Johnny Depp loses British libel case against The Sun newspaper over ‘wife beater’ claims

Johnny Depp has lost a libel lawsuit against The Sun in a case that laid bare his chaotic lifestyle and shattered his reputation.

Legal experts say Johnny Depp had no choice but to sue as accusations of domestic violence would do more damage to his career than details of his substance abuse. Picture: Getty Images

Wife-beater Johnny Depp’s ugly assaults on then wife Amber Heard during an Australian trip in 2015 were so violent they resulted in both Heard fearing for her life and expensive damage to a Gold Coast house, a London court judgment has found.

The extent of Depp’s wild drug-fuelled lifestyle coalesced in a dramatic 24-hour episode inside a Gold Coast house around March 8, 2015, just as Depp was in the country filming Pirates of the Caribbean in Queensland.

British High Court judge Andrew Nicol found that Heard had undergone terrifying sustained and multiple assaults by Depp in Australia including repeatedly being shoved against the refrigerator, being slammed against the countertop, and being strangled before escaping and barricading herself in the bedroom.

The lurid details were included in Monday’s judgement after a 16-day trial, where the Hollywood star lost his libel lawsuit against the British newspaper The Sun for branding him a “wife-beater”.

Judge Andrew Nicol dismissed Depp’s claim saying the article had been proven to be “substantially true”. He found 12 of the 14 episodes of assault were proven, including “the Australian incident’’.

The Sun — which, like The Australian, is owned by News Corporation — welcomed the ruling, saying it had “stood up and campaigned for the victims of domestic abuse for over 20 years”.

“Domestic abuse victims must never be silenced and we thank the judge for his careful consideration and thank Amber Heard for her courage in giving evidence to the court,” it added.

Amber Heard during the hearing in London in July. Picture: Getty Images

But Depp’s lawyers said the ruling was ‘‘as perverse as it is bewildering’’ and that “it would be ridiculous for Depp not to appeal this decision’’.

Heard’s legal team are now preparing to defend a $50 million libel suit in the United States in May next year where Depp is suing Heard over a column she wrote on being the victim of domestic violence in the Washington Post. They will draw heavily on the British decision.

Justice Nicol said in his judgement: “It is a sign of the depth of his (Depp’s) rage that he admitted scrawling graffiti in blood from his injured finger and then, when that was insufficient, dipping his badly injured finger in paint and continuing to write messages and other things. I accept her evidence of the nature of the assaults he committed against her. They must have been terrifying. I accept that Mr Depp put her in fear of her life.’’

At the time of the Australian assault, Depp had been prescribed Xanax for anxiety; and Adderall but he was also sourcing cocaine, MDMA and ecstasy as well as having a well stocked fridge of alcohol, the court heard in evidence.

During the fierce Australian argument, Depp accused her of having an affair with Bill Bob Thornton and being resistant to signing a post-nuptial agreement, and part of Depp’s finger was severed.

He said Heard threw a vodka bottle at him, but she says Depp cut his finger accidentally on a broken bottle or when he smashed his hand against a plastic wall mounted telephone.

But with his injured finger dripping blood, Depp used the blood to graffiti the Queensland house. One messaged said “starring Billy Bob (Thornton) Easy Amber’’. He also wrote on a lampshade “Good luck and be careful at the top’’. When it was put to Depp that he did not know what he was doing. He replied, “I knew exactly what I was doing’’.

A five-hour recording on a phone captured some initial response to the damage made inside the Gold Coast house.

Mr Depp’s head of security Jerry Judge and the house manager Ben King were worried about the scene before them:

JJ: There’s blood everywhere... these two are covered in blood [indiscernible] down in the bar, he drank everything in the past week [indiscernible] and within two hours he’d taken 10 — 10 ecstasy tablets [indiscernible] not the time to talk about it. If someone keeps supplying him, he’s going to O.D. on this. ... I am not going to say that she did or he did it [indiscernible] sink, but yesterday, she is stone cold sober. She doesn’t smell of booze ...

We need to get this house before anybody sees it, we need to get it cleaned up ...

BK: Speaking of cleaning up, how much do you owe? I would safely say we’ve lost the deposit on this one.

JJ: Lost the deposit [indiscernible] ... Between me and you, I’m looking at $50 – 75 k ... That’s what it’s going to cost for this [indiscernible]. Carpets and all.

BK: Oh easily. Probably more. This floor will need re-doing because that’s paint, isn’t it? It will probably need a complete sanding ...

JJ: What I’m most concerned with now is that if the owner sees the house he’ll kick us out and go to the newspapers ... The TV, they tell me the TV is about 10 grand, 15 grand on its own. There are two pictures here [indiscernible] standing very sexy, the same picture, in a bikini with her hands on her breasts. And what he did with one of them - - he drew or painted a fake dick on her pussy. ... And we’re trying to keep a lid on this. One of the windows leading to the outside of the house has been broken.’’

Johnny Depp and Amber Heard in Los Angeles, California, in 2014. Picture: Getty Images

Mr King testified it took him some time to fix the property as there was significant amount of damage, particularly to the bar area on the lower ground floor where the the mirror behind the bar was heavily cracked and there was broken glass and other debris strewn on and around the bar.

‘’I came back around a week later to deal with the larger clean-up work, such as organising for the floors to be sanded, the curtains cleaned, paintwork and plasterwork, and chipped stone on the counter-top in the bar area and on the staircase down to the bar, where a flower vase had been launched from the floor above.’’

Meanwhile Depp had gone to the Gold Coast hospital telling medical staff he had accidentally cut it with a kitchen knife. But the emergency room doctor noted that the injury was “more proximately suggestive a crushing mechanism’’.

Four days later an executive producer of the film, Chad Oman sent a text of a press release to one of Mr Depp’s loyal assistants, Stephen Deuters, with the headline: “Pirate steers off course! Johnny Depp injured his hand GO-KARTING with Mick Doohan at Australian motorbike champion’s luxury estate — forcing the star to fly home.’’

Mr Deuters agreed this was complete rubbish.

Legal experts considered Depp had no choice but to sue, as in the current era, accusations of domestic violence would do more damage to his career than details of his substance abuse.

The 16 days of proceedings in July, which both parties attended, exposed the couple’s troubled relationship in excruciatingly minute detail.

Another episode involved faeces found in the couple’s marital bed, which Depp said was left there as a sick joke by Heard or one of her friends.

Depp admitted laughing about it when a friend texted him photos of the faeces with the inscription “Amber Turd”.

But despite Heard blaming the incident on the couple’s pet dog, Depp said he knew then that his marriage was effectively finished.

Depp rejected accusations he hurt Heard while battling a drug addiction over a three-year span that ended with her 2016 decision to get a restraining order and file for divorce.

He and his legal team branded Heard a manipulative fantasist who made up the allegations for money and personal fame to destroy his life.

Heard, for her part, said she loved the sober Depp but he became a “monster” after days-long binges on powerful prescription and other drugs.