Actor Amber Heard looks on in the courtroom at the Fairfax County Circuit Court in Fairfax, Va
(Picture: AP)Amber Heard was left with post-traumatic stress disorder after enduring bouts of violence and sexual abuse during her marriage to Johnny Depp, a forensic psychologist has said.
Dr Dawn Hughes, an expert on domestic violence, said the Aquaman actress, 36, had detailed during almost 30 hours of interviews a string of incidents of abuse, including many when Depp was in a “drug-fuelled rage”.
Heard says she was forced into sex by the Pirates of the Caribbean star, 58, coercively controlled during their four-year relationship, and repeatedly subjected to violence.
Giving evidence at the film stars’ Los Angeles libel battle, Dr Hughes said she diagnosed PTSD in Heard and blamed it on “intimate partner violence by Mr Depp”.
“There was a number of incidents of sexual violence reported in this relationship,” she said.
“These 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.
“There were times when he forced her to give him oral sex when he was angry, these weren’t in loving moments they were angry moments, moments of dominance, moments of him trying to get control over her.”
Dr Hughes said Depp subjected Heard to “cavity searches” while high on drugs, and she described “one of the most severe instances of sexual violence” in Australia in March 2015, when Depp was filming Pirates of the Caribbean 5 but ended up hospitalised with a severed finger.
“When he was beating her and choking her and telling her ‘I’m going to f***ing kill you…I hate you’…when he grabbed a bottle that was on the bar and penetrated her with that bottle,” she said.
Heard reported going “outside of her body” during the incident, said Dr Hughes, saying she thought: “I hope it’s not the broken bottle.”
Depp is suing his ex-wife over a 2018 Washington Post op-ed in which she describes herself as a victim of violence and sexual abuse, claiming the piece derailed his Hollywood career.
An expert called during his case rejected the idea of PTSD and diagnosed Heard instead with two personality disorders.
Dr Hughes, however, rejected the analysis. She said Heard twice reported losing consciousness after fights with Depp, and said he was consumed by “obsessive jealousy” of her male film co-stars.
“He tried to control what she wore. He told her often no woman of mine is going to dress like a wh**e”, said Dr Hughes, who said Heard endured a “barrage of accusations of infidelity”.
Heard claims Depp “didn’t want her to show nudity” in her films and “persistently put her down”, said the doctor. She also described an alleged incident on a private plane from Boston to Los Angeles in 2014 when Depp is accused of being drunk and high on drugs.
“She gets on the plane, he starts talking about James Franco, making a lot of derogatory comments, hope you had fun with your escapades,” she said. “There was an argument when she got up to leave, he kicked her in the back and she went forward.”
Earlier, after the evidence for Depp was concluded, lawyers for Heard urged Judge Penney Azcarate to throw out his case and stop the trial.
Heard’s attorney Benjamin Rotternborn said the defamation claim should be dismissed as Depp had failed to establish “falsity of statement” – a motion that was denied by the judge.
In response, Depp’s lawyer Benjamin Chew said they had provided enough evidence to support his case and gone “the extra mile of showing Miss Heard physically abused him”.
Raising his voice, he added: “She’s the abuser in this courtroom.”
Heard is expected to give evidence during her case. The seven-week trial in Fairfax County, Virginia, continues.
