Actor Johnny Depp displays the middle finger of his hand, injured while he and his ex-wife Amber Heard were in Australia in 2015. Photo / AP
Actor Johnny Depp displays the middle finger of his hand, injured while he and his ex-wife Amber Heard were in Australia in 2015. Photo / AP
A house manager for Johnny Depp and Amber Heard during their 2015 stay in Australia has testified about finding the actor's severed finger.
British staffer Ben King spoke about the infamous incident when he was called as a witness during the defamation trial which the actor has brought against his ex-wife.
King claimed he arrived at the Gold Coast compound on the afternoon of March 8, 2015, where he could hear "hysterical sobbing" from Heard.
He said Depp's personal doctor David Kipper was "rummaging through a bin" in the kitchen to look for Depp's fingertip.
The house manager said he soon found the fingertip "directly below the bar", where he noticed a paper towel with "lots of blood around it" on the floor.
Ben King, a former house manager for actor Johnny Depp, testifies in the courtroom. Photo / AP
He told the court in Virginia, US, there were "puddles of what smelled like alcohol", as well as broken glasses and bottles, around the fingertip, which he picked up with paper and put in a plastic bag before giving to Dr Kipper and Depp's head of security Jerry Judge.
"[They] were keen to get it to the hospital quickly to see if it could be reattached," King testified.
He also painted a picture of significant damage to the property after the pair's explosive argument, saying repairs cost upwards of $50,000.
King testified that a "big chunk had been taken out of the marble staircase", there was a "collapsed" ping pong table, "remnants of a coffee cup was embedded" in a wall-mounted TV, and the walls around the room had also been damaged.
"Nothing was really intact," King added, saying he also saw a broken vodka bottle.
Johnny Depp's lawyer showed a picture of the star in hospital with a severed finger. Photo / Schillings
Afterwards, it was suggested Heard return to Los Angeles while Depp sought treatment, with King volunteering to accompany the Aquaman actress on the flight.
They left the following day, March 9, with King testifying Heard had no visible injuries despite her claims she had been physically abused by Depp during their argument.
King also revealed a conversation he had with Heard on the flight, in which the actress had asked him if he "had ever been so angry with someone that you lost it with them".
He said she was "incredulous" when he said, "No", and that they stopped communicating.
Towards the end of the flight, Mr King said he noticed "long" and "very uniform" marks on Heard's forearm.
King said that after they later returned to Australia, where Depp was filming the fifth Pirates of the Caribbean movie, he witnessed several further arguments between the pair, in which Depp would try to leave the room when the "provocation" occurred.
King, who said he was often in the same vicinity as the duo, said Heard spoke to Depp "angrily", and that she behaved like a "spoiled, teenage child".
The five-week trial began on April 11, with Heard, 36, expected to testify in coming days.
Depp, 58, is suing Heard for $70 million, claiming she defamed him in a 2018 Washington Post opinion piece in which she claimed she was a domestic and sexual violence survivor.
Though she didn't name Depp in the piece, it was widely assumed the story was about him, and he later lost his roles in Pirates and Fantastic Beasts.
