This is the first picture of the graffiti left by Johnny Depp on a painting calling Amber Heard’s former partner ‘Taysa van Pee’, which the actor scrawled on painting that she was given as a gift by the artist Taysa van Ree.

Depp sent a photograph to Heard’s sister Whitney of him having changing Ms Van Ree’s name on the painting’s glass frame in 2014, with the court previously hearing Whitney ‘wasn’t particularly enthusiastic’ about Ms van Ree’.

The court heard Whitney replied to Depp’s message by saying: ‘Well done, my friend, well done. The van Pee painting earns you 20 points in my book.’ Depp then texted her: ‘Can’t stand that f***ing hovering vulture.’

Whitney, who is due to give evidence this afternoon during Depp’s libel trial against The Sun newspaper, replied: ‘She’s the worst. Did sis (Heard) notice the van Pee yet?’ Depp texted back: ‘Oh yes, she laughed her a*** off.’

Heard said Depp had asked her to remove the painting as well as another by Ms van Ree which the actress alleges Depp tried to set fire to, and said one of them was put in her garage. Heard said: ‘I’m embarrassed to say, but it looks like it lasted about a week in the house before I had to move it.’ She said there was ‘minimal damage’ to the painting and the frame had been broken, adding that Depp had tried to burn it but ‘was too inebriated’.

Heard said the painting that Depp allegedly tried to set fire to was ‘the one with the flamingos, it has always been that one’, adding: ‘This is the painting that he tried to burn. He tried to burn it when I objected to taking it down.’

It came as Heard told the High Court today about her pleas for help to her parents while Depp snorted lines of cocaine and drank whisky from a pint glass in a 36-hour bender and accused her of having an affair.

Heard texted her mother Paige saying Depp was ‘nuts’ and ‘violent and crazy’, adding that she was ‘heartbroken that this is who I love’ but did not tell her father because she allegedly feared he would ‘react violently to Johnny’.

The Aquaman actress, 34, also claimed in a message read out in court that Depp, 57, was ‘not being violent to me’ but just ‘raging in general’ and she was finding it difficult to cope with his ‘crazy mood swings and binges’.

Heard also insisted that she was not being truthful when she claimed the Pirates of the Caribbean star was not being violent, and that her father was ‘very violent’ to her mother who died only this May.

The actress said Depp had ‘gotten it in his mind that I had these affairs and he wouldn’t leave until I admitted it’, on her final day of evidence in his libel case against The Sun newspaper over allegations of domestic violence.

She has accused Depp of verbal and physical abuse throughout their relationship – allegedly punching, slapping, kicking, headbutting and choking her, as well as displaying ‘extremely controlling and intimidating behaviour’.

However Depp, who did not arrive at court until this afternoon because he was attending a meeting about a future film project, says he was not violent towards the actress, claiming it was she who attacked him.

During her evidence, which began on Monday, Heard has claimed Depp pushed Kate Moss down a flight of stairs and called the faeces found in the couple’s bed after her 30th birthday ‘absolutely disgusting’.

Heard, who also denied having an affair with Tesla founder Elon Musk, will conclude her evidence about 14 allegations of domestic violence today. The Sun’s publisher News Group Newspapers (NGN) is relying on Heard’s allegations in its defence of an April 2018 article that called Depp a ‘wife beater’, at the Royal Courts of Justice.

As the biggest English libel trial of the 21st century continued today, the court was also told:

Depp is said to have ‘defaced’ a painting by Heard’s ex-partner Tasya van Ree, changing the signature to say ‘Tasya van Pee’. This picture was taken at some point in 2014. The date on the picture is from when it was taken, not the date of the incident

Amber Heard with her former partner, artist Taysa Van Ree, at a New York Fashion Week event on September 11, 2010

Amber Heard arrives at the High Court in London this morning for Johnny Depp’s libel trial against The Sun to continue

Johnny Depp arrives to attend his libel trial against News Group Newspapers at the High Court in London this afternoon

Her sister Whitney Henriquez, who previously lived in one of five penthouses owned by Depp in the Eastern Columbia Building in Los Angeles, is due to give evidence this afternoon.

Today, Sasha Wass QC, representing NGN, continued her re-examination of Heard by asking her about ‘the events of March 2013’.

Heard texts her mother saying Depp is ‘violent and crazy’

She read out text messages from Heard to her mother sent that month, which read: ‘It’s terrible, mum. I don’t know what to do.’ Another read: ‘He’s nuts, mum. Violent and crazy. I’m heartbroken that this is who I love.’