Surgeon Testifies That Depp's Severed Finger Story Is 'Inconsistent'

A surgeon has testified that Johnny Depp's severed finger story is 'inconsistent'.

The actor is in the midst of a defamation trial with his ex-wife Amber Heard, which he launched over an article she wrote in 2018, in which she claimed she was a survivor of domestic abuse.

Though the article did not name Depp, he claims it had a detrimental impact on his career, and saw him lose millions in potential earnings.

The 58-year-old is suing the Aquaman star for $50 million, and she countersuing him for $100m.

During the trial, one of the main talking points has been an incident that occurred in Australia back in 2015, when Depp lost part of one of his fingers.

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Depp claims it was severed after Heard threw a vodka bottle at him, while her legal team are arguing that it was the Pirates of the Caribbean star who cut it off.

Richard Moore is an orthopaedic surgeon, who was called up as a witness by Heard's team.

During his testimony, Moore claimed he did not believe Depp's story of how the injury was sustained made sense.

He said: "Well, the medical data is inconclusive. It’s not consistent with what we see in the described injury pattern or in the clinical photographs.

"Looking at the images, there’s really no significant injury of the dorsum of the finger and to create the type of injury with that type of a crush injury, we would anticipate both injury to the fingernail and other parts of the finger."

Earlier in the trial, the court heard from Depp's doctor, David Kipper, who helped search for the missing part of his finger. Kipper said the actor told him he had sliced it off with a knife.

Alamy

While Debbie Lloyd, a nurse who worked with Kipper, testified that she had heard different accounts of what had happened.

She told the court: "I had heard that Amber threw a bottle of vodka at him, I had heard that he slammed it with a phone."

Accounting for the different stories, Depp told the court that he lied in order to protect Heard.

He said: "I lied because I didn't want to disclose that it had been Ms. Heard that had thrown a vodka bottle at me and then took my finger off. I didn't want to get her in trouble...  

"I tried to just keep things as copacetic and as easy as possible for everything. I did not want to put her name in that mix."

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Topics: Johnny Depp, Amber Heard, US News, Film and TV

Dominic Smithers

Dominic Smithers is the News/Agenda Desk Lead, covering the latest trends and breaking stories. After graduating from the University of Leeds with a degree in French and History, he went on to write for the Manchester Evening News, the Accrington Observer and the Macclesfield Express. So as you can imagine, he’s spent many a night wondering just how useful that second language has been. But c'est la vie.

@SmithersDom