A forensic psychologist has testified that Johnny Depp allegedly subjected his ex-wife Amber Heard to “sexual violence”, including claims he penetrated the actress with a vodka bottle.
The jury in the former couple’s multi-million dollar defamation trial in Virginia heard from Dr Dawn Hughes as Ms Heard’s first witness in the case as it stretches into its fourth week.
“There are a number of incidents of sexual violence reported in this relationship,” Dr Hughes told the court.
“Those are documented early on … where when Mr Depp was drunk or high. He threw her on the bed, ripped off her nightgown and tried to have sex with her.”
The New York-based psychologist testified that when Mr Depp was “not able to perform” sexually that he would become even more “enraged”.
“There were times when he forced her to give him oral sex when he was angry – these weren’t loving moments, these were angry moments,” she said before further graphically describing “moments of dominance, moments of him trying to get control over her”.
Dr Hughes testified that Ms Heard had told her about one alleged attack, which she claimed took place while the couple were in Australia for filming of the fifth Pirates of the Caribbean movie, in which Mr Depp is accused of shouting “I will kill you” at his wife, before allegedly assaulting her with the bottle.
She told the jury that when Ms Heard described the alleged attack to her, the actress had recalled that in the moment she hoped that the bottle Mr Depp was penetrating her with “wasn’t the broken one”.
Mr Depp has strongly denied any sexual violence towards his Ms Heard in the course of their relationship.
The court has previously heard that Mr Depp suffered a partially severed finger when Ms Heard grew angry at his drinking in Australia and threw a bottle of vodka at him.
Dr Hughes went on to testify that “intimate partner violence by Mr Depp was the cause of Heard’s PTSD condition”.
The defamation trial between Mr Depp and Ms Heard began on Monday 11 April in Fairfax, Virginia, following Mr Depp’s lawsuit against his ex-wife in March 2019.
Mr Depp is arguing that she defamed him in a December 2018 op-ed published in The Washington Post titled “I spoke up against sexual violence — and faced our culture’s wrath. That has to change”.
While Mr Depp isn’t named in the piece, his legal team argues that it contains a “clear implication that Mr Depp is a domestic abuser”, which they say is “categorically and demonstrably false”.
Mr Depp is seeking damages of “not less than $50m”. Ms Heard has filed a $100m counterclaim against Mr Depp for nuisance and immunity from his allegations.
