Why can’t feminists accept that Johnny Depp isn’t guilty?

I agree with that conclusion, one hundred per cent. Justice has been served.

My beef is with the reaction from mainstream media feminists. Why do they continue to champion Amber Heard as the victim, and demonise Johnny Depp as the aggressor?

The trial was “an orgy of misogyny”, according to one outraged female commentator. “Was it really asking too much for Amber Heard to be listened to without prejudice?” demanded another.

The verdict didn’t suit their view of the case, or of men and women generally and so, with breathtaking arrogance, these so-called feminists have quite simply ignored it.

Inconvenient evidence — including Heard’s own tape-recorded admission that she “hit” Depp — has likewise been glossed over, or twisted in an attempt to justify and excuse her behaviour.

It’s claimed that the outcome will deter female victims of domestic abuse from speaking out because they fear that they will not be believed. It does not seem to occur to these people, even for a second, that the verdict in the trial was correct.

This is both preposterous and sinister, a triumph of political tribalism over truth, and it does a grave disservice to victims, whatever their gender.

For those who didn’t follow the televised case, or for those who pretended they didn’t because it was so terribly tacky, let me remind you what actually happened.

For six long weeks, the jury went through all the evidence.

They heard detailed accounts from both sides, from their legal representatives, and from dozens of witnesses and experts called to testify — including, sensationally but very briefly, the supermodel Kate Moss.

Everything about the couple’s toxic relationship was dragged into public view and examined minutely.

Both Depp and Heard had ample time to make their cases. Heard made lurid claims of physical and sexual violence against Depp. Depp said that, on the contrary, Heard was the true abuser. Both were listened to in full by the court, “without prejudice”.

Then came the verdict.

The jury ruled unanimously in favour of Johnny Depp. The jurors concluded that Heard knew that her published claims of abuse were false, and that she acted with actual malice.

Well, that wasn’t supposed to happen, was it? That’s not how the MeToo storyline should go. The mainstream media went into meltdown, but many ordinary people around the world thought the verdict was the right one.

Perhaps they, like me, had noted the absence of tears on Heard’s face when she was apparently crying in dreadful distress. More likely, they had observed her inability to back up any of her dramatic allegations against her ex-husband with actual evidence.

Regular readers will know that I often write about the horrific levels of domestic abuse in Northern Ireland. Here as elsewhere, most of these crimes are carried out by men against women. That is incontrovertible.

But the Depp case is a powerful reminder that men, too, can be victims of abuse, and that their suffering is no less serious than that endured by women. It cannot be ignored because it doesn’t fit neatly into an approved ideological agenda.

Despite her claims being comprehensively discredited, Amber Heard seems determined to continue styling herself as a wronged victim of the patriarchy and a champion for mistreated women everywhere.

After the trial finished, she issued a public statement saying that the verdict “sets back the clock to a time when a woman who spoke up and spoke out could be publicly humiliated. It sets back the idea that violence against women is to be taken seriously.”

Later, when Depp thanked his fans for standing by him, Heard launched another broadside.

“As Johnny Depp says he's 'moving forward’, women's rights are moving backward,” she said. “The verdict's message to victims of domestic violence is ... be afraid to stand up and speak out.”

But Mr Depp is not the person who is causing damage to women’s rights.

By making unfounded and malicious claims of abuse, Amber Heard is the one doing untold harm to genuine victims.

She has appropriated other women’s pain, represented it as her own, and then used it to wage a vengeful and ongoing war against her ex-husband. Such offensive behaviour should instantly disqualify her as an advocate for women’s rights.

It’s obvious. So why can’t her feminist fans in the media see it?