Johnny Depp house manager recalls finding tip of his finger on floor after vodka bottle fight with Amber Heard

Johnny Depp’s House Manager Ben King said he heard “hysterical sobbing, crying” as he entered the house where Mr Depp and Amber Heard were staying in Australia on Sunday 8 March 2015.

He said it “sounded like Ms Heard to me”. Mr King said Ms Heard was “hysterical” and that she was “crying a lot ... uncontrollably”.

Johnny Depp trial – latest updates

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”.

Mr King said Mr Depp’s doctor David Kipper was “rummaging through a bin” in the kitchen.

“He said Mr Depp had sustained an injury to his finger and he was looking for the finger tip that he said had been severed,” Mr King added.

The house manager said he left Dr Kipper in the kitchen and went downstairs “to search”.

Mr King testified that he was the one to find the finger tip in the “bar area” of the house, adding that as he walked downstairs, he noticed that “a big chunk had been taken out of the marble staircase”.

He added that downstairs he found broken glass, a “collapsed” ping pong table and lots of cans surrounding the bar area”.

Mr King said he found the fingertip “directly below the bar” and that another “big chunk” had been taken off the marble top of the bar.

He noticed “kitchen paper” with “lots of blood around it” on the floor among which he found the fingertip. He added that he noticed “puddles of what smelled like alcohol” around the fingertip as well as broken glasses and bottles.

Mr King said the walls around the area had been damaged, as had the windows and a mirror behind the bar.

In her 2018 op-ed, Ms Heard wrote that “like many women, I had been harassed and sexually assaulted by the time I was of college age. But I kept quiet — I did not expect filing complaints to bring justice. And I didn’t see myself as a victim”.

“Then two years ago, I became a public figure representing domestic abuse, and I felt the full force of our culture’s wrath for women who speak out,” she added at the time.

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.

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