Johnny Depp’s lawyer asked the jury participating in his defamation trial against Amber Heard to give the actor his “life back” in her closing argument today.
On the final day of the highly-publicised trial at the Fairfax County Courthouse in Virginia, the actor’s attorney Camille Vasquaz said: “What is at stake in this trial is a man’s good name.”
“We ask you to give Mr Depp his life back, to tell the world that Mr Depp is not the abuser Miss Heard said he is and to hold Miss Heard accountable for her lies.”
“The evidence shown in this trial has shown that Miss Heard is the abuser. She was violent, she was abusive and she was cruel.”
After lawyers for both sides deliver their closing arguments on Friday, Judge Penney Azcarate will give the case over to the seven-person jury.
The jury will be off over the weekend and Monday, which is a public holiday in the US, and will resume deliberations on Tuesday.
Johnny, 58, launched a $50 million defamation lawsuit against his ex-wife in 2019, after she wrote about being an alleged victim of domestic violence in an op-ed for the Washington Post in December 2018.
While his name was excluded from the piece, Johnny’s legal team have argued that the op-ed implied that he “perpetrated domestic violence against her.”
In response, Amber has countersued Johnny, asking for $100 million and claiming she suffered “rampant physical violence and abuse” at his hands.
During the six-week long trial, the actress detailed multiple incidents of alleged abuse, and told the court that “violence became normal” towards the end of their relationship.
However, Johnny testified that he never hit his ex-wife, and claimed that she was the abuser in their relationship.
The 58-year-old has said the allegations he was a “drunken, cocaine-fueled menace who beat women” have cost him “everything”.
Johnny and Amber met in 2009 on the set of the film The Rum Diary, and were married in February 2015.
Their divorce was finalised two years later.
You can read the biggest bombshells and revelations from the trial here.
