Johnny Depp loses his case against The Sun for calling him "his wife's beater" and claiming there is "overwhelming evidence" that he assaulted Amber Heard
A UK judge ruled that the defendants demonstrated that his information was "substantially true".
On November 2, American actor Johnny Depp lost his defamation lawsuit against the News Group Newspapers (NGN) company and Dan Wootton, the executive editor of the British newspaper The Sun, for an article in which they accused the artist of having exercised domestic violence. against his ex-wife, actress Amber Heard.
In this way, Judge Andrew Nicol of the High Court of Justice in London (England, United Kingdom) denied Depp a reward for damage to his reputation because NGN demonstrated that the information was "substantially true".
In the judgment, Nicol noted that he reached these conclusions "after examining in detail 14 incidents on which the defendants rely, as well as the general considerations presented by the plaintiff."
After knowing this verdict, a spokesman for The Sun affirmed that that tabloid "defends and campaigned for victims of domestic abuse for more than 20 years", stressed that these people "should never be silenced", highlighted the "careful consideration" from the judge and thanked Heard "for his courage in presenting evidence in court."
Depp's lawyers called the verdict "as perverse as it was disconcerting." According to his statements, the judge ignored "a lot of contrary evidence" that "completely undermined" the accusations. "The trial is so flawed that it would be ridiculous for Mr. Depp not to appeal this decision," said Jenny Afia of the Schillings law firm.
Beginning of the trial
On April 27, 2018, The Sun published an article originally titled 'How is it possible that J.K. Rowling is' really happy 'that his wife's beater Johnny Depp is starring in the new' Fantastic Beasts' movie? '
Dan Wootton wrote that "overwhelming evidence was presented to show that Johnny Depp was involved in domestic violence against his wife, Amber Heard" and NGN claimed that the actor was "verbally and physically dominant and abusive" towards that woman, "especially when he was under the influence of alcohol and / or drugs ".
The lawyer for the star of 'Pirates of the Caribbean', David Sherborne, highlighted while the case was ongoing that Heard's accusations against his client were "pure lies" and claimed that, in its text, The Sun made "defamatory accusations of maximum seriousness "which he defined as" a large-scale attack. "
