Johnny Depp wins defamation trial against Amber Heard after bitter six-week court case

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Johnny Depp has won his defamation case against Amber Heard. The jury of five men and two women returned its verdict on Wednesday after nearly 13 hours of deliberation spread over three days at the district court in Fairfax, Virginia.They found Ms Heard had defamed Mr Depp, saying she had acted with "malice".Mr Depp sued the Aquaman star for $50 million dollars over the piece, titled: "I spoke up against sexual violence - and faced our culture's wrath.

That has to change."The article does not mention Mr Depp by name, yet his lawyers said it falsely implied he physically and sexually abused Ms Heard while they were together.Following six weeks of evidence and roughly 13 hours of deliberation, jurors returned a verdict in favour of Mr Depp on June 1.Depp was awarded compensatory damages of $10million (£8million) and a further $5million (£4million) in punitive damages.Heard was awarded compensatory damages of $2million after proving one of her counterclaims to the jury.Ms Heard was present for the verdict but Mr Depp was not, as a source confirmed to the PA news agency that he was still in the UK.In the past few days, the actor has made appearances on stage alongside musician Jeff Beck in Sheffield and London's Royal Albert Hall.At the time the verdict was returned, he was reported to be in the north east of England.The Edward Scissorhands actor had consistently denied the "outrageous, outlandish" claims of abuse and said he had "spoken up for what I have been carrying on my back reluctantly for six years" during his own evidence.The court previously heard that descriptions of Mr Depp's drug use and violence were exaggerated by Ms Heard and her legal team.