Johnny Depp’s bodyguard has said the actor initially made up an excuse after his wife allegedly severed his finger during a row because victims often try to protect their abusers.

Giving evidence in Depp’s libel action against the Sun over an article that labelled him a “wife beater”, Malcolm Connolly was questioned about an incident in 2015 when Depp and his then wife, Amber Heard, were in Australia for the filming of one of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. Depp has accused Heard of cutting off the tip of his finger when she hurled a vodka bottle, but wrote at the time that he had caused the injury himself.

The bodyguard told the trial today that one of the first things Depp said to him as they stood outside a rental property before going to hospital was: “She’s just cut my finger off.”

Connolly added that he had been the one who came up with the false story that Depp had damaged his finger in bifold doors. Asked why, the former prison officer replied that this had been to “protect [the film] production” but also because of the “usual victim pattern” he had seen in prison where victims seek to protect their abuser.

“The usual victim pattern is to protect the abuser for some reason, you know the psychological bullying … they fit the same criteria, they never come forward with the information,” he said.

Connolly said his past role as a prison officer had equipped him to recognise when people were being bullied.

Depp is suing the Sun’s publisher, News Group Newspapers (NGN), and its executive editor, Dan Wootton, over an article that called the actor a “wife beater” and referred to “overwhelming evidence” that he had attacked Heard. Heard, 34, has submitted details of 14 occasions during their relationship when she claims she was assaulted by Depp. He denies ever hitting her.

Connolly insisted he had never seen Depp strike Heard. He said: “I would not tolerate any man striking a woman. No matter who he is. Not even if he is my boss. Not even if he is the pope.”

Sasha Wass QC, representing the Sun, read out what she said was an extract from a diary kept by Heard during her 2015 honeymoon in south-east Asia with Depp, in which she wrote that they had a “terrible fight” that resulted in her ending up with his shirt wrapped around her neck.

The diary read: “We finally fell asleep with one another smashed together in desperate, childlike anger, fear and love.”

It continued: “Our fight was terrible. Johnny … at one point found himself with his shirt wrapped around my neck. Amazing to think about [the] precision, co-ordination that required considering the close circumstances …

“I don’t even know how I wound up with this huge, rather annoying knot on the back of my head. Fuck, I hate that.”

Connolly, who accompanied the couple on the honeymoon, said he had not seen Depp hitting Heard, nor had she told him that he had done so.