Johnny Depp’s bodyguard said the actor initially made up an excuse after his wife allegedly cut his finger off during a row because victims often try to protect their abusers.
Giving evidence in Depp’s defamation action against the Sun about an article labeling him a “handcuff puncher,” Malcolm Connolly was questioned about an incident in 2015 when Depp and his then-wife Amber Heard were in Australia for filming. from one of the Pirates of the Caribbean Franchise. Depp has accused Heard of cutting off the tip of her finger when she threw a bottle of vodka, but wrote at the time that he had caused the injury himself.
The bodyguard said today at the trial that one of the first things Depp said to him when they were outside a rented property before going to the hospital was: “She cut my finger off.”
Connolly added that it was he who had the false story that Depp had damaged his finger on folding doors. When asked why, the former prison official replied that this had been to “protect [the film] production, “but also because of the” habitual pattern of victims “he had seen in prison where victims seek to protect their abuser.
“The victim’s usual pattern is to protect the abuser for some reason, you know about the bullying … they fit the same criteria, they never present the information,” he said.
Connolly said that his previous role as a prison officer had equipped him to recognize when people were being bullied.
Depp is suing Sun editor News Group Newspapers (NGN) and executive editor Dan Wootton for an article calling the actor a “handcuff puncher” and referring to “overwhelming evidence” that he had attacked Heard. . Heard, 34, has provided details of 14 occasions during their relationship when she claims she was attacked by Depp. He denies ever hitting her.
Connolly insisted that he had never seen Depp hit Heard. He said: “I would not tolerate any man hitting a woman. No matter who is. Not even if he is my boss. Not even if he is the pope.
Sasha Wass QC, representing the Sun, read what she said was an excerpt from a diary that Heard kept during his 2015 honeymoon in Southeast Asia with Depp, in which he wrote that they had a “terrible fight” that resulted in his ending with his shirt wrapped around his neck.
The newspaper said: “We finally fell asleep with each other together in desperate childish anger, fear and love.”
He continued: “Our fight was terrible. Johnny … at one point he found his shirt wrapped around my neck. Amazing to think [the] precision, coordination required considering the close circumstances …
“I don’t even know how I ended up with this huge and rather annoying knot in the back of my head. Damn, I hate that.
Connolly, who accompanied the couple on their honeymoon, said that he had not seen Depp hitting Heard, nor had he told him that he had.
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