Depp must pay initial costs to The Sun as appeal dismissed

JOHNNY DEPP has been ordered to pay £628,000 in legal costs to The Sun following his libel case defeat, as a High Court judge refused his right to appeal.

The actor sued the newspaper for publishing an article which described him as a wife beater after he was accused of assaulting his ex-wife, Amber Heard.

Earlier this month, Mr Justice Nicol dismissed Depp’s libel claim, ruling that The Sun’s publisher, News Group Newspapers, had proved what was in the article to be “substantially true” and that Depp had violently abused Heard 12 times during their relationship.

Depp’s lawyers quickly issued a statement describing the judgment as “perverse as it is bewildering” and confirmed they would seek an appeal.

But yesterday Mr Justice Nicol dismissed the appeal application, saying that he did not believe that it had a “reasonable prospect of success”.

In his ruling the judge wrote: “The findings of fact by a first instance tribunal (particularly one, such as myself, who has heard oral evidence) are rarely open to challenge on appeal. In any event, I do not consider that the proposed grounds of appeal have a reasonable prospect of success (and that is also the case so far as the grounds of appeal suggest that I erred in principle or in law) and there is not some other compelling reason why permission to appeal should be granted.”

The judge also ordered Depp, 57, to pay The Sun £520,000 towards its defence bill by Dec 7 and a further £108,235 by Jan 22.

The remainder of the legal bill will be paid after a detailed assessment of the costs.