Johnny Depp performed a 'cavity search' on Amber Heard and penetrated her with a bottle, psychologist testifies

• Dawn Hughes, a clinical psychologist, said Johnny Depp inflicted "sexual violence" on Amber Heard.
• Hughes detailed one specific incident where she said Depp performed a cavity search on Heard.
• Hughes also said Depp penetrated Heard with a bottle. 

A clinical psychologist testified in court on Tuesday that Johnny Depp once performed a cavity search on his ex-wife Amber Heard and penetrated her with a bottle during their marriage.

"There was a number of incidents of sexual violence recorded in this relationship," Dawn Hughes, the psychologist, said of Depp and Heard's relationship in court Tuesday.

As Insider previously reported, Hughes — who provided testimony in the ex-couple's defamation trial, being held in a Fairfax County Court in Virginia — continued that Depp displayed "obsessive jealousy" and was the true abuser in the pair's relationship. 

Hughes referenced specific violent incidents that she said demonstrated Depp's paranoia and the control he had over Heard, which she said he enforced with violence. On one occasion in Hicksville, New York, Hughes said Depp accused a woman of flirting with Heard and proceeded to take the actress into a trailer to perform a cavity search. Hughes said Depp was searching for drugs.

"Mr. Depp performed a cavity search and ostensibly was looking for drugs and felt it acceptable to rip off her nightgown and stick his fingers up her vagina to look for cocaine," she said on the stand. 

Hughes said the incidents of sexual violence often happened when Depp was in a "drug-fueled rage." She continued that the "most severe instances of sexual violence that Ms. Heard had to endure" was during a fight with Depp in Australia where the actor penetrated Heard with a vodka bottle.

"He grabbed a bottle that was on the bar and penetrated her with that bottle," Hughes said. "And Ms. Heard reported to me of disassociating and going outside of her body."

Hughes said Depp was beating and choking Heard and telling her that he was "going to fucking kill you" when he grabbed the bottle. 

"The only thing she was thinking is: 'Oh god, I hope it's not the broken one,'" Hughes continued on the stand Tuesday.

Hughes is the first witness brought to the stand by Heard's legal team in the ongoing defamation case. Depp first sued Heard in 2019, alleging she defamed him when she described herself as a victim of domestic violence in a 2018 Washington Post op-ed.

The two began a relationship in 2011 and wed in 2015, before ending their turbulent marriage in 2016.

While Heard filed for divorce around the same time she filed for a restraining order, saying Depp bruised her face, Depp has alleged that Heard was the true abuser in the relationship and physically and verbally attacked him throughout their marriage. Heard has denied the claims and countersued, alleging Depp often physically attacked her while they were together in instances when he was under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

Depp has also alleged in court that Heard has been violent during their marriage

When he was on the stand earlier in the trial, Depp said in 2015 Heard threw a bottle at the actor and "it made contact and it shattered everywhere."

"Then I looked down and realized that the tip of my finger had been severed and I was looking directly at my bones sticking out and the meaty portion of the inside of your finger," he added on the stand.

Depp also said in court that Heard was responsible for fecal matter found on their shared bed after a fight in which he said he was leaving her.

In court Tuesday, Hughes said all of the evidence she analyzed, based on Heard's health documents and interviews with her former therapists, led her to believe that Heard's recollection of her relationship with Depp as an abusive one was accurate. Hughes said she diagnosed Heard with PTSD based on "intimate partner violence" suffered at Depp's hands.

The testimony from Hughes rebuts testimony from Shannon Curry, a clinical psychologist hired by Depp's lawyers, who also evaluated Heard. Curry said Heard exaggerated her PTSD symptoms and had personality disorders linked to violence and "making up stories."