(28 Jul 2020) JOHNNY DEPP LEAVES COURT ON FINAL DAY ON LIBEL TRIAL
Johnny Depp departed Britain's High Court Tuesday (28 JULY 2020) on the final day of his high-stakes libel case against a British tabloid that accused him of assaulting ex-wife Amber Heard.
The “Pirates of the Caribbean” star is suing News Group Newspapers, publisher of The Sun, and the newspaper’s executive editor, Dan Wootton, over an April 2018 article that called him a “wife-beater.”
In closing arguments at the three-week trial, Depp's lawyer, David Sherborne, said the actor strongly denied "this reputation-destroying, career-ending allegation.”
“He has never hit a woman in his entire life - period, full stop, nada," Sherborne said.
Neither Depp nor Heard is on trial, though it has been easy to forget that during a case that dissected their toxic celebrity love affair.
Depp is the claimant in the civil case, NGN and Wootton are the defendants and Heard is their main witness. To defeat Depp’s libel claim, the newspaper must persuade the judge that, on the balance of probabilities, its story was accurate.
The two sides agree that the relationship between Depp and Heard, which began after they met on the set of 2011 comedy “The Rum Diary,” soured long before they divorced in 2017. Texts, emails and recordings attest to the increasingly bitter relations between Depp, now 57, and the 34-year-old model and actress.
But they disagree completely over who started and escalated their fights.
Heard claims Depp turned into a violent alter ego he called “The Monster” under the influence of alcohol and drugs. She alleges 14 separate incidents in which he hit, slapped and shoved her, pulled her hair and threw bottles at her “like grenades.”
Depp called the allegations a “hoax” and claimed that Heard hit him, even severing the tip of his finger with a thrown vodka bottle.
The trial has provided an up-close and often unflattering look at Hollywood stardom, revealing details of Depp's life of wealth, luxury, emotional turmoil and substance abuse.
Depp acknowledged heavy drug use, saying he took marijuana, cocaine, ecstasy and magic mushrooms, and became addicted to opioid painkillers. But he denied drugs made him violent.
Judge Andrew Nicol has retired to consider his verdict, expected in a few weeks.
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