredictable and [Ms Heard] didn't have a lot of self-preservation”.

It was really loud and he got closer and closer,” she said, breaking down. “He had knocked over a bunch of items that were on the kitchen island… The switch would happen,” she said. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. Ms Pennington denied accusations from Mr Depp’s legal team that she and Ms Heard “staged” the scene and that she had been “lying in wait” for him to come over to the penthouse. “We called it the monster... “I was worried for her physical safety. “Johnny would be acting like his wonderful self for a certain portion of an occasion where people were hanging out or soemtimes just privately at home. “In the beginning I wasn’t worried. Later, she said that she received a message from Ms Heard saying to “come over” so she went straight over to the former couple’s penthouse. Ms Pennington sobbed as she told how she saw injuries to Ms Heard on several other occasions and also saw the actress often “cover bruises and injuries on her face with make-up”. Ms Pennington said it is “false” to suggest that Ms Heard was uninjured when she appeared on “The Late Late Show” – after Mr Depp’s attorneys previously tried to refute Ms Heard’s allegations by saying that the injuries were not visible on the show.