Shocking photo surfaces of Johnny Depp on a hospital stretcher in Australia

A never-before-seen photo of a bloodied Johnny Depp on a stretcher after an alleged violent altercation with then-wife Amber Heard during a visit to Australia has surfaced as the war of words between the bitter exes continues to play out.

Depp, 56, has made new allegations in court about his ex-wife, 33, as part of a libel case in which he has claimed that the Aquaman star physically assaulted him during their infamous March 2015 fight, throwing a glass bottle at him and putting out a cigarette on his face.

In the photo, obtained by The Blast and reportedly taken at the hospital a few hours after the incident, a sunglasses-wearing Depp can be seen lying flat on his back on a stretcher with blood around him and a wrapped finger — along with what his team is claiming is a cigarette burn on his right cheek.

At the time of the fight, Heard was staying with her husband in Australia while he filmed the fifth Pirates of the Caribbean movie.

According to new court documents obtained by The Blast, Depp claimed the fight broke out after the actress spoke with his lawyers about his “intention to enter into a postnuptial agreement”, which he says caused her to “go into a rage”.

In the court documents, Depp claimed that he tried to “avoid” his then-wife by going to the downstairs bar in the house, but she followed him and screamed “abusively” while he “poured himself a vodka and drank it”.

The actor alleged that Heard then threw a bottle at him and missed, before throwing a second bottle which smashed on the bar top, hitting his hand and leaving a cut on his finger. The court document also alleged that she “then put a cigarette out on (Depp’s) right cheek”.

Depp’s lawyers also claimed that he was in a state of shock when he “wrote on a mirror and walls in blood and oil paint”.

Heard denied the allegation, with her lawyer describing it as “absurd, offensive and categorically untrue” in a statement to People magazine.

“This photograph proves nothing — apart from the fact that Johnny Depp is desperate to throw out any outlandish allegation to deflect attention from his physical and ongoing psychological abuse of Amber Heard.”

It’s just the latest shocking chapter in what’s been a lengthy saga between the former spouses.

Heard filed for divorce from Depp in May 2016, after just 15 months of marriage. Less than a week later, she was granted a domestic violence restraining order against her estranged husband after claiming he was “verbally and physically abusive” to her.

In August 2016 they reached a $US7 million ($A10 million) settlement, but earlier this year, Depp filed a $US50 million ($A72 million) defamation suit against his ex-wife after she wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post about her experience with abuse.