Johnny Depp found it “hilarious” to see photographs of faeces in the bed he shared with Amber Heard and was “convinced” it was either his ex-wife herself, or one of her friends who was involved in the episode, the High Court has heard.

Jokes including “Amber Turd” and “Amber in the dumps” emerged from the April 2016 incident, the high-profile hearing was told on Mr Depp’s fourth day in the witness box.

The Hollywood A-lister said he thought the discovery of faeces in the bed – found by a cleaner in their LA penthouse on the morning of Ms Heard’s 30th birthday – was “a fitting end to the relationship”.

He told the court it was “a mystery” who defecated in the bed “and it was not left by a three or four-pound dog”, referring to their pets.

The Edward Scissorhands star added: “I was convinced that it was either Ms Heard herself or one of her cohort involved in leaving human faeces on the bed.”

Sasha Wass, lead counsel for the Sun newspaper’s publisher News Group Newspapers, suggested Boo, one of the couple’s two Yorkshire terriers, “had problems with her toilet habits”, to which the actor said the dogs “were very well trained”, but that Boo was “not as trained as Pistol”, their other dog.

Ms Wass said to Mr Depp that “it came to your attention the following, that was the day of Amber’s actual birthday, that the cleaner had found faeces in the bed”.

She suggested Mr Depp was later sent photographs of the faeces, which the actor found “hilarious” and that “there were jokes like ‘Amber Turd’, ‘Amber in the dumps’ going on.”

Mr Depp replied: “It was one of the most absurd, unexpected statements that I have ever witnessed in my life so, yes, initially I did laugh because it was so strange.”

The night before, on April 21, Mr Depp had arrived late for Ms Heard’s party after being given some “rather unfortunate news” about his financial affairs at a meeting, the court heard.

Asked if he had taken any recreational drugs to relieve his stress, he said it was “very likely that I would have smoked some marijuana to calm myself”.

It was about 10pm when he got to the party at the Eastern Columbia Building in Los Angeles and the rest of the party had finished dinner and were drinking magnums of wine, the court heard.

Mr Depp told the court Ms Heard had been “venting how upset she was that I was so late for her birthday dinner and that I had made a fool of her and that I didn’t care and everybody was talking about how awful it was of me to do such a thing”.

He said it “ramped up and became aggressive”, and that she was “very, very angry.”

He said he went to bed and started reading, “trying to avoid any confrontation with Ms Heard”.

Ms Wass suggested Ms Heard’s upset was taken by Mr Depp as criticism and that it had caused him to become angry.

She put it to Mr Depp that he had got out of bed to argue with Ms Heard, picking up a magnum bottle of champagne and throwing it at her but missing and the glass smashing.

Mr Depp denied that happened.

Ms Wass added: “And that, I suggest, is how you express yourself when you are angry, you smash things.”

Mr Depp replied: “I disagree.”

Ms Wass said the actor then “grabbed Ms Heard by her hair and pushed her onto the bed”.

She added: “When she tried to leave, you blocked the bedroom door and you tried to grab her hair.”

The barrister suggested Mr Depp then “pushed her to the ground” and “bumped her chest” before leaving the apartment.

Mr Depp denied that he had grabbed or pushed Ms Heard and said he had sent a text to his security team, who were outside the penthouse, and said “gotta go, got to get out of here”.

Asked if he had left Ms Heard a note which read “happy f****** birthday”, Mr Depp said he did not know but that “it is very, very possible”.