“He grabs this teacup Yorkie and holds Boo out of the window of the moving car, and he’s howling like an animal while holding the dog out the window,” Heard told the court. “And everyone in the car – I’ll never forget it – everyone just froze. No one did anything.”

Heard said Boo belonged to Depp at the time, but she later got custody of Boo and the other Yorkshire Terrier, Pistol, when the couple separated.

On Tuesday Virginia time, a psychologist testifying on Heard’s behalf told jurors that Depp forced Heard to perform oral sex, and that Depp penetrated her with a liquor bottle.

Psychologist Dawn Hughes, Heard’s witness, testified that Depp performed a cavity search on the actor as he looked for a missing stash of cocaine.

Depp, 58, testified earlier in the trial that he never hit Heard, 36, and that she was the one who was the abuser in their relationship.

Depp, the star of the Pirates of the Caribbean films and others, is suing Heard for $US50 million ($70 million), saying she defamed him when she claimed she was a victim of domestic abuse. Heard has counter-sued for $US100 million, saying Depp smeared her by calling her a liar.

Heard said she stayed with Depp after the tattoo incident because he apologised and promised not to behave that way again.

“I didn’t want to leave him. I didn’t want this to be the reality,” she said.

Loading

But, Heard said, Depp became violent at other times, usually when he was drinking or using drugs.

He would hurl insults or accuse her of cheating, she said, and “it would escalate to the point where he would push me or shove me down”.

“This happened several times,” she said.

At the start of her testimony, Heard said it had been hard to relive their relationship in the courtroom.

“This has been the most painful and difficult thing I’ve ever gone through,” she said.

The case hinges on a December 2018 opinion piece she wrote in The Washington Post. The article never mentioned Depp by name, but his lawyer told jurors it was clear Heard was referring to him. The couple’s divorce was finalised in 2017 after less than two years of marriage.

Depp, once among the biggest stars in Hollywood, said he never struck Heard nor any woman and that Heard’s allegations cost him “everything”. A new Pirates movie was put on hold, and Depp was replaced in the Fantastic Beasts film franchise, a Harry Potter spin-off.

Heard’s attorneys have argued that she told the truth and that her opinion was protected free speech under the US Constitution’s First Amendment.

A state court judge in Virginia’s Fairfax County, outside the nation’s capital, is overseeing the trial, which is expected to last until late May.

Less than two years ago, Depp lost a libel case against The Sun, a British tabloid that labelled him a “wife beater”. A London High Court judge ruled he had repeatedly assaulted Heard.

Depp’s lawyers have said they filed the US case in Fairfax County because The Washington Post is printed there. The newspaper is not a defendant.

In April 2015, Depp failed to declare Boo and another Yorkshire terrier, Pistol, to customs authorities when he and Heard flew in to Queensland in his private jet to film Pirates of the Caribbean 5.

The following month, when then-agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce found out, he famously gave the couple 50 hours to take the dogs back to the US or they would be euthanised.

“It’s time that Pistol and Boo buggered off back to the United States,” Joyce said.

Loading

The couple complied and the dogs were returned to the US.

Reuters, Staff reporters

National Sexual Assault, Family & Domestic Violence Counselling Line: 1800 737 732. Crisis support can be found at Lifeline: (13 11 14 and lifeline.org.au), the Suicide Call Back Service (1300 659 467 and suicidecallbackservice.org.au) and beyondblue (1300 22 4636 and beyondblue.org.au).