The Hollywood actor Johnny Depp has lost a bid to overturn a damning high court ruling that concluded he assaulted his ex-wife Amber Heard and left her in fear for her life.

Axar.az reports citing foreign media that following a three-week trial in July last year, Mr Justice Nicol dismissed the star’s libel claim against the publisher of the Sun, finding that a column published in April 2018 calling Depp a “wife-beater” was “substantially true”.

The judge that ruled Depp, 57, assaulted Heard, 34, on a dozen occasions and put her in “fear for her life” three times.