LONDON: Amber Heard dismissed accusations on Tuesday that she fabricated allegations of domestic violence against ex-husband Johnny Depp, and told a British court that the first time she struck him after years of abuse was to defend her sister from being thrown down the stairs.

Taking to the witness box for a second day during Depp’s libel case against a British tabloid at the High Court in London, the actress faced a barrage of questions over alleged incidents that are central to The Sun's labeling of Depp in an April 2018 article as a “wife beater.”