Amber Heard booed, fights tears, as Johnny Depp libel trial ends

Johnny Depp fans scream ‘Justice for Johnny’, and yell ‘liar’ at Amber Heard as she laments ‘intimate’ details being revealed.

Amber Heard reacts outside the Royal Courts of Justice, the Strand, in London as she exits at the end of former husband Johnny Depp’s libel trial. Picture: Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images

Amber Heard fought back tears as she was booed outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London on Tuesday while describing the “incredibly painful” reliving of the end of her marriage to Johnny Depp.

Minutes later her former husband’s car was showered with flowers as it passed through a throng of mainly young women calling themselves “Deppheads” who screamed and chanted “Justice for Johnny”.

The 16-day libel trial over allegations that Depp is a “wife-beater” concluded with an impassioned plea by the barrister for the Pirates of the Caribbean star.

“What is important to Mr Depp is clearing his name of this appalling allegation,” David Sherborne told Mr Justice Nicol. “He has lost nothing less than everything — and by that I mean his reputation. This is not about money.”

Depp mobbed, hands out thank you notes

Depp, 57, was mobbed as he arrived at the central London court. He handed fans handwritten thank you notes along with pounds 9.99 bandannas from the Vintage Guitar Emporium in Fulham, west London, where he buys his guitars. Depp, who wore one to court as a face mask, is a guitarist with the band Hollywood Vampires.

Fans of US actor Johnny Depp gather around his car as he is driven away form the High Court after the final day of his libel trial. Picture: Niklas Hallen/AFP

He hugged and kissed supporters as his bodyguard and court security staff struggled to keep control. Angel Roses, 32, a barman and singer who dresses as Captain Jack Sparrow, Depp’s most famous character, said that the actor had hugged him and said: “You look good”.

For Heard, silence

Heard, 34, who claims to be the victim of three years of domestic violence, had arrived ten minutes earlier to silence.

The Aquaman star was dismissed in court as a “compulsive liar” whose “unscripted malevolence” included falsely accusing Depp of pushing the supermodel Kate Moss down a flight of stairs.

Bianca Butti, right, partner of US actress Amber Heard, left, listens as Heard makes a statement to members of the media outside the High Court. Picture: Niklas Hallen/AFP

Depp is suing Dan Wootton, the executive editor of The Sun, and the publisher of the newspaper over an article in 2018 that described him as a “wife-beater”.

Mr Sherborne told the court that the article made an unsubstantiated “reputation-destroying, career-ending allegation” of “serious criminality”.

‘Rogues gallery of abusers’

The actor had been cast into a “rogues’ gallery of abusers” highlighted by the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements and “cited in the same breath as the disgraced film mogul Harvey Weinstein”, he added. Depp had the values of a “southern gentleman” who had “never hit a woman in his entire life”, Mr Sherborne said.

The Sun relies on 14 alleged incidents of domestic violence. Depp denies all the allegations and claims he was the victim of domestic violence and a “hoax” built up over years by his former wife as an “insurance policy”. Mr Sherborne described Heard as a “compulsive liar” who “tailored her story to meet the evidence”.

She was accused of changing dates of alleged attacks, adding further details, inventing whole incidents, shifting the blame on to others and of having “flatly refused to admit she has not told the truth when confronted with it”.

The barrister urged the judge to be cautious about photographs purporting to show Heard with facial injuries.

US actor Johnny Depp acknowledges fans. Picture: AFP

US actress Amber Heard was booed as she spoke. Picture: AFP

“Ms Heard was familiar with the use of make-up to … make an audience believe what they see before them,” he said, adding that she had “magic bruises” that only appeared when she needed them.

As the barrister was still on his feet, Heard appeared on the steps outside the court with an entourage including her sister, Whitney Henriquez, and her girlfriend, Bianca Butti. She said that she wanted to move on with her life after obtaining a restraining order against her husband in May 2016.

‘Incredibly painful’

She said that it had been “incredibly painful to relive the break-up of my relationship” and have “the most traumatic and intimate details of my life with Johnny shared in court and broadcast around the entire world”.

Patricia Murray, 51, a secretary from east London, led a chorus of boos and shouts of “liar” as Heard read aloud.

Mr Justice Nicol has reserved his judgment to a future date. Depp is also suing Heard personally for $70m in the United States.

The Times