Johnny Depp trial: ‘Deep misogyny’ at the root of actor’s violence, court told
The High Court today heard that “deep misogyny” underpinned Johnny Depp’s alleged violence against ex-wife Amber Heard, as lawyers for the Sun newspaper today made their closing submissions to round off the three-week trial.
Depp is suing the Sun’s publisher News Group Newspapers (NGN) and the Sun’s executive editor Dan Wootton over an article from April 2018 that referred to Depp as a “wifebeater”, and which claimed there was “overwhelming evidence” that he attacked his wife at the time.
NGN is relying on 14 separate accounts of alleged domestic violence against Heard in its defence case. Depp strongly denies the allegations.
In final submissions at court today, Sasha Wass QC, representing NGN, said: “The article complained of in this defamation action referred to Mr Depp as a ‘wifebeater’. The defence is one of truth, namely that Mr Depp did indeed beat his wife.”
Wass added that there was “overwhelming evidence of domestic violence or wifebeating behaviour catalogued over a three year period” by the actor.
She argued that Depp was prone to “irrational mood swings and abnormal behavioural patterns”inflamed by a “cocktail” of drug and alcohol addictions, that led to the 14 separate accounts of alleged violence.
“We submit that each of these incidents is cross admissible — that the truth and accuracy of one is able to support the truth and accuracy of another,” Wass added.
NGN’s lawyers told the court of the “deep misogyny which lay at the root of Mr Depp’s anger, and the anger which Mr Depp felt towards Ms Heard, which translated into violence when he felt threatened by her.”
The defence pulled up texts from Depp to British actor Paul Bettany, in which Depp said: “Let’s burn Amber, let’s drown her… I’ll f*** her burnt corpse afterwards to make sure she’s dead”.
Wass claimed the texts undermined Depp’s claims that he was a “Southern gentleman”, and left Heard fearing for her life on several occasions.
Depp said the texts showed his “sense of humour is slightly skewed” and that he was “resentful of the fact that Ms Heard was very aggressive and quite insulting about my alcohol use”.
The court heard medical notes from Depp’s doctor David Kipper, who described the Pirates of the Caribbean star as someone who “romanticises the entire drugs culture” and has a “fundamental issue with anger”.
Wass claimed the notes painted a picture of a “hopeless addict that repeatedly lost his self control”.
She told the court that “where a person’s behaviour is so impaired by drink and drugs, it is only a small step to turn violence against an inanimate object into violence against an animate object”.
Wass told the court that “jealousy” was at the heart of many of his drug-fuelled outbursts, including rows over Heard’s friendships with fellow actor James Franco, novelist Clive Barker, and Heard’s ex-wife Tasya Van Ree.
One of the key domestic assault allegations put forward by NGN’s lawyers revolves around an argument over a painting by Van Ree, which Depp asked Heard to remove from her apartment in Los Angeles in March 2013.
Heard claims the spat turned violent after Depp accused the actress of having an affair with her ex-wife, and that Depp grabbed her and shoved her into a wall in a “disco bloodbath”.
Wass today told the High Court: “Jealousy was the trigger for this incidence of violence and jealousy proved to be the catalyst for many future explosions.”
She claimed Depp had conjured “a misogynistic persona of [Heard] as the stereotype of a nagging woman,” and that the Edward Scissorhands actor had attempted to paint her as a “gold digger, a shrew and an adulterer”.
In his witness statement, Depp has said he is the victim of an “elaborate hoax” perpetrated by Heard and her friends, and that photographs of alleged injuries, destruction to property and audio recordings and videos shown in court were part of a “dossier” the actress was compiling against him.
The Sun’s lawyers today claimed that there was no motivation for a hoax, as the actress donated her $7m settlement from their divorce to charity.
Wass also told the judge for the case, Justice Nicol, that Heard did not immediately leave the actor because “the relationship between domestic abusers and their victims is far from logical or straightforward”.
Depp and Heard met on the set of Hollywood film The Rum Diary in 2009, and married in Los Angeles in 2015. The pair split 15 months later in 2016, and Heard obtained a restraining order against the actor, claiming he was “emotionally and physically abusive”.
Depp’s case against NGN and the Sun’s executive editor Dan Wootton follows the publication of an article on the Sun’s website in April 2018 that urged author JK Rowling to scrap Depp from the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them franchise over allegations of domestic assault.
Depp has argued that article’s headline, “Gone Potty: How can JK Rowling be ‘genuinely happy’ casting wifebeater Johnny Depp in the new Fantastic Beasts film?”, is defamatory.
NGN is defending the article as true, and has claimed Depp was “controlling and verbally and physically abusive towards Heard, particularly when he was under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs” during their seven-year relationship.
Depp was not pictured in court today, but is expected to attend tomorrow when the High Court will hear closing submissions from his lawyers.
The trial continues.