Johnny Depp loses libel case against UK paper

Johnny Depp loses UK libel case over wife- beater claims

A British judge says the Sun tabloid proved the wife- beater claims it published are “substantially true.”

LONDON » Johnny Depp lost his highstakes libel case Monday against the Sun tabloid newspaper for labeling him a “wife beater,” as a British judge pointed to several episodes that he said showed the actor’s ex- wife had feared for her life.

Justice Andrew Nicol said the defendants had proved that what they published was “substantially true” during a trial in London over the summer that included lurid — and irreconcilable — accounts from Depp and Amber Heard in which each accused the other of abuse. Depp’s lawyers said they would appeal the decision.

“I have found that the great majority of alleged assaults of Ms. Heard by Mr. Depp have been proved to the civil standard,” Nicol wrote in his ruling.

In arguably the biggest English libel trial of the 21st century, Depp sued News Group Newspapers, publisher of the Sun, and the newspaper’s executive editor, Dan Wootton, over an April 2018 article that accused him of assaulting fellow actor Heard.

For now, the ruling deals a big blow to Depp’s reputation that could seriously damage a lucrative movie career, which has seen the actor take the lead in some of the most popular family movies in recent times. That comes with an indeterminate financial cost on top of the legal costs he will be required to pay that could run into several million pounds.

A lawyer for Depp, 57, described the decision as “perverse as it is bewildering.”

“The judgment is so flawed that it would be ridiculous for Mr. Depp not to appeal this decision,” Jenny Afia said in a statement.

An attorney for Heard, meanwhile, said

the verdict was “not a surprise” for anyone who followed the trial.

The Sun called the decision a “stunning victory for press freedom” and said that it had stood up and campaigned for victims of domestic abuse for more than 20 years.

At the heart of the Sun’s characterization of Depp as a “wife- beater” were allegations it printed that the actor had assaulted Heard 14 times in locations around the world.

Heard, 34, said the abuse was largely fueled by Depp’s heavy drug and alcohol use and that he could turn into “a self- created third party,” which he referred to as “The Monster.” She alleged that at various time between 2013 and 2016 he hit, slapped and shoved her, pulled her hair and threw bottles “like grenades” at her.

Nicol noted several times when Heard feared for her life, including a “three- day hostage situation” that Heard said took place in Australia in March 2015 while Depp was filming a “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie.

“I accept her evidence of the nature of the assaults he committed against her,” the judge wrote about the episode in Australia.

Johnny Depp