Johnny Depp today lost his sensational libel case against his ex-wife Amber Heard and The Sun newspaper.
Following a 16-day trial London’s High Court found the Hollywood star is a wife beater after Heard claimed he had hit her 14 times during their turbulent relationship.
The result leaves the 57-year-old Pirates of the Caribbean actor’s reputation in tatters.
He sued the Sun’s publisher, News Group Newspapers (NGN), and its executive editor, Dan Wootton, over an article published in the Sun in April 2018 that originally carried the headline ‘Gone Potty: How can JK Rowling be ‘genuinely happy’ casting wife beater Johnny Deppin the new Fantastic Beasts film?’
Heard, 34, who was the newspaper’s chief witness, submitted 14 occasions during their relationship when she claims he assaulted her, providing graphic details of his drink and drugs fuelled attacks.
Johnny Depp, 57, today lost his bitter High Court fight with Amber Heard and The Sun newspaper. The court found the Hollywood star was ‘wife beater’ following a sensational 16-day trial which lifted the lid on the fallen icon’s lifestyle
The High Court today found in favour of Depp’s ex-wife Amber Heard and says he did beat her during their turbulent marriage
The 34-year-old actress seen with her ‘Team Heard’ arriving at the High Court (far right, her lawyer Jennifer Robinson) during the 16-day trial in july
During the trial Heard showed bruises she claimed were inflicted by Depp as he allegedly smashed her iPhone in her face at her LA home in May 2016, a month after Heard allegedly ‘defecated’ in their marital bed on her 30th birthday
Heard’s team showed the court photos of a separate incident showing bruising to her face after Depp allegedly headbutted her. The trial heard evidence about 14 altercations from their time together. The court believed Heard that he did hit her
Over 16 days, the trial provided a rare glimpse into the troubled life of one of Hollywood’s most flamboyant A-list couples as it heard a series of astonishing claims:
- Depp admitting to taking large amounts of cocaine, which he insisted ‘brought him to a normal level,’ and drinking more than ‘normal’ people could;
- Heard was accused of defecating in their marital bed.
- Heard was accused of having an affair with Tesla billionaire Elon Musk, which she denied, and that Depp threatened to cut his penis off.
- Depp lost a staggering $650 million (£502,000) he made at the height of his Pirates of the Caribbean fame and was left owing $100m (£77,000) in taxes.
- Depp admitted to spending $30,000 (£23,000) on red wine each month.
- Depp ‘attacked’ Heard over three days in Australia while on a drugs and booze bender
Depp denied all the allegations, claiming that it was his ex-wife who was violent towards him.
Both Depp and Heard gave evidence in what was dubbed ‘the libel trial of the century’ as the two traded accusations over who perpetrated the domestic violence during their stormy relationship.
They met on the set of ‘The Rum Diary,’ in 2009, married in February 2015 with Depp filing for divorce in May 2016.
The trial captivated the world’s attention amid stunning details about Depp’s drink and drugs binges, his huge spending and fragile finances and the couple’s jet-set life and toxic relationship relationship.
The High Court verdict is being seen as just a ‘first round’ victory for Heard with other legal battles looming against his ex-wife. He is also suing her for US$50 million (£39million) in a trial set to take place in the US next May after she wrote about being a domestic abuse survivor in a Washington Post article.
Heard is counter-suing for an astonishing $100 million (£78million) saying that Depp and his legal team have mounted a global smear campaign against her.
After meeting on the set of ‘The Rum Diary,’ in 2009, the couple married in February 2015, but their relationship rapidly deteriorated in the turbulent 15 months that followed – with their marital problems laid bare during the three-week court hearing.
Amid the claim and counter claim on both sides these were the key incidents between the warring pair:
THE DEFECATION INCIDENT
This came to be known as ‘poo-gate,’ and took place in Los Angeles in April 2016 during Heard’s 30th birthday party.
Depp told the court that he arrived two hours late, after receiving some bad news about his financial losses and that a row broke out between him and Heard.
She told that court that her ex-husband threw a magnum champagne bottle at her and shoved her to the floor several times before leaving a note reading ‘Happy F***ing Birthday’.
The next day, Depp alleged that he had been informed that Heard had defecated in their marital bed and told the building manager that it was ‘just a harmless prank.
He admitted in court that at first, he laughed about the incident, referring to his ex-wife as ‘Amber Turd,’ but it was around this point that he decided to divorce her and moved out of their penthouse.
Heard blamed their small dog Boo for the faeces and told the court that she would never do something so ‘absolutely disgusting.’
She claimed the dog had a problem with messing itself ‘since the weed’- claiming Boo ate a bag of Depp’s cannabis as a puppy.
THE PHONE THROWING INCIDENT
A month later in May 2016 Depp told the court that he returned to the penthouse to collect his belongings with his private security guards Jerry Judge and Sean Betts.
Heard said Depp became ‘very angry’, throwing her phone at her and hitting her in the eye before smashing ‘everything he could’ with a magnum of champagne after they started rowing over the defecation incident.
Depp claimed his two security guards entered the room when they heard Heard shouting, and saw her ‘repeatedly screaming, ‘stop hitting me, Johnny” while he was 20 feet away in the kitchen.
He also says that two police officers who attended the apartment after the incident ‘saw no injuries or bruising or swelling’.
Both officers also gave evidence via video link and claimed that they did not see Heard with any injuries.
AUSTRALIA 2015
Depp was accused of repeatedly assaulting Heard after an argument over his alleged use of MDMA during a three-day trip to Australia, while he was filming Pirates of the Caribbean. She told the court that he stayed up all night, taking pills and drinking, and then attacked her again the next morning.
The following night, he pushed her into a table tennis table, tore off her nightgown and attacked her, before smashing a telephone into a wall and severing the top of his middle finger.
The court was shown photographs of a mansion they were staying in, which Heard claimed Depp daubed with graffiti using his blood and smashed up parts of it up.
She claims he wrote messages to her around the house in a mixture of paint and blood from his finger – which Mr Depp admitted doing while ‘in shock’ – as well as having ‘urinated all over the house in an attempt to write messages.’
Depp claimed that it was Heard who was violent, throwing a bottle at him which severed the top of his finer and stubbing a cigarette out on his cheek, resulting in him being taken to hospital.
THE LATE LATE SHOW
The High Court was also played excerpts of Heard’s appearance on The Late, Late Show with James Corden in December 2015.
Twenty-four before it she claimed that Depp slapped her, dragged her by the hair through their apartment – pulling clumps of her hair out – and then repeatedly punched her in the head, leaving her with ‘tons of injuries’ including bruised ribs and arms, bruises all over her body, two black eyes, a broken nose and a broken lip.
When asked by Depp’s lawyer Eleanor Laws QC why none of the injuries to her face were visible when she appeared on live television, Heard replied that she had covered them up with makeup.
THE PLANE INCIDENT
Depp and Heard took a private plane from Boston to LA. She claimed that during that time he was drinking heavily, threw objects at her, pushed a chair at her, slapped her and kicked her in the back before passing out in the toilet.
Depp says Heard ‘began to harangue him’ as he was sketching in a notebook, he then tried to ‘playfully tap her on the bottom with his foot’, at which Miss Heard took ‘great offence’ and continued to verbally berate him.
The court was also played an audio recording taken during the incident. During the 18-second clip a woman’s voice can be heard saying ‘keep an eye on him,’ while what sounds like a man makes long, low moans.
While giving evidence, Depp did not confirm that it was him but admitted that he could not remember anybody else making that noise on the plane.
He described the noise as sounding ‘like an animal in pain,’ to which Sasha Wass QC, the Sun’s lawyer responded: ‘I think you are that animal.’
‘Disco blood bath’ incident.
The court was also shown photographs of Heard’s trashed LA home taken in March 2013. She claimed that the actor became angry and jealous when she had hung a painting, by her ex-partner Tasya Van Ree, by her bed.
Depp was also accused of trying to set it on fire and hitting Heard so hard that blood from her lip ended up on the wall.
Depp maintained that he simply asked Heard to move the painting from the bedroom ‘as a courtesy’ and that she had an ‘extreme reaction’. He also says a text he sent later, describing the evening as a ‘disco bloodbath’, was designed to placate Heard and not an apology for alleged violence.
Australia dog incident
Heard was accused of forcing two of Depp’s staff to lie about their two dogs being taken to Australia in April 2015, despite them repeatedly telling her that it was not legal for them to be taken.
Kevin Murphy, who worked for the Pirates of the Caribbean star for almost eight years, alleged that Heard had ‘demanded’ he make a false statement about the animals being ‘smuggled’ into the country.
He also alleged in a statement that she had asked him to contact her former assistant Kate James and ask her to lie under oath to an Australian court.
In October 2015 Heard faced criminal proceedings in Australia for taking the couple’s two Yorkshire terriers, Pistol and Boo, into the country illegally.
She and Depp, 57, recorded a now-famous video in 2016 apologising for doing so.
Murphy claim that he was put ‘under pressure’ by Heard for making a false statement, which he later retracted once she and Depp split.