After a three-week trial in London in July 2020, Andrew Nicol, a High Court judge sitting without a jury, rejected Depp's claim in a verdict announced later that year, ruling that the published material was "substantially true".
In April 2018, The Sun, published by NGN, ran an article online originally titled "GONE POTTY How Can J K Rowling be 'genuinely happy' casting wife beater Johnny Depp in the new Fantastic Beasts film?
In November 2020, the court published its judgement, rejecting Depp's claim against The Sun and ruling that he had assaulted Heard in 12 of the 14 alleged incidents and had put her in fear of her life.
[13] Heard filed for divorce from Depp on 23 May 2016, and obtained a temporary restraining order (TRO) against him, stating in her court declaration that he had been "verbally and physically abusive" throughout their relationship, usually while under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs.
[20] On 27 April 2018, UK tabloid The Sun published online an article titled: "GONE POTTY How Can J K Rowling be 'genuinely happy' casting wife beater Johnny Depp in the new Fantastic Beasts film?".
[34][36][37] Depp's legal team further argued that Heard could not have been abused because she had stayed in the relationship without calling the police and had met with him once more even after filing for divorce and a TRO.
[48][49][50][51] They stated that Depp had a severe substance abuse disorder, which exacerbated his rage and caused him to have blackouts that made him unable to remember what he had done while intoxicated.
[58][59] NGN also alleged that ever since Heard filed for divorce in 2016, Depp had stated to other people that he wanted to end her career and to publicly humiliate her, and that his team had conducted a "campaign of vilification" against her.
[80][21] In December 2018, The Washington Post published an op-ed by Heard in which she wrote about how becoming a public victim of domestic violence has negatively affected her career in Hollywood.
In January 2019, the High Court denied NGN's filing for a stay of the present action as Heard, their main witness, would not be able to provide evidence due to the settlement NDA.
[25][88] The following month, the judge ruled that Heard could testify on some of the incidents in closed court, and ordered Depp to disclose documents from the Virginia case.
[89][90][25] In May 2020, the judge ruled on a controversy between the parties that had arisen about Depp's team's wish to use witness statements from mechanic David Killacky and Heard's former assistant, Kate James, in their case.
[94] On 2 November 2020, Mr Justice Nicol found that assaults were proven to the civil standard in 12 of the 14 incidents reported by NGN,[62] and this with the overarching considerations was sufficient to show that The Sun's article was substantially accurate on the balance of probabilities.
The court countered that Heard had in fact been clear already in the TRO application that the violence had been constant throughout their relationship, and found it credible that she had been advised by her lawyer to only mention the most recent incidents.
The court found that the weight of the tapes was reduced by them being clearly "acrimonious" and "emotional" private discussions during which there was no one to ask for clarification for whether something was to be taken literally or sarcastically, and because they could not be directly linked to any of the incidents presented in the trial.
The court also found incident #3[106] in NGN's favour[62][100] based on a witness statement by Heard's friend Kristina Sexton, who had accompanied the couple on the trip, and on evidence of Depp's behaviour related to substance abuse and anger issues in general.
[117] Finally, for incident #14,[118] the court ruled in favour of NGN, citing several credible contemporaneous witness statements and photographs of Heard's injuries.
[119][120] In a hearing at the Court of Appeal on 18 March 2021, Depp's lawyers stated that they had learned after the trial that Heard had not donated her divorce settlement to charity.
The Court of Appeal rejected the claim that this was a "he said – she said" case, instead finding that the judgment had been based mainly on evidence such as contemporaneous text and email messages, medical records and photographs, instead of statements by Depp or Heard.
Therefore "The Judge found, with considerable support from the contemporaneous evidence, that when under the influence of drink and drugs he was liable to moods of extreme anger and jealousy and could behave highly destructively."
Heard's lawyer, Elaine Charlson Bredehof, who represented her in the related defamation case in the US, stated that "For those of us present for the London High Court trial, this decision and judgment are not a surprise.
"[124] Four days after the verdict, Depp stepped down from his role as Gellert Grindelwald in the Fantastic Beasts film series at the request of Warner Bros., its production company.
[7][129] Lisa King of Refuge said, "This is an important ruling and one which we hope sends a very powerful message: every single survivor of domestic abuse should be listened to and should be heard.
Sarah Harding, a partner specialising in family law at Hodge Jones & Allen, said: "It is hoped that this case will encourage other victims of domestic violence to come forward and seek the protection that they need.
Labour MP Jess Phillips claimed that Heard had been subject to "character assassination" in the media, stating that "abused women are not all one type of perfect picture of victimhood who would incite sympathy from everyone they met.
"[130] This was echoed by Nicki Norman, acting chief executive at Women's Aid, who said: "The allegations of domestic abuse against Johnny Depp were extremely serious.
"[129] Jennifer O'Connell of The Irish Times wrote that "Among those who will suffer as a result of the whole, ugly episode are the victims of domestic abuse who cannot have been encouraged to come forward by the trial or the public reaction to Heard.
[131][132][133][134] Following the verdict, PR Agent Mark Borkowski stated that the trial had brought the claims made by Heard to the attention of an even wider audience and that it was "one of the biggest showbiz fails for a long time".
[135] Following the verdict, an online petition to bring back Depp in his role as Captain Jack Sparrow to the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise resurfaced, receiving over 300,000 signatures.
Jessica Rawden of Cinema Blend stated that the petition was unviable as a new film in the series would be less financially viable even without the controversy surrounding Depp.