Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

UK court rejects Depp bid to appeal 'wife beater' ruling

A British court has refused Johnny Depp permission to appeal a judge’s ruling that he assaulted ex-wife Amber Heard

Via AP news wire
Thursday 25 March 2021 06:27 EDT
Britain Johnny Depp
Britain Johnny Depp (Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

A British court on Thursday refused Johnny Depp permission to appeal a judge’s ruling that he assaulted ex-wife Amber Heard

Two Court of Appeal judges said the Hollywood star cannot challenge the High Court’s rejection of his libel lawsuit against publisher of The Sun newspaper for labeling him a “wife beater” in an article.

The justices, James Dingemans and Nicholas Underhill, said the earlier court hearing was “full and fair” and the trial judge's conclusions "have not been shown even arguably to be vitiated by any error of approach or mistake of law.”

They concluded that “the appeal has no real prospect of success and that there is no other compelling reason for it to be heard.”

High Court Justice Andrew Nicol ruled in November that allegations against Depp, made in a April 2018 article, were “substantially true.” The judge ruled that Depp, 57, assaulted Heard, 34, on a dozen occasions and put her in fear for her life three times.

Lawyers for Depp argued at a court hearing last week that Depp hadn't received a fair hearing and that Heard was an unreliable witness. As evidence of her unreliability, they claimed that Heard hadn't kept her promise to donate her $7 million divorce settlement to charity.

The appeals judges said it was “pure speculation, and in our view very unlikely” that the fate of the divorce money influenced judge Nicol's decision.

“It is clear from a reading of the judgment as a whole that the judge based his conclusions on each of the incidents on his extremely detailed review of the evidence specific to each incident,” they said.

"In an approach of that kind there was little need or room for the judge to give weight to any general assessment of Ms. Heard’s credibility."

The High Court ruling came after a three-week trial in July, in which Depp and Heard gave conflicting accounts of their brief, tempestuous marriage. During the trial Depp acknowledged wide-ranging drug problems, but accused Heard of making up abuse allegations and insisted he was “not a violent person, especially with women.”

His lawyers argued that the allegations in The Sun caused “serious harm” to the actor’s reputation and “significant distress and embarrassment.”

In the wake of the ruling, Depp said he was leaving the “Fantastic Beasts” film franchise after studio Warner Bros. requested his resignation.

Depp is also suing Heard for $50 million in Virginia over a Washington Post op-ed essay that she wrote about domestic violence. The trial in that case was recently delayed until April 2022.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in