By attacking the tabloid <em>The Sun</em>, Johnny Depp had to protect his reputation. But the three-week trial, with a riot of revelations gloomy about his private life and his marriage with Amber Heard, may cost dear to the star as his ex-wife.
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28 July 2020 9h52
Updated at 13: 45
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The lawyer of Johnny Depp’s request to the justice of “the washing of his name”
Martine Pauwels
Agence France-Presse
LONDON — after more than three weeks of a trial, “pain”, the lawyer of Johnny Depp was asked on Tuesday to the british courts of “washing in the name” of the star, which goes on to libel the tabloid The Sun for the have qualified of abusive husband.
Mutual Accusations of violence, drug abuse, suspicions of infidelity… The examination of this case resoundingly gave rise to a significant unpacking of the life of the couple that formed the star of Pirates of the Caribbean with the american actress Amber Heard at the High Court in London, fuelling some of the newspapers with details sometimes scabrous.
On the last day of hearings at the scent of scandal, the actress of 34 years came before the press to ensure that she would have preferred not to have to go to this trial, in which she was cited as a witness by the Sun.
“I stand by my statements,” said Amber Heard, sometimes to the jeers and shouts of the public, stressing that “details of the most traumatic and the most intimate” of his life with Johnny Depp have been exposed before the justice and “disseminated worldwide”.
In the courtroom, judge Andrew Nicol has put its decision under advisement, without indication of date, after hearing submissions of both parties, who have camped on the mutual accusations exchanged during the trial.
The lawyer of the actor, David Sherborne, has étrillé the article in the newspaper of general circulation describing in April 2018 the actor as being violent to his ex-wife.
Far from being the perpetrator of domestic violence, Johnny Depp suffered them, argued the lawyer, asking the judge to “wash” the name of the actor 57 years old of these “charges outrageous” and “false” that led him to engage in this process “painful”. According to him, Johnny Depp, losing its “reputation”, has “lost everything”.
It retains in any case the support of many fans, who were greeted by tens the show by shouting at his departure in the High Court at the end of the trial.
His lawyer sought to methodically highlight flaws and changes in the reporting of Amber Heard, to discredit the whole story of what he described as a “liar compulsive”.
He has denounced the “blue magic” Amber Heard, which “appear only when she is alone or with her friends”, lamenting that, in the absence of medical findings by independent, a british court has had to spend three weeks investigating the “catalog” of items provided by the american actress.
The lawyer rallied the thesis of the “monster” that would be Johnny Depp, whereas in reality the latter, he says, turns on his heel in the event of a conflict. “This is the monster, the person who flees !” he ironisé, after having produced the record of a discussion of the couple in which Amber Heard admits having struck Johnny Depp.
“Behind closed doors”
Johnny Depp and Amber Heard met on the set of Rum Express in 2011, before marrying in February 2015 in Los Angeles (California).
The couple had divorced with a bang in early 2017. The actress was then referred to the “years” of abuse “physical and psychological”, accusations strongly rejected by Johnny Depp.
“I loved him and I didn’t want to lose that (…), his other face was that of a monster, but I always kept the hope that he désintoxiquerait,” said Amber Heard last week in court.
Relying primarily on the statements of the actress, the Sun invokes 14 episodes of violence, all of which are disputed by Johnny Depp.
The latter has acknowledged a substance abuse of drugs and alcohol, but says that he never laid a hand on a woman, supported on this point by the written testimony of his ex-companions, Vanessa Paradis and Winona Ryder. He accused in return of violence to the actress of The Danish Girl andAquaman.
On Monday, the lawyer of the newspaper has delivered a veritable broadside against the interpreter ofEdward scissorhands. Sasha Wass has étrillé the excesses of the actor, “subject to mood swings, irrational” when he drank and consumed drugs.
No witness has witnessed the violence, she conceded, because, by nature, violence between spouses take place “behind closed doors”.
