Actor Johnny Depp is trying to overturn a High Court libel case ruling that he assaulted his ex-wife
Johnny Depp, 57, is trying to overturn a damning High Court libel case ruling that he assaulted his ex-wife and put her in fear for her life, made last year following a high-profile trial. During a hearing on Thursday, Depp's lawyers asked for permission to appeal the judgment, which found in favor of The Sun that an April 2018 column in the newspaper calling the actor a "wife-beater" was "substantially true."The Hollywood star claims he "did not receive a fair trial," and his barrister Andrew Caldecott QC has given details of "fresh evidence" that Heard did not donate her divorce settlement to charity. After the couple's break-up in 2016, the 34-year-old actress, a witness for The Sun's publisher NGN Newspapers during the trial - said she would split the $7m between the Children's Hospital Los Angeles and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
Mr. Caldecott said the hospital wrote to Depp's business adviser in 2019 to say Heard had not made "any payments."The court heard she gave just $100,000 (£72,000) to the hospital and $450,000 (£322,000) to the ACLU, although she claims she made a further $500,000 (£358,000) donation to the second charity anonymously. In written submissions, Depp's legal team said this was a "calculated and manipulative lie, designed to achieve a potent favorable impression from the outset."In court on Thursday, Mr. Caldecott said Heard's claim that she had donated the full settlement to charity sent out a "subliminal message" that she wanted Depp to pay but didn't "want to keep a dime of his money," which implied "revulsion at the way he treated her physically."
In his ruling in November, Mr. Justice Nicol said of Heard: "Her donation of the $7m to charity is hardly the act one would expect of a gold-digger.” Mr. Caldecott said that if "the truth" about the charity claim had known during the trial, it would have affected the judge's consideration of the actress's evidence. Mr. Wolanski said that the "fresh evidence" only shows that Heard has not yet finished making her pledged payments to the charities and "is of no relevance to the pleaded issues."Depp took legal action against NGN in June 2018 over the column in The Sun by the newspaper's then-executive editor Dan Wooten, which referred to "overwhelming evidence" he attacked Heard.
In his judgment, Mr. Justice Nicol concluded that 12 of the 14 alleged domestic violence incidents relied on by NGN in its defense of the actor's claim did occur. But Depp's legal team claims the judge "failed to examine the competing accounts of each incident, or to explain whether he found them proved and, if so, on what basis."After Thursday's hearing, Lord Justice Underhill - sitting with Lord Justice Dingemans - said the court would give its ruling at a later date. He said: "We are not going to reach an immediate decision today... we will make it.
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