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Pirates of the Caribbean star Johnny Depp has lost a court case against the tabloid newspaper The Sun, after accusing the paper of being untruthful when calling him a “Wife Beater”.
Judge Justice Nicol passed down the deliberation from the jury today at court, stating that claims made against Mr Depp about hitting his ex-wife Amber Heard were “Substantially true”, therefore the News Group Newspapers (NGN), who own The Sun, acted accordingly as it relied on “14 separate allegations of domestic violence” dating back between 2013-2016. Of these instances, 12 of the 14 alleged incidents did occur.
The Judge also stated “I have found that the great majority of alleged assaults of Ms Heard by Mr Depp have been proved to the civil standard.”
The Hollywood star had originally sued over an article titled “Gone Potty” in which executive editor of the sun, Dan Wootton, had called Depp a “Wife Beater” when discussing how JK Rowling was using him in the new screen adaption of her Fantastic Beasts film and the lack of consideration for using the now ashamed actor.
During the hearing, the court was told of Mr Depp’s prolific use of drink and drugs,horrendous text messages saying how Mrs Heard was a “witch” and that he considered burning her along with video evidence of him violently taking his anger out on kitchen cupboards.
Depps legal team responded to the verdict today stating:
This decision is as perverse as it is bewildering.”Most troubling is the judge’s reliance on the testimony of Amber Heard, and corresponding disregard of the mountain of counter-evidence from police officers, medical practitioners, her own former assistant, other unchallenged witnesses and an array of documentary evidence which completely undermined the allegations, point by point.
The judgment is so flawed that it would be ridiculous for Mr Depp not to appeal this decision.”
Mr Depp is due to be appearing in the US court soon for a $50M defamation claim against his ex-wife.
Mrs Heards lawyer, Elaine Charlson Bredehoft, stated
“Very soon, we will be presenting even more voluminous evidence in the US.
“We are committed to obtaining justice for Amber Heard in the US court and defending Ms Heard’s right to free speech.”
The seperate libel case is being brought in after an opinion piece by Heard wrote for the Washington Post.