Saturday 21 May 2022 06:25 AM Support group for battered women issues statement supporting Johnny Depp trends now
A support network for abused women and children has issued a statement expressing support for Johnny Depp in his ongoing defamation suit against ex-wife Amber Heard.
Mission NGO, a nonprofit group led by the former Miss Italy Valeria Altobelli, issued the statement on Friday, expressing 'compassion for Johnny Depp in this bad page of his personal history.'
It follows a growing chorus of support for Depp after the court heard disturbing evidence suggesting that Heard physically abused him, including an audio tape of Heard admitting that she had hit him.
Heard has long accused Depp of being the abuser in the relationship, allegations that he says scuttled his acting career, and led to his $50 million defamation lawsuit against the Aquaman actress.
Mission NGO, the support group for abused women led by the former Miss Italy Valeria Altobelli (left), issued a statement supporting Johnny Depp (right) on Friday
Heard has long accused Depp of being the abuser in the relationship, allegations that he says scuttled his acting career, and led to his $50 million defamation lawsuit
Altobelli, who founded Mission NGO with support from other participants in the 2004 Miss World pageant in China, said in a statement that her group 'gives no sex, no gender, no race, no colour, no age to the concept of violence.'
'Women from all over the world stand against domestic violence, regardless of gender, age or race,' said Altobelli.
'Our mission is to educate men and women, with no gender differences, to keep talking and living in the values of love, mutual comprehension and sensitivity in order to prevent all kinds of violence, against women, against men, against children,' the beauty queen added.
'As women, we have compassion and we feel empathy not for THE star, THE talent, THE actor but for a man, a father, a worker, A HUMAN,' wrote Altobelli, referring to Depp.
'Mental Health is something we have to care about to live in a positive environment where women and men can love and respect each other without any kind of abuse and violence,' she added.
In his suit, Depp says a 2018 op-ed piece Heard wrote in The Washington Post unfairly portrayed him as a domestic abuser and cost him a lucrative Hollywood career that included the Pirates of the Caribbean movie franchise.
Depp has testified he never struck Heard and that he was the victim of abuse inflicted by her.
Altobelli founded Mission NGO with support from other participants in the 2004 Miss World pageant in China
But Heard´s attorneys say those denials lack credibility because he frequently drank and used drugs to the point of blacking out.
On the trial's 19th day on Thursday, Heard's attorneys played for the court a previously taped deposition from actress Ellen Barkin, who dated Depp in the 1990s and portrayed him as controlling, jealous and angry.
During Barkin's
