Misogyny at root of Depp’s ‘wife-beating’, libel trial told
JOHNNY Depp was a woman-hater who beat his then wife for trying to curb his hellraising, the high court in London heard yesterday.
A ‘deep misogyny’ lay at the root of the 57-year-old’s whisky and cocaine-fuelled rages at Amber Heard, it was claimed.
Sasha Wass QC said Depp had ‘spent his entire adult life doing exactly what he wanted and he was not about to answer to a woman at this stage of his life’.
Summing up the defence for The Sun newspaper which is being sued for libel by the Pirates of the Caribbean star, Ms Wass said its 2018 headline calling the actor a ‘wife beater’ was true because ‘Mr Depp did indeed beat his wife’.
She said he had ‘glamorised the drug culture surrounded by a clique of ageing male rabble-rousers’ but ‘by the time he was approaching 50, the lifestyle was taking its toll – the drugs were destroying his life’.
She said Ms Heard, 34, had loved Depp and tried to save him from his demons, but ‘he grew to hate and resent her’. The QC said that Depp’s memory was so impaired by his drink and drugs that he often couldn’t recall his alleged attacks. Ms Wass said Depp – a ‘self-scripted southern gentleman who required a supplicant wife – pretended he had respect for women but this was ‘entirely untrue’, as he had described women in text messages as ‘sluts’ and ‘fat ugly whores’, and branded ex-partner Vanessa Paradis a ‘withering c***’.
She said he attacked actress Ms Heard, whenever he felt ‘threatened’ by her or felt she was ‘nagging’ him.
For the first time in the threeweek hearing, Depp was not in court yesterday, as Ms Wass said his technique for defending himself was to ‘deploy old-fashioned methods to discredit a woman, namely that she is a gold digger, a shrew and an adulterer’.
The QC said Depp was charming, kind and generous when sober, but booze and drugs triggered a ‘metamorphosis’ that transformed him into his alter ego ‘The Monster’. She said: ‘Mr Depp’s recollection of his own disgraceful conduct was so severely impaired by drug misuse that he may not have been aware of the extent of his violence and terrifying behaviour which on at least one instance put Ms Heard in fear of her life.’
Ms Wass said Ms Heard had loved Depp and thought she could help him conquer his addictions, adding: ‘It would be trite, outdated and facile to suggest that someone who chooses to remain with a violent partner cannot be a victim of domestic abuse.’
The QC said Depp had claimed he was the victim of an elaborate hoax perpetrated
‘Choked, slapped and cut with glass’
on him by Ms Heard and her friends, and that he was the real victim.
‘Mr Depp has suggested that Miss Heard and her friends have painted on injuries, manipulated photographs and destroyed property,’ she said, adding that for this to be true, it would have had to be a ‘pre-planned conspiracy over her entire relationship with Mr Depp... a suggestion we say is risible’. The QC said the ‘three-day hostage situation’ in Australia in March 2015 had been one of the most shocking ordeals, in which Ms Heard was allegedly choked, slapped and cut with broken glass before Depp ‘severed his own fingertip’ and scrawled messages on walls with his blood.
‘Mr Depp was angry about the film he was in, he was also angry and jealous that Miss Heard was doing a film with Billy Bob Thornton, and for judging him for taking drink and drugs,’ she said.
Giving his ‘provisional thoughts’ on how he will decide the case, the judge said ‘the allegation that [Depp] is a wife beater would only be true if it wasn’t being done in self-defence’.
Ms Wass agreed, saying: ‘It would have to be unlawful violence.’ Mr Justice Nicol also wondered if it would count as wife-beating ‘if there were injuries to Miss Heard that were accidentally caused’.
Today, Depp’s lawyer David Sherborne will sum up the actor’s case against The Sun. The judge will not rule immediately, but is expected to deliver his judgment in the autumn.