Johnny Depp’s mangled finger story ‘has flaws’, says surgeon

A hand surgeon testified that Johnny Depp could not have lost the tip of his middle finger the way he told jurors it happened.

Depp, 58, says he was injured when ex-wife Amber Heard threw a vodka bottle at him.

The finger injury, which occurred in a March 2015 fight in Australia between Depp and Heard, has been one of several key points of dispute in his civil lawsuit against her.

Heard, 36, has said she never saw specifically how it happened, but that it occurred on a night when an enraged Depp sexually assaulted her with a liquor bottle.

Depp is suing Heard for libel over a December 2018 article she wrote in the Washington Post, which his lawyers say falsely implies he abused her while they were together.

The Pirates of the Caribbean actor claims he was defamed by the op-ed even though it never mentioned his name.

British supermodel Kate Moss, who dated Depp in the 1990s, is expected to give evidence by videolink later this week.

Depp has denied he ever struck Heard and says she was the abuser in the relationship.

She has testified about more than a dozen separate instances of physical abuse allegedly suffered at Depp’s hands.

Surgeon Richard Moore testified on Monday about the severed finger as jurors saw gruesome photos of the injury.

He said that Depp described that his palm was down on a bar when it was struck by the bottle.

Moore, who did not treat Depp, testified that his description is unlikely, in large part because his fingernail remained intact.

He also said there would have been other cuts on the rest of his hand from the glass that shattered on impact.

While Depp told the jury that Heard severed the finger by throwing a vodka bottle, at the time of the accident he told people and sent text messages saying he’d done it to himself.

At one point he said the finger had been pinched between solid accordion doors.

Depp now says he lied to protect Heard. Moore testified that getting the finger pinched in such a door would be consistent with the injury.

The trial is now in its sixth week.

Also Monday, a psychiatrist testified that Depp’s behaviour fits the pattern of a person whose drug and alcohol abuse contributes to domestic violence.

Depp’s lawyer questioned the ethics and credibility of the psychiatrist’s opinions, given that he never conducted an examination of Depp.

The trial has drawn increasing public attention over its length. People camped out overnight and squabbled over places in line as they sought to get one of the 100 seats in Virginia’s Fairfax County Circuit Court allocated to the public.

During a morning break, one woman professed her love for Depp and asked when he was going to acknowledge that he was the father of the baby she was holding in her arms.

She was removed from the courtroom.