Amber Heard Will Not Be Charged With Perjury in Australian Dog Immigration Case
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Amber Heard will not face further charges related to bringing her Yorkshire terriers into Australia in 2015.
The case stemmed from an incident where the actress brought her dogs, Pistol and Boo, to the Gold Coast, where her then-husband Johnny Depp was filming the fifth Pirates of the Caribbean movie. When she arrived, Heard did not declare she was bringing her dogs in, which went against Australia’s quarantine regulations. In 2016, Heard was charged with two counts of illegally importing her dogs into the country and one count of producing a false document.
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Heard pled guilty to providing a false immigration document in Australia’s Southport Magistrates Court. She was sentenced to a one-month good behavior bond. The other charges were dropped. In court, Heard claimed she didn’t intend to lie. More recently, however, Depp’s former employee Kevin Murphy stated in court in 2020, when Depp sued The Sun for defamation, that Heard had known about Australia’s quarantine rules. He added that she had put pressure on a staff member to take responsibility for breaking the rules.
Under Australian law, this means Heard potentially committed perjury in 2016. But earlier this week, Australia’s biosecurity watchdog, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, confirmed they would not be charging the actress.
“Prosecution action will not be taken against actress Amber Heard over allegations related to her sentencing for the illegal import of two dogs into Australia in 2015,” the department said in a statement. “The department collaborated with agencies, both in Australia and overseas, to investigate these claims against Ms Heard. A brief of evidence was referred to the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions, who has made the decision not to prosecute in this instance having applied the Prosecution Policy of the Commonwealth.”
After bringing the dogs into Australia in 2015, Heard and Depp were given a 50-hour deadline by the government to return Pistol and Boo to the U.S., which they did. In April 2016, Heard filmed an apology video with Depp, saying, “I am truly sorry that Pistol and Boo were not declared.”
Heard is currently the subject of a new three-part Netflix docuseries, Depp v. Heard, directed by Emma Cooper. It follows the court trial that took place after Depp brought a defamation case against Heard in Virginia over a Washington Post op-ed with her byline wherein she referred to herself as “a public figure representing domestic abuse” who spoke up against “sexual violence.” Heard then countersued for defamation.
The jury ultimately ruled in Depp’s favor, finding Heard liable on three counts of defamation and granting him $10.35 million in damages (and Heard $2 million in damages for one count of defamation). The two parties settled in December 2022, with Heard paying Depp $1 million.
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