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Amber Heard “threatened” an assistant into lying to Australian authorities after the actress was busted smuggling her two pooches without proper paperwork, a UK court was told Wednesday. Heard, 34, had been arrested in 2015 — at one point facing up to 10 years in prison — for illegally taking Yorkshire terriers Pistol and Boo …
Amber Heard “threatened” an assistant into lying to Australian authorities after the actress was busted smuggling her two pooches without proper paperwork, a UK court was told Wednesday.
Heard, 34, had been arrested in 2015 — at one point facing up to 10 years in prison — for illegally taking Yorkshire terriers Pistol and Boo to Oz, in what was quickly dubbed the “war on terrier” debacle.
Kevin Murphy, estate manager for Heard’s then-husband, Johnny Depp, admitted in London’s High Court on Wednesday that he made statements to the Oz authorities at the time that were “not entirely truthful” to try to deflect blame from Heard.
He signed official documents claiming Heard’s recently fired assistant, Kate James, had been responsible for filing the missing paperwork that Heard thought was all set when she flew to Australia.
Murphy said Heard also pressured him to go to James directly and ask her to “lie under oath” and take the blame and pretend Heard did not know she was breaking the law by traveling with her pet pooches.
However, he insisted in court, “Ms. Heard was aware that this was illegal, because I had informed her repeatedly by email, telephone and in person.”
The court heard sections from an email chain with lawyer Marty Singer in which he told Heard it would be “helpful” for her case if she could get her former assistant to sign a statement.
“I don’t know what your relationship with her is at this time since you fired her. You will have to be careful that she will co-operate and not go public if you ask her not to be truthful,” Singer’s email said, the court was told.
Murphy said, “I told Ms. Heard that I was uncomfortable with giving a false statement to the court and that I would not ask Ms. James to do so.”
He said he finally gave a false statement — “written for me by Marty Singer and Amber Heard” — because Heard “threatened” him, confirming when asked that he felt the star wanted him to “commit perjury” on her behalf.
“That’s what I was asked to agree to, and had the threat of losing my job or having trouble with my job,” he told the court of “extreme pressure.”
“Ms. Heard’s threatening language made me feel anxious and uneasy.
“Amber wielded a lot of power and would have made my life miserable,” he said, saying she could be “subversive.”
Murphy claimed he warned the actress that she could face “severe legal ramifications” for taking the pooches to Australia and was “shocked” when she did so anyway.
He was challenged over whether the real pressure came from Depp, who had already interrupted the filming of the fifth installment of “Pirates of the Caribbean” when he severed his fingertip in a fight with his wife, also in Australia.
“Johnny’s never asked me to lie,” Murphy said of Depp.
He also insisted, “Johnny never wanted the dogs to travel; it was always Amber who wanted the dogs to travel.”
Sasha Wass, the lawyer for The Sun, the UK paper Depp is suing, stressed, “You are now admitting that you committed perjury in Australia as a result of something your boss’ wife asked you to do?”
“That’s correct,” Murphy admitted to the court.
Heard eventually pleaded guilty to providing a false immigration document over the smuggled dogs, but avoided jail time.
Depp joined her in a widely ridiculed apology video that was played in her court case at the time — with parts also played in Wednesday’s High Court hearing.
Murphy’s evidence came on the seventh day of the case hearing Depp’s libel case against The Sun over an April 2018 article that said he was a “wife-beater,” which he denies — and instead says his “sociopathic” ex-wife was the violent one in their marriage.
With Post wires
