“Nothing More Than a Press Strategy”: Johnny Depp Loses Libel Suit Appeal

Johnny Depp has lost his bid for an appeal in his libel case against The Sun. It was his final shot in London courts to win the case against The Sun’s parent company News Group Newspapers (NGN). A judge dismissed the case after a three-week trial in July, plus months of deliberation, ultimately finding that The Sun’s use of the term wife-beater in reference to Depp in a 2018 headline was “substantially true.” The Sun’s team had invited Depp’s ex-wife Amber Heard to be one of the main witnesses, and she testified to multiple counts of physical and mental abuse during their brief marriage. (They were married in 2015 and Heard filed for divorce the following year. Depp denies all allegations of abuse.)

Last week, Depp’s representation Andrew Caldecott argued that he had new evidence to enter, namely that Heard had not donated all $7 million in the 2016 settlement from the divorce to charity, as she had claimed she would do at the time of the divorce. 

This alleged lie sent “a potentially subliminal message” to the judge in the case, and “strengthened Heard’s credit in an exceptional way.” Caldecott added that it was a “calculated and manipulative lie, designed to achieve a potent favourable impression from the outset.” The disputed fact was the grounds for Caldecott’s appeal. 

In short, the judges evaluating the appeal decided this new information was immaterial to the case, and that the appeal “has no real prospect of success.” According to The Guardian, two new judges, Lord Justice Underhill and Lord Justice Dingemans, wrote in their decision: 

We do not accept that there is any ground for believing that the judge may have been influenced by any such general perception as Mr Caldecott relies on. In the first place, he does not refer to her charitable donation at all in the context of his central findings.

On the contrary, he only mentions it in a very particular context…and after he had already reached his conclusions in relation to the 14 incidents [of abuse].

The new evidence Depp’s legal team introduced “was nothing more than a press strategy, and has been soundly rejected by the Court,” Jeffrey Smele, partner on the team representing The Sun, said in a statement. 

Now to the U.S., where it is generally harder to win a libel case. He’s suing Heard directly this time, specifically for a Washington Post opinion piece in which she describes marital abuse but does not name Depp. That trial has been postponed to 2022. 

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