Amber and Johnny: Court sequel with a VERY toxic twist
Court told of Depp fury as he says she failed to give £5m divorce cash to charity
JOHNNY Depp claimed ‘golddigger’ Amber Heard lied d about giving her £5.5million n divorce money to charity and d raged she ‘won’t donate one penny...to battered women’, a court heard yesterday.
The Pirates of the Caribbean star r accused his ex of a ‘calculated and d manipulative lie’ as he launched a legal fightback against a devastating High Court ruling, which left him labelled a ‘wife-beater’
Depp, 57, argued last year’s humiliating - libel trial defeat had been ‘unfair’ and a breach of his human rights – and is asking for a retrial.
Depp’s lawyers told two Appeal al Court judges yesterday there was s ‘fresh evidence’ Miss Heard had lied on n oath when she said she had donated d her entire divorce settlement to two o charities, the Children’s Hospital Los s Angeles and the American Civil Liberties rf Union, which helps victims of domestic violence.
In a previously unseen text message, e, ‘She shown won’t to the donate court, ONE Depp PENNY!... predicted: d:. What about battered women? No way y she’ll give a dime to anyone!’
The explosive text, sent to his nurse e after his 2016 divorce, continued: d: ‘Thank f*** she’s gone! Honestly, I wouldn’t touch that f****** whore with a hazmat suit on!’
Depp’s Hollywood career was left in tatters last year when he sued The Sun for libel over a headline calling
‘Calculated and manipulative lie’
him a ‘ wife beater’. It backfired dramatically, with Mr Justice Nicol concluding Depp was a ‘ monster’ who flew into alcohol and cocaine-fuelled rages and had attacked Miss Heard a dozen times, putting the 34-year-old star of the Aquaman superhero movie in fear for her life.
After several days of testimony from Miss Heard, he ruled the newspaper’s headline had been substantially true.
But yesterday Andrew Caldecott QC, for Depp, told the appeal judges: ‘There has been a deception of the court.’ He said the trial judge had ‘glibly’ accepted Miss Heard’s evidence without ‘proper forensic examination’ of its truthfulness. He accused Miss Heard of a ‘calculated’ lie about giving away her divorce money, and said this showed that the trial judge had been wrong to believe everything the actress had said, including her claims of shocking violence.
He said that of the $7million (£5.5million) divorce settlement, as little as $1.1million (£800,000) had actually been paid to the two charities. But Adam Wolanski QC, for The Sun, said Miss Heard had pledged to pay the money to the charities over the course of ten years – and had so far donated $1.8million (£1.3million), adding: ‘ She has made these pledges and she fully intends to fulfil them.’ In his ruling last November, Mr Justice Nicol rejected Depp’s claim his ex was a ‘gold- digger’, saying: ‘Her donation of the seven million US dollars to charity is hardly the act one would expect of a gold-digger.’
Depp’s solicitor Joelle Rich claimed Miss Heard’s evidence to the trial ‘that “the entire amount of my divorce settlement was donated to charity” was not true – and she must have known that it was a lie’, adding: ‘If Miss Heard wilfully gave false evidence about giving a substantial amount of money to a children’s hospital and an organisation which campaigns on behalf of victims of domestic violence, then...she was clearly capable of lying about her relationship with Mr Depp.’ Mr Caldecott said the claims had given Miss Heard a ‘boost to her credibility as a person’ and had ‘tipped the scales against Mr Depp’.
He claimed the actress may have ‘deceived’ the judge into thinking ‘she was a likely victim of domestic violence’. But Mr Wolanski said it was ‘ absurd’ to suggest Miss Heard’s charity donations could have influenced the judge’s finding that Depp assaulted her.
Lord Justice Underhill, sitting with Lord Justice Dingemans, said they would rule ‘very shortly’ on whether to grant Depp the right to lodge an appeal. If successful, the appeal would be heard at a later date.