Amber Heard has testified in court that Johnny Depp ripped off her underwear and conducted a “cavity search” when he suspected she had hidden cocaine.

The defamation trial between Mr Depp and Ms Heard began on 11 April in Fairfax, Virginia following Mr Depp’s lawsuit against his ex-wife in March 2019.

Mr Depp is arguing that she defamed him in a December 2018 op-ed published in The Washington Post titled “I spoke up against s**ual violence — and faced our culture’s wrath. That has to change”.

During her testimony, Ms Heard claimed that she and Mr Depp were having a “party in the desert” with some friends, and “somebody brought MDMA”.

She said one woman “leaned into” her and put her “head on my shoulder”, which Ms Heard said she “took it to be the effects of the drug” as she had taken mushrooms.

She went on to say that Mr Depp became upset but that others present initially took his actions as a “joke”.

Ms Heard testified that she and Mr Depp walked to their trailer to talk.

She said that in the trailer, Mr Depp accused her of instigating the episode as well as lying about her relationship to the woman, who Ms Heard said she didn’t “really know”.

Ms Heard said Mr Depp then began “smashing” the trailer and “screaming” at her.

“It became clear he was looking for something,” Ms Heard said, adding that he asked her “where are you hiding it?” but that she didn’t know what he was referring to.

She said he started “patting me down”.

“He rips my dress … he’s grabbing my breasts, he’s touching my thighs, he rips my underwear off,” Ms Heard said from the witness stand.

“He then proceeds to do a cavity search,” she added.

“He said he was looking for his drugs, his cocaine.” Ms Heard said she was against the cocaine use, and that insinuating that she “was doing it … made no sense”.

She said he “shoved his fingers inside me”, adding that she “didn’t know what to do … I just stood there”.

“He twisted his fingers around,” she said.

Ms Heard also recounted the first time she met Mr Depp’s children, Lily-Rose and Jack, in the summer of 2013.

She said she was “dying” to get to know the kids.

Not long after, Ms Heard said she and Mr Depp were on a flight to Russia, which was the “first and last time I ever decided it would be a decent idea to do drugs with Johnny”.

She added that they took MDMA on the plane “which was as stupid as it may sound”.

She said she was against Mr Depp’s cocaine use and drinking but that she was around 26 years old at the time, thought MDMA was a “lovey drug” and that she wanted to be the “fun girlfriend” at this time.

Ms Heard said Mr Depp took “several” capsules and everything was “going fine” until a flight attendant became “involved”.

Mr Depp offered the attendant some MDMA who initially declined but in the end “acquiesced”, according to Ms Heard.

She said the attendant leaned into Ms Heard’s seat when Mr Depp grabbed the woman’s arm, telling her not to touch Ms Heard.

Similar to the previous episode, Mr Depp told the attendant he could break her wrist, Ms Heard testified.

Ms Heard said Mr Depp was making accusations when they got to the hotel and that he shoved her.

“At some point, Johnny whacks me in the face.

“I don’t remember feeling pain or awareness of my nose …

“I just remember wanting him to realise what had happened,” she said.

In her 2018 op-ed, Ms Heard wrote that “like many women, I had been harassed and s**ually assaulted by the time I was of college age.

“But I kept quiet — I did not expect filing complaints to bring justice.

“And I didn’t see myself as a victim”.

“Then two years ago, I became a public figure representing domestic abuse, and I felt the full force of our culture’s wrath for women who speak out,” she added at the time.

While Mr Depp isn’t named in the piece, his legal team argues that it contains a “clear implication that Mr Depp is a domestic abuser”, which they say is “categorically and demonstrably false”.

Mr Depp is seeking damages of “not less than $50m”.