A British judge ruled Monday that a tabloid did not defame 57-year-old Johnny Depp by calling him a “wife beater,” a decision likely to have consequences for the Oscar-nominated actor’s career, reports The L-A Times.
In his decision, Justice Andrew Nicol said Depp had “not succeeded in his action for libel.” He added that the defendants had shown what they published was “substantially true.”
Nicol delivered his written judgment Monday morning, three months after the end of a trial that exposed stark details of Depp’s tempestuous marriage to 34-year-old actress Amber Heard. There was no in-person hearing because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Sun tabloid called the decision a “stunning victory for press freedom” and said it had stood up and campaigned for victims of domestic abuse for more than 20 years.
Depp had sued News Group Newspapers, publisher of the Sun, and the newspaper’s executive editor, Dan Wootton, at London’s High Court over an April 2018 article that accused him of assaulting Heard, an actress whose films include “Justice League” and “Aquaman.”
Both Depp and Heard spent several days in the witness box during the three-week trial in July, giving contradictory accounts of their stormy relationship. The couple had met on the set of the 2011 comedy “The Rum Diary” and married in Los Angeles in 2015. They separated the following year and divorced in 2017.
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| The Sun graphic 11/02/20 |
Heard, 34, testified as the main witness for the defense, saying Depp turned into a violent alter-ego he dubbed the “Monster” when under the influence of alcohol and drugs. She alleged 14 separate incidents between 2013 and 2016 in which he hit, slapped and shoved her, pulled her hair and threw bottles at her. The alleged assaults took place in glamorous settings including the couple’s luxury penthouse, Depp’s private island in the Bahamas and an executive jet.
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