Media wait outside the High Court in London, Thursday March 18, 2021. Johnny Depp’s bid to overturn a damning ruling that he assaulted his ex-wife Amber Heard and caused her to fear for her life will be reviewed by the Court of Appeal on Thursday. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Johnny Depp’s lawyers appeal ‘wife-beater’ decision in UK
Neither Depp nor Heard were present at the hearing
LONDON — Lawyers for Johnny Depp have moved to overturn a British court ruling that he assaulted his ex-wife, Amber Heard, claiming Thursday that Heard had failed to donate his entire divorce settlement from $7 million to charity as she claimed.
The Hollywood star is seeking leave to appeal the November verdict in his defamation lawsuit against The Sun newspaper for calling him a ‘wife-beater’ in an April 2018 article. Depp lost the case after a three-week trial in July.
High Court Judge Andrew Nicol ruled that lawyers for publisher Sun News Group Newspapers proved during the trial that the allegations against Depp, made in an April 2018 article, were “essentially true”.
The judge ruled that Depp, 57, assaulted Heard a dozen times and made him fear for his life three times.
On Thursday, Depp’s attorneys argued for an appeal based on what they said was new evidence that Heard failed to donate the full amount of his $7million divorce settlement to two charities. .
Lawyer Andrew Caldecott said the donation requests had given Heard “a huge boost to his credibility as a person” and had “tipped the scales against Mr Depp from the very beginning”.
“It’s a false plus for her and a false minus for him,” he told the judge.
Neither Depp nor Heard was present for the hearing in London.
By The Associated Press
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