Entertainment
Amber Heard still facing allegations of perjury in Australia weeks after losing Johnny Depp libel trial-Mel Evans-Entertainment – Metro
The actress and her former spouse were the subjects of national controversy – dubbed ‘Terriergate’.
Amber Heard is still facing investigation over a 2015 trip to Australia (Picture: EPA)
Just weeks after losing a libel trial launched by ex-husband Johnny Depp, Amber Heard is still under ongoing investigations amid allegations of perjury in Australia.
The actress and her former spouse were the subjects of national controversy – dubbed ‘Terriergate’ – after Heard brought their two dogs, Pistol and Boo, Down Under without declaring the Yorkshire Terriers and without adhering to the country’s strict 10-day quarantine policy.
In July 2015, the actress – who was still married to the actor, in Australia filming the Pirates Of The Caribbean franchise – was charged with two counts of illegally importing the animals and, after pleading guilty to falsifying travel documents in court, the case was closed, with Heard and Depp forced to share a grovelling public apology on video in April 2016, a month before they split, which was widely mocked at the time.
They had their dogs flown back to the US on a private jet after Australia’s agriculture minister at the time, Barnaby Joyce, threatened to have the dogs euthanised unless they ‘buggered off back to the United States’. An attorney said Heard ‘made a tired, terrible mistake’.
However, in a statement this week, the Australian Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment confirmed the case was ‘ongoing’ and Heard was still under investigation for perjury.
In a statement to Metro.co.uk a departmental spokesperson said: ‘The Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment is investigating allegations of perjury by Ms Heard during court proceedings for the 2015 illegal importation of two dogs into Australia.’
Heard and Depp, here in 2011, apologised after their dogs were brought into Australia (Picture: AFP)
Depp recently won his libel trial against Heard (Picture: EPA)
The department had previously said, in October 2021, that ‘the department is seeking to obtain witness statements and once obtained, the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions will consider whether the evidence is sufficient to warrant pursuance of the matter’.
In 2020, during a Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee meeting, the Agriculture Department’s Peta Lane mentioned Depp’s 2020 libel case against The Sun and noted in regards to a witness statement mentioning the dogs in Australia: ‘There was evidence presented in the London court case which suggested false statements were provided in the court case in Australia in 2016, so we are investigating that’.
The department was seeking to obtain witness statements (Picture: JIM LO SCALZO / POOL/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Lane went on to add: ‘All the evidence provided in the London court case and giving a false testimony is an offence under the Crimes Act so that is what we are now investigating.’
Depp later spoke about the incident, telling Jimmy Kimmel Live in September 2015: ‘We were under the impression we had all the paperwork done for the dogs. We were there with the dogs in front of everybody.’
It comes just weeks after Depp won his libel trial against his former spouse, after he filed a lawsuit against the Aquaman actress over an article she wrote detailing her experience with domestic abuse. The actor was not named in the op-ed, which was published by The Washington Post in 2018, but Johnny’s legal team argued it suggested he was physically and abusive towards her.
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A jury found Heard did defame Depp with the article and he was awarded damages of $8.35million (£6.6million) after reductions, while the actress herself was also awarded $2m (£1.6million) in damages after countersuing her ex-husband.
Heard’s legal team has confirmed she plans to appeal.
Metro.co.uk contacted reps of Heard for comment.
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