Johnny Depp denied permission to challenge libel case ruling

The Court of Appeal in London ruled on Thursday to refuse actor Johnny Depp's request for permission to challenge the ruling in his libel case against The Sun last year, Ladbible reports.

Court of Appeal Justice Nicholas Underhill called the 2020 hearing "full and fair," and ruled that the new findings proposed by Depp's legal team would not overturn the case.

"We would accordingly dismiss both Mr Depp's application for permission to adduce further evidence and his application for permission to appeal. As we have said, it is not easy to persuade this Court to overturn the findings of a trial judge on purely factual questions.

"We do not believe that there is a real prospect of it being prepared to do so in this case. The hearing before Nicol J was full and fair, and he gave thorough reasons for his conclusions which have not been shown even arguably to be vitiated by any error of approach or mistake of law," said Underhill.

High Court judge Andrew Nicol ruled in November after the summer hearings that Depp's ex-wife Amber Heard had been assaulted a dozen times and made her fear for her life during their five year marriage. Justice Nicol also dismissed Depp’s libel case against News Group Newspapers, the publisher of The Sun, who released an article in April 2018 calling Depp a "wife beater."

Heard, however, was later found to be abusive herself. During their tumultuous relationship, Heard had said that Depp had hit her, but she had declined to mention that she had hurt him as well.

Depp's lawyers argued last week that Heard was an unreliable witness, leading to an unfair hearing for Depp. They revealed that Heard hadn’t donated her divorce settlement money to charity like she had previously promised, AP News reported.

"It is clear from a reading of the judgment as a whole that the judge based his conclusions on each of the incidents on his extremely detailed review of the evidence specific to each incident. In an approach of that kind there was little need or room for the judge to give weight to any general assessment of Ms. Heard’s credibility," the appeals judges said.

A spokeswoman for Heard called Heard's  evidence during the trial "overwhelming and undeniable."

"We are pleased - but by no means surprised - by the court's denial of Mr Depp’s application for appeal," she said.

Depp has also filed in Virginia a $50 million defamation lawsuit against Heard in regards to a Washington Post opinion piece she wrote,  which is scheduled to commence in April 2022.