Why did Johnny Depp lose in the UK but win in the US?
In his 2020 UK libel lawsuit against the Sun newspaper, actor Johnny Depp lost. But his 2022 case – not too dissimilar to the UK one – Depp won his lawsuit against ex-wife Amber Heard in a US courtroom.
His US trial was actually harder for Depp to win, before the 6-week trial began, many legal experts claimed Johnny Depp had a weaker chance of winning his US case because the US has very strong free speech protections.
So the fact the jury found Amber Heard guilty of defamation with her 2018 op-ed for The Washington Post – in which she claimed she was a victim of domestic abuse, means the jury did not believe her testimony.
International lawyer Mark Stephens told the BBC that it’s “very rare” that essentially the same case is tried on two sides of the pond and gets different results.
He believes the main factor that led to Johnny’s US victory was the fact he had a jury trial in the USA, whilst his UK trial – over an article in the British tabloid that called him a “wife-beater” was before a judge only.
“Amber Heard has comprehensively lost in the court of public opinion, and in front of the jury,” he said.
In both cases – UK and US- Johnny’s side argued that Amber Heard was lying – to make their case, they attacked her character and claimed she was the abusive one in the relationship.
DARVO – the main differences between UK and US trial
This is a common defence tactic in sexual assault and domestic violence trials called “deny, attack and reverse victim and offender” or “Darvo”, said Mr Stephens.
The strategy turns the tables on the alleged victim, shifting the conversation away from “did the accused commit abuse” to “is the alleged victim believable.”
“They deny that they did anything, they deny they’re the real perpetrator, and they attack the credibility of the individual calling out the abuse and then reverse the roles of the victim and the offender,” Mr Stephens said.
Mr Stephens said in the UK trial, that the judge recognised that strategy and dismissed a lot of the evidence that did not directly address whether Johnny Depp committed assault or not.
“Lawyers and judges tend not to fall for it, but it’s very, very effective against juries,” he said. Men are more likely to believe Darvo arguments, but female jurors are also susceptible.
“People have a paradigm in their mind of how a victim of abuse might be like and how they might behave, and of course we all know that’s often false.”
Another big difference was the fact that the US trial was televised, turning the case into “almost a sports game” according to a Guardian journalist who covered both cases.
Each twist and turn was watched by million, many of whom took to social media to express support for Johnny Depp.
The jury was instructed not to look at the case online, but they were not sequestered and they were allowed to keep their phones.
Ms Freeman also thinks that the vitriol that the general public lobbed against Ms Heard was “a bit of #MeToo backlash”.
“‘Believe women’ seems a very long time ago when it comes to Amber Heard,” she said.
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