LONDON (AP) — Legal professionals for Johnny Depp advised Britain’s Court docket of Enchantment Thursday that the actor’s ex-wife, Amber Heard, didn’t donate all of her $7 million divorce settlement to charity as she claimed, a part of arguments searching for to overturn a ruling that the actor assaulted Heard throughout the couple’s marriage.
The Hollywood star is searching for permission to enchantment a Excessive Court docket ruling in November, when he misplaced his libel lawsuit towards The Solar newspaper for labeling him a “spouse beater” in an article. Depp misplaced the case — considered one of many greatest English libel trials in current historical past — following a three-week trial in July.
Excessive Court docket Justice Andrew Nicol dominated that attorneys for Solar writer Information Group Newspapers proved throughout the trial that the allegations towards Depp, made in an April 2018 article, had been “considerably true.”
The choose dominated that Depp, 57, assaulted Heard, 34, on a dozen events and put her in concern for her life 3 times.
On Thursday, Depp’s attorneys argued for an enchantment, saying Depp didn’t obtain a good trial. Neither Depp nor Heard had been current for the listening to.
Lawyer Andrew Caldecott mentioned in written submissions that Heard’s claims she donated your entire quantity of her $7-million divorce settlement to 2 charities had been a “calculated and manipulative lie.” The claims gave Heard a “appreciable enhance to her credibility as an individual,” and had “tipped the scales towards Mr. Depp from the very starting,” Caldecott argued.
The couple divorced in 2016. Caldecott alleged that the one among Heard’s supposed charitable beneficiaries, Kids’s Hospital Los Angeles, wrote to Depp’s enterprise adviser in 2019 to say Heard had not made any funds.
“It’s a false plus to her and a false minus to him,” he mentioned Thursday.
Caldecott additionally argued that Nicol, the Excessive Court docket choose, unfairly rejected proof unfavorable to Heard throughout final 12 months’s trial. He mentioned the choose ought to have positioned extra significance on recordings wherein Heard appeared to confess to assaulting Depp when she was heard saying “I can’t promise I received’t get bodily once more.”
Her “promise about future conduct means that this isn’t essentially a one-off,” the lawyer mentioned.
Legal professionals for The Solar’s writer rejected the arguments, saying Heard didn’t lie concerning the donations as a result of she was pledging to pay the sums over time. She had made “various funds already in pursuance of those pledges,” mentioned Adam Wolanski, representing Information Group Newspapers.
Wolanski added that “even when the choose had had the contemporary proof and determined it did show that Ms. Heard was a gold-digger,” that didn’t imply she had not been assaulted.
Two judges on the Court docket of Enchantment mentioned they’d not decide concerning the enchantment Thursday, however would concern a ruling quickly.
Throughout final 12 months’s trial, the choose – and the general public – heard lurid accounts from Depp and Heard wherein every accused the opposite of abuse.
Nicol accepted Heard’s declare that she feared for her life on a number of events, together with throughout what Heard described as a “three-day hostage state of affairs” in Australia in March 2015 whereas Depp was filming a “Pirates of the Caribbean” film.
The choose discovered that 12 of the 14 situations of home violence cited had occurred and mentioned that was enough to rule towards Depp in his libel swimsuit towards the newspaper.
Depp acknowledged wide-ranging drug issues however accused Heard of constructing up abuse allegations and insisted he was “not a violent individual, particularly with girls.”
His attorneys argued that the allegations induced “severe hurt” to the actor’s status and “vital misery and embarrassment.”
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