Apparently, according to law, Depp is now officially a “wife beater.”
The Hollywood actor Johnny Depp has lost an attempt to overturn a damning high court ruling that concluded he assaulted his ex-wife Amber Heard and left her in fear for her life.
Following a three-week trial in July last year, Mr Justice Nicol dismissed the star’s libel claim against the publisher of the Sun, finding that a column published in April 2018 calling Depp a “wife beater” was “substantially true”.
The judge that ruled Depp, 57, assaulted Heard, 34, on a dozen occasions and put her in “fear for her life” three times.
The actor asked the court of appeal to grant permission for him to challenge the ruling, with the aim of having its findings overturned and a retrial ordered. However, following a hearing last week, on Thursday the court refused Depp permission to appeal.
Lord Justice Underhill and Lord Justice Dingemans emphasised that an appeal against the trial judge’s decision on questions of disputed fact faced serious difficulties.
Part of Depp’s argument relied on further evidence that Heard had not yet given away most of the $7m (£5.1m) she received in her divorce settlement, which she had said she was donating to charity.
At last week’s hearing, Depp’s barrister, Andrew Caldecott QC, said the claim was a “calculated and manipulative lie”which gave Heard “a considerable boost to her credibility as a person”, and “tipped the scales against Mr Depp from the very beginning”.
