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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

AIBU to wonder why everyone is saying ruling wrong in Johnny Depp libel case?

215 replies

WorkQuery · 02/11/2020 21:28

Jury believed that Johnny Depp was violent to Amber Heard. All I keep reading on Facebook etc is comments from people who believe that the ruling was wrong. Why do people assume that it's wrong? Clearly there must have been very strong evidence to support that Depp was abusive to Amber?

OP posts:
TheCrowsHaveEyes · 02/11/2020 23:07

The other factor that might have influenced the public is that Depp's team admitting to blitzing social media with paid-for posts criticising Heard and praising Depp. Lots of people fall for those bot posts pushing an agenda.
Plus people don't understand the case. Like posters on here focusing on what Heard did or did not do. The case wasn't about her. It was purely about what Depp did and even if they had only read Depp's own statements, they would have seen that he admitted to being violent and aggressive. I've no idea why he's considering wasting money on an appeal.
It is depressing that even with court documents easily available; even with Depp's own admittance of his behaviour; even with a judge's verdict - some people will persist in defending Depp and deliberately misunderstand the case.

SheepandCow · 02/11/2020 23:08

@TheJourneyWoman
Good post.

studychick81 · 02/11/2020 23:09

I don't think the emphasis was on him
To prove he wasn't a wife beater I think the emphasis was on the sun to prove he was. They obviously did. They only needed to prove one account, which they did as he admitted it and then there was a message where a member of staff said he kicked AH and that was it.

SheepandCow · 02/11/2020 23:12

So can we all now call him a violent wife beater and not get sued?

WagnersFourthSymphony · 02/11/2020 23:14

Because some people find it utterly incredible that a successful Hollywood actor would overindulge in drink and drugs and become violent. I mean, it's never ever happened before has it.
Because unless a woman is pure as driven snow you can't trust anything she says.
Because misogyny, of course.
But basically because it takes a lot more than a court judgment to change someone's mind. Sometimes even bare facts won't be enough.
See for example:
www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/02/27/why-facts-dont-change-our-minds

Rainbunny · 02/11/2020 23:15

thepeopleversuswork This 100%!

I agree the verdict was correct but I also think she is a toxic and abusive person herself bu that wasn't the issue under consideration. Depp should have had better legal advice before starting this libel case IMO.

I remember when AH was arrested in Seatac airport (Seattle) for physically abusing her girlfriend after losing her temper, this was back in 2009 when I was living in Seattle. I thought back then that there was something unhealthy and toxic about her.

All in all, JD and AH are two people who should never, ever have become involved with each other.

IcedPurple · 02/11/2020 23:16

@Leaannb

Because Amber Heard admitted to abusing Johnny Depp in recorded Deposition
Amber Heard was not on trial here.
SheepandCow · 02/11/2020 23:17

The incident when Amber got arrested at an airport was homophobia on the part of the security guard. Amber's ex girlfriend has repeatedly stated this. Why isn't she believed? Because she's a woman?

SheepandCow · 02/11/2020 23:21

Was Johnny Depp convicted of an assault in the past? He attacked a cameraman, I think? Or have I got that wrong?

Rainbunny · 02/11/2020 23:24

The local news reporting at the time had eye witnesses to their physical bust up and while I'm sure perceptions differ depending upon the parties involved, the random witnesses were pretty clear that AH lost it completely and got physical.

It's not exactly unusual for the victim of violence in an intimate relationship to stay loyal to the partner involved either is it?

SheepandCow · 02/11/2020 23:30

@Rainbunny

The local news reporting at the time had eye witnesses to their physical bust up and while I'm sure perceptions differ depending upon the parties involved, the random witnesses were pretty clear that AH lost it completely and got physical.

It's not exactly unusual for the victim of violence in an intimate relationship to stay loyal to the partner involved either is it?

Do you have any evidence, or are you going on second and third hand tabloid reports? Let's hope Amber (or her ex girlfriend) aren't reading. Or if they are, hope they're not as quick to sue for defamation as Johnny is.

Another thing common with abuse is for the abuser to claim they're the victim - and also to paint the victim as 'deranged' or having 'provoked' it'.

thebiggestmoose · 02/11/2020 23:35

He didn't need to prove he wasn't abusive, the sun needed to prove he was. They defended the case on the basis that what they printed was true . The judge found that it was true

Oh and leaanb -misandry? Seriously? A very experienced judge decided that Amber Heard's allegations were mainly true

You should be fucking ashamed of your victim blaming

Rainbunny · 02/11/2020 23:40

It was reported in the Seattle Times and local tv stations if I remember correctly - hardly tabloids! I was living in Seattle at that time and it caught my attention as I'd just been through Seatac myself the day before. I didn't know who she was to be honest but the reporting described her as a tv actress, she really wasn't very famous back then.

I literally couldn't care less about her or JD, both are disasters from what I can see but it seems strange that you don't want to acknowledge that she was capable of a physical assualt that was witnessed in a very public place!

GabsAlot · 02/11/2020 23:46

theyre both abusive by the sounds of it i reckon theyre'll be another case against each other this time

but shes no victim

SheepandCow · 02/11/2020 23:49

@GabsAlot

theyre both abusive by the sounds of it i reckon theyre'll be another case against each other this time

but shes no victim

The judge says otherwise. She is a victim.

Given that this is a thread discussing a libel case, should people be throwing around unproven (in court) allegations, based on third hand media reports, about Amber?

OuiOuiKitty · 02/11/2020 23:56

Some posters here might as well say it is ok to beat your wife/husband if they deserve it.

It's also bonkers that someone would declare that they have studied this case but not even grasp what the case is about.

SoulofanAggron · 03/11/2020 00:09

Because misogyny. And because he's more well known than her I suppose. The veerdict was pretty conclusive and there's more to come.

jcyclops · 03/11/2020 00:25

@RuffleCrow

As an aside - who would have thought The Sun, of all rags, would have inadvertantly brought about such a landmark moment in the pushback against misogyny?!
Especially as whilst the Sun was running a campaign against domestic abuse, its editor (who is now CEO of parent company News UK) was arrested for violent domestic abuse of her husband.
Willyoujustbequiet · 03/11/2020 01:07

Misogyny pretty much sums it up.

PizzzaExpressWoking · 03/11/2020 02:28

She also has been arrested previously for assaulting her then partner.

I remember when AH was arrested in Seatac airport (Seattle) for physically abusing her girlfriend after losing her temper

That was proven to be a lie.

Amber and her wife had a verbal fight in the airport. A male airport official intervened, and when he discovered they were a lesbian couple and not friends or sisters, his entire demeanour towards them changed and he made a false report to the police claiming to have witnessed domestic violence. The state they were in is one with a mandatory arrest policy for domestic violence, meaning if someone phones in a DV allegation, they must by law arrest someone. Amber was arrested but was released shortly afterwards, and was never charged.

To this day Amber-s ex-wife insists that Amber never laid a finger on her and that the false witness report was motivated by misogyny and homophobia.

Unless people want to call yet another woman and alleged DV victim a liar too?

PizzzaExpressWoking · 03/11/2020 02:35

Was Johnny Depp convicted of an assault in the past?
He's been arrested and faced charges for a whole string of assaults over the decades, everything from beating up paps and then gloating about it ("it was worth going to prison to see the look of fear on the little maggot's face"), beating up a crew member on the set of one of the Pirates movies, ordering a disabled female university professor to be handcuffed by his private goons and dragged across the floor so violently that both her shoulders dislocated and her lower body was stripped naked, the violent hotel-trashing fights he had with Kate Moss (smashing up objects in front of a partner is considered a form of DV), all the interviews where he's talked about how he experiences episodes of "hillbilly rage" where a "red mist will descend", multiple interviews bragging about how he BITES people when he's in a rage.

The man is a violent psycho. His own words show it.

The local news reporting at the time had eye witnesses to their physical bust up and while I'm sure perceptions differ depending upon the parties involved, the random witnesses were pretty clear that AH lost it completely and got physical.

Please don't call an unrelated woman a liar purely because you have an agenda to defend a proven wife-beater. It's very strange that little or no evidence of this "local news report" or of these "eyewitnesses" exist now, especially considering Depp used a considerable amount of money and hired a large number of people to trash Amber's reputation online and to have damaging interviews and news reports about himself removed from Google.

But what about Depp losing his finger. Amber changed her story several times.
He didn't lose a finger, just cut/crushed the tip, and it was Depp who changed his story about the finger multiple times not Amber.

GalaxyCookieCrumble · 03/11/2020 02:42

I think they are both as bad as each other.

Everybodyfednobodydead · 03/11/2020 02:42

Like pp have said. It was not really about him v amber. It was him against the sun. There were 14 charges. The judge found that 12 that were published by the sun had enough evidence to support the stories they ran.
Tbh I was more in Jonny depps camp. I don't disagree that he was a bastard and hurt her. But she also was an manipulative abuser. Both as bad as each other. They both exaggerated and they are both in the wrong.
Probably not a popular opinion especially on this forum. I have left a marriage due to abuse so I don't say this lightly but women can also be abusers. But these 2 are both toxic and should completely leave the other be now and work on themselves

Ratatcat · 03/11/2020 06:25

I’m amazed people were surprised given some of the unpalatable ways JD lived. People who go into drug induced rages don’t tend to be the most stable. The Sun didn’t have to prove a lot. I also thought it was interesting that the judge specifically countered the gold digger accusations by stating that AH gave the divorce settlement to charity.

RuffleCrow · 03/11/2020 06:43

"She's no victim". That's not how victimhood works @sirgabsalot. It's not some St Peter-like reckoning where all your sins and good deeds are weighed up and the judge decides whether you're "good" enough to have sustained physical injuries from your former husband. Ffs Angry