Johnny Depp sent texts during his relationship with Amber Heard saying he would 'drown' and 'burn' his wife then 'f*** the corpse', the High Court has heard today.

The Hollywood actor is suing the publishers of The Sun and its executive editor, Dan Wootton, over an article which alleged he had been abusive to his former wife.

At a pre-trial hearing on Wednesday, Mr Justice Nicol heard 70,000 text messages were 'accidentally' disclosed to the defendants by Mr Depp's former legal team.

Adam Wolanski QC, representing News Group Newspapers, told the court the texts are 'very damaging' to Mr Depp's case.

The barrister said the messages included texts sent to actor Paul Bettany, in November 2013, in which Mr Depp wrote: 'Let's burn Amber'.

Johhny Depp, 56, wearing a blue suit and sunglasses, arrived at London's High Court today where he is suing The Sun newspaper over a column written by Dan Wootton in April 2018

He also wrote: 'Let's drown her before we burn her!!! I will f*** her burnt corpse afterwards to make sure she is dead.'

Mr Wolanksi said that, in a further text to Mr Bettany in May 2014, he wrote: 'I'm gonna properly stop the booze thing darling ... Drank all night before I picked Amber up to fly to LA, this past Sunday.

'Ugly, mate... No food for days... Powders... Half a bottle of whiskey, a thousand red bull and vodkas, pills, two bottles of champers on plane and what do you get...???

'An angry, aggro Injun in a f*****' blackout, screaming obscenities and insulting any f*** who got near... I'm done.

'I am admittedly too f***** in the head to spray my rage at the one I love... for little reason, as well I'm too old to be that guy. But, pills are fine!!!'

Mr Wolanski said the 'significance' of the messages is that Mr Depp's case is that he was not drunk on that flight, while Ms Heard claims he slapped and kicked her and threw his boot at her before passing out in the toilet.

The Pirates of the Caribbean star, seen arriving with his legal team, denies his ex-wife Amber Heard's claims that he was violent towards her during their turbulent 18-month marriage

The barrister added: 'His version of events is that he was quietly sketching during the flight.'

Mr Wolanski said there was another text message from Mr Depp to Ms Heard in March 2013, following an incident in which she claims he assaulted her during a row over a painting, in which he referred to the evening in question as a 'disco bloodbath' and 'horrendous moment'.

The barrister also referred to texts sent by Mr Depp's nurse during a 2014 'detox trip' to the Bahamas, in which she revealed that he was 'manic... full on - flipping out' and said he was 'angry with everyone but mostly himself'.

David Sherborne, representing Mr Depp, said there is 'no single smoking gun' in any of the evidence disclosed so far which supports Ms Heard's claims Mr Depp was violent.

Amber Heard leaves the Superior Court of Los Angeles in Los Angeles, California, America on May 27, 2016

'Nowhere, I repeat, nowhere, is there a single smoking gun, text or email, no document - unlike Ms Heard's own taped confession we looked at before - there is no document where Mr Depp says 'I hit Ms Heard' let alone 'I hit her on numerous occasions'.'

Mr Sherborne said there is no document is because Mr Depp 'simply never did it so they (the defence) are not going to find it.'

He said the defendants had the opportunity to look at 70,000 messages and had only found these few.

Mr Sherborne added: 'The idea that somehow these texts contradict the account (given by Mr Depp) and are therefore so critical to the defendants' case just simply isn't made out.'

The barrister said Mr Depp's witness statement claims it was 'physically impossible' for him to do the things Ms Heard accused him of on that flight, and that two other witnesses supported his account.

Actor Johnny Depp leaving the High Court in London after attending a hearing in his libel case against the publishers of The Sun and its executive editor, Dan Wootton

Mr Depp, wearing a suit and blue-tinted glasses, sat in court behind his lawyers throughout the hearing.

The 55-year-old denies the allegations of domestic abuse and has accused Ms Heard of being the 'aggressor' in their relationship, which ended in May 2016.

Actor Paul Bettany was sent text messages by Mr Depp who wrote: 'Let's burn Amber'

The court was told he stopped using law firm Brown Rudnick on February 11 and is now represented by Schillings.

The star's libel claim arises out of publication of an article in The Sun in April 2018 under the headline 'Gone Potty How can JK Rowling be 'genuinely happy' casting wife-beater Johnny Depp in the new Fantastic Beasts film?'

Mr Sherborne told the court the words 'wife-beater' were later removed from the article online.

The court previously heard Mr Depp's case is that the article bears the meaning that he was 'guilty, on overwhelming evidence, of serious domestic violence against his then wife, causing significant injury and leading to her fearing for her life, for which the claimant was constrained to pay no less than £5 million to compensate her, and which resulted in him being subjected to a continuing court restraining order; and for that reason is not fit to work in the film industry'.

A trial of the libel claim is due to start on March 23 and last for 10 days, during which a number of witnesses will give evidence - including many over video link from California.

Depp and Ms Heard will go head to head in the High Court over their conflicting accounts

Mr Depp has brought separate libel proceedings against Ms Heard in the US, which Mr Sherborne said are 'ongoing'.

In response to today's hearing, Depp's lawyer told MailOnline: 'When The Sun's own reporter Dan Wootton refuses to stand up and testify in support of the falsehoods he's written, the named #MeToo source for the Sun's defamatory article is testifying against them, and Amber Heard's own personal assistant has been subpoenaed and will testify against Ms Heard regarding her trail of abuse, lies and frauds, what is The Sun to do to keep the hoax alive?

'Today we learned the answer - cherry picking a fragment of a text message to a friend out of 500 gigabytes of text and email messages provided. The best that they could muster was a single frustrated email to a friend followed by Mr Depp's assertion that he actually could never harm Amber: 'I am admittedly too f*** in the head to spray my rage at the one I love.'

Mr Depp and Ms Heard met on the set of 2011 comedy The Rum Diary and married in Los Angeles in February 2015.

In May 2016 Ms Heard obtained a restraining order against Depp after accusing him of abuse, which he denied.

The couple settled their divorce out of court in 2017, with Ms Heard donating her seven million US dollar (£5.5 million) settlement to charity.