Johnny Depp Loses Libel Case To The Newspaper That Called Him A 'Wife Beater'

The verdict is in.

Judge Andrew Nicol has ruled against Johnny Depp in the libel case against News Group Newspapers, publisher of The Sun, and the publication's executive editor Dan Wootton over a 2018 article claiming the actor was a ¡°wife-beater.¡±

Johnny Depp / Twitter

¡°The claimant [Depp] has not succeeded in his action for libel. Although he has proved the necessary elements of his cause of action in libel, the defendants have shown that what they published in the meaning which I have held the words to bear was substantially true," wrote the judge in his judgment.

The offending article that Johnny Depp sued The Sun for was published on April 27, 2018, with the headline: ¡°Gone Potty: How Can J.K. Rowling Be ¡®Genuinely Happy¡¯ Casting Wife Beater Johnny Depp in the New Fantastic Beasts Film?¡±

Johnny Depp / Twitter

Depp's lawyers have confirmed that they will most likely file a petition against the ruling which they deemed as 'bewildering'.

¡°This decision is as perverse as it is bewildering. Most troubling is the judge¡¯s reliance on the testimony of Amber Heard, and corresponding disregard of the mountain of counter-evidence from police officers, medical practitioners, her own former assistant, other unchallenged witnesses, and an array of documentary evidence which completely undermined the allegations, point by point. All of this was overlooked," said Jenny Afia of law firm Schillings, which represented Depp.

Johnny Depp and Amber Heard / Twitter

Attention now shifts to a different $50 million defamation case Depp brought against Heard over an opinion piece she wrote in The Washington Post in December 2018. That trial will not take place until May 2021 at the earliest due to coronavirus.