Anyone watching Amber heard take the stand?

[Meltinthemiddle]

Really not sure what to think tbh.

This is where your past experiences (understandably) colour your views on this case.

The shitty reality of living with an addict, not someone who overdoes it a bit at the weekends, a real, bona fide addict, is soul destroying over time.

But ..... this is not that scenario.

Their lifestyles and finances are so removed from the ordinary persons experience it'll be hard to relate. For instance, AH wouldn't have the same financial concerns that we would have surrounding money being used on drink and drugs. She wouldn't have the same issues with having to clean up the aftermath of a particularly protracted episode. She has cited that he had staff that would clean up afterwards, whether that be him physically or any mess in the property. Whilst still unpleasant to witness not as rage inducing as Joe publics experience.

I've been watching the court case as presented, I'm not a JD fan and I wasn't really aware of who AH was prior to the trial. JD has been upfront about his addiction issues, admits to being in a argument laden, unhealthy relationship with AH but denies being the perpetrator of any physical assault.

AH doesn't just talk of the frustrations of living with an addict, or his behaviour in relation to drink and drugs benders, she describes several vicious physical attacks. The attacks she describes are horrific and brutal, resulting in many injuries. However, she has yet to provide sufficient evidence to support these accounts. The couple of pictures she has provided are not consistent with the type of attack that she says preceded them and she has not been seen to be sporting swelling and bruising by any independent witness. Furthermore, there has been evidence presented that demonstrate AH has been physically violent to JD. Not in a retaliatory fashion but as the aggressor, this has been supported by audio evidence and independent witnesses.

How the case will go, I'm unsure. Their relationship was a mess and it could be argued JD's fame was already on the wane. The actual claim here is defamation, he'll need to definitively prove that it's through AH's claims and not his own actions that have led to him losing work and damage to his image.

I don't like the narrative that if you critique AH's claims you're an abuse apologist JD sycophant.

If Amber came on here and said her office* worker husband was getting pissed at 8am, breaking furniture, verbally abusing her and she filmed it all, nobody would say “oh my god what a goady cow for filming him” they’d be saying take the footage to the police.

The first time she filmed, I'd be saying good on you. If she was still filming 3 years later, I'd have shrugged my shoulders at her still putting up with it. If course if she had nowhere to go, I might be sympathetic. But if she had a million in the bank and friends to stay with, including the world's richest man, I wouldn't have any sympathy at all.

@LucieLemon
I understand that my own lived experiences will cloud my judgement, but likewise for those who don't have the experience of it and who haven't learned about the experience of it they are just incredibly ignorant. It is an incredibly dangerous stance to take to issue judgement without trying to consider what she was actually living with and only judge her behaviour in isolation.

Yes it's a different world for them and they had people to clean up and no money worries etc. but I have often thought that in some ways celebrities have less personal coping skills than regular people..... but at the end of the day celebrity or not, trauma is trauma, love is love, pain in relationships is pain in relationships, they are still human and still have human emotions and things more or less affect people in the same ways. Less time to worry about money or cleaning up may leave more time to worry about the state of your relationship, more time to obsess about the things that upset you and so on.

JD had to admit to his alcohol issues and arguments in the relationship, so admitting to that and denying something else doesn't mean he didn't do it, It's like what people say about cheaters that they will admit to the least that they think they can get away with.

I do think AH is exaggerating the severity of the attacks, whether that is down to a personality disorder, trauma or as a pp said maybe that is how they felt to her at the time...I don't know, but just like JD denying something doesn't mean it's true, AH exaggerating doesn't mean that she didn't suffer any abuse.

Also just to clarify, I don't have an issue with people critiquing her claims provided there is some balance, I do have an issue with people who are absolutely unwilling to even consider the fact that JD may have been abusive towards her in any way.

It's not even just because he's rich and famous. In my experience people enable this behaviour all the time, the people who act that way are never shunned.

If the person is likable then they are great at evoking sympathy, even when people witness the bad behaviour or all of the evidence available to them shows them that this likable person does terrible things! 😞

I’m glad to revisit this thread and see how the majority of people are finally seeing what some of us have seen from day one.

I'm glad to see some more balance in the media finally. Also many articles about the vilification of Amber on social media and how many people are afraid to support her publicly due to the backlash, and the backlash is often coming from people who have made their mind up based on edited videos and things they heard which aren't even true!

I don't doubt that Johnny has more supporters, but I also think that a huge amount of those supporters really haven't been following the case that closely at all.

Right. Why'd she stay if it were so horrific?

Guarantee if he were an office worker she'd have been long gone.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/amber-heard-johnny-depp-memes-reddit-tiktok-b2082450.html?amp

Excellent article here.

I'm on day 17 or 18 , depps case is collapsing

Unless they pull something out of the bag...

He's looking extremely bad at the moment.
Her latter witnesses are much more credible incld Josh drew and io and Whitney.

@ICanSmellSummerComing The witness then was terrible! I don’t think its helped her case at all

Her sister and Josh were great though.
I don't know why on earth they Bothered with rocky p. That was uuter torture!

Golly, that was a train wreck. He was so grandiose when give his testimony, lecturing to the jury. But under cross he was aggressive and avoidant. He contradicted his deposition. He had to retract evidence and apologise. He implicated Heard in IPV as well. He asked the judge if he had to answer. He compared Depps baseline to adverts and films because he didn't know they rehearsed for parts?!!! I mean surely his credibility ended right there?
Er, what did I just watch?

Even though I think she was abusive towards JD too, I hope with all my heart that she defends herself successfully. Anyone who speaks out about abuse should never fit a perfect mould. There should be no rules that state ‘potential abuse victims cannot speak out if they have potentially been perpetrators’.

Her article was fine. She should be allowed to speak out having won the UK trial. In a world that champions free speech, what did she do wrong by stating her opinion?

I'm not a psychiatrist - but that guy exhibited about 85 questionable behaviours and traits...

I thought her sister was nice and clear but her account contradicted Heards. Depp came up the stairs behind Whitney so wasn't in a position to throw her down the stairs. If anything when he struck or pushed Whitney from behind, she'd have gone further away from the stairs?
And why would Whitney try to facilitate them bring together when she knew that Depp was beating Heard? That doesn't make sense to me? How many beatings does it take to get to the point of no return?
And she witnessed that Heard hit Depp before Depp hit Heard. Or have I just imagined that?
I don't know how much weight the jury gives to any of this but I feel sorry for them having to sit through this. I can't always make it through edited highlights a couple of days a week!

I'm not a psychiatrist - but that guy exhibited about 85 questionable behaviours and traits...

😂😂😂 He's a professional witness. Well maybe, was. I think I heard the toilet flush on his career. Maybe he can get it back on rebuttal? (Followng the toilet theme there!)

Her article was fine. She should be allowed to speak out having won the UK trial. In a world that champions free speech, what did she do wrong by stating her opinion?

That's the whole point of the trial! She can speak the truth, she can't defame someone. And Depp is saying that she has defamed him. Now the court will decide which of them is right.

She didn't win the UK trial. That was against the Sun and had nothing to do with the op-ed.

But that also means that JD should also be allowed to speak out as he is also a victim of DV.

I find it interesting that Amber Heard's team tore into the forsenic psychologist (Curry I think?) testifying for Depp that she was incapable of diagnosing Amber Heard with BPD / Histrionic PD despite this Doctor having spent hours with Amber and performed standardised assessments to reach her diagnosis yet this Psychiatrist has made some very strong assertions as to JD's diagnosis, and behaviour over what felt like HOURS of lengthy testimony without having ever spoke to him. He appears to have made this assessment watching the court proceedings and looking at evidence.

If diagnosing Amber over X hours is unacceptable then so is the testimony just given. We cannot have one standard for one, and another standard for the other...

@Pinkyxx I agree. It contradicts their previous claim. But I still can't get over how a psychiatrist would judge someone's baseline of behaviour by looking at character roles in films. I mean, is he saying Anthony Hopkins must be a psychotic serial murderer because he played Hannibal Lecter?
Sometimes, I think I'm living in a different universe to that court.

Depp has been almost certainly acting a role whilst in court, so surely it’s his character being assessed and not him. For many people, playing a role isn’t something they can maintain and sustain but Depp has been a top actor for many decades; it will come far more naturally and easily to him that most.

@Earlydancing & @TheSnowyOwl exactly. If we're going to evaluate psychological issues as a part of this trial it should be done in an objective, professional and unbiased way via acknowledged approaches to evaluate. The court ought to have appointed independent people to do these assessments rather than either side sourcing their own professionals. Neither side can reasonable claim they are free of psychological issues.. If I had mental health issues or addiction I could go out and therapist shop for someone who agreed with MY opinion.. Hearing some guy's subjective opinion based on pre-disposing factors does not equate to a diagnosis so not sure what the purpose of this witness was. I've known people with all the factors he listed for JD (sadly) who haven't ever laid an finger on their partner. I've also know people with NONE of these factors who beat their spouse senseless and then lied with impunity about it in a court even in the face of indisputable evidence. None of this tells us anything about whether JD was violent.

So much of this thing has been subjective opinion from supposed 'experts'. If you strip all that away and look at evidence alone, they have both behaved badly. I don't know who is telling the truth, but I will say I do not like the fact that Amber Heard has contradicted herself and / or testimony in the NSW trial.

The professor (one of the best in the world) who treats me for a rare medical condition told me that while there were no absolutes in medicine, in his opinion, I would not be able to conceive and even if I did it would not be possible for my body to sustain the pregnancy to term. My daughter turned 13 this year... it shocks me how many people present opinion as an indisputable absolute.

So many posts like this, assuming what she would or wouldn't have done based on what the poster would have done.

Battered wives don't want to live near their ex
If he hit her she'd have massive swelling and black eyes
If you're being shouted at you definitely wouldn't be shouting back
You wouldn't cry like that in court
If you were really scared you wouldn't film it
If you were really being abused you would have left
I was a victim of DV and I didn't act like Amber so she must be lying

It must be dreary not to be able to put yourself in someone shoes and think maybe they deal with things differently.

@Pinkyxx Haha. Congrats on your 13yo. I saw a consultant orthodontist at the hospital about having an apicectomy on my tooth to save it. He said, there's not much chance if it working so I'd probably be better with an extraction. I ignored him and had it done and 17 years later, I still have my tooth!
I was shocked during covid that science is so subjective. I thought things were absolutes and then none of these scientists agreed over things.

I do believe a lot of what Heard says but I can't get past, not so much the lies, but the way she doubles down on the lies. And the way her demeanour is so different between her depositions and her testimony before the break and her testimony after the break. Its bemusing. But Depp is lying over things too. Although his lies are over serious stuff like, did you hit her? Hers are over inconsequential stuff. I don't get what's going on with her.

If I was a jury member, I wonder how much of this I'd be junking. I feel sorry for them having to wade through all this crap. But at the end of the day, two lives are going to be really affected by their final judgement.

'I just really hate liars, and I am so angry that AH's actions will undoubtedly cause lots more abused women (and men) to be disbelieved.'

It's shown me that I'll never report abuse or rape in my life because women are so hated that it's just been decided that she must be a liar by so many people.

The worlds opinion swings in favour of rich middle aged white man. Who'd have guessed it?

I find this so insensitive, it's not "just decided " people are watching a court case live on TV, they are able to use their judgement with the evidence provided , in the same way the jury are! Just because you belive amber heard is lying about being abused and was the abuser in the relationship, doesn't mean you are 1, a fan of johnny depp and/or 2 a woman hater , it's so bizarre this line of thinking!