Ryan Giggs assault trial: 999 call made after alleged assault is played to the court

Ex-Manchester United star Ryan Giggs was arrested in a ‘blood-stained shirt’ after telling officers how he ‘hit’ his girlfriend ‘in the lip’ during a row at his £1.7million mansion, a court today heard.

Jurors in the former footballer’s assault and coercion trial have today been shown body worn footage of Giggs, 48, inside his home in Worsley, Greater Manchester, following the alleged incident in November 2020.

The court heard how the pair had earlier argued at dinner after Giggs’ PR executive ex-girlfriend Kate Greville ‘accused’ him of ‘couple of things’ before returning alone to the property, where they then rowed over their five-month-old golden retriever – ‘Mac’.

Ms Greville previously told the court she had found evidence on an iPad that Giggs had engaged in ‘full-on’ relationships with eight other women during their six-year on and off relationship, and initially told police at the scene the number was as high as 12.

Jurors today heard a statement from one of the officers who arrived at the scene, following two dramatic 999 calls from Ms Greville’s sister Emma – who has also accused Giggs of assaulting her during the same incident.

The officer said how Giggs, who admitted that he had been drinking that night, ‘had blood around his mouth’ when he arrived at the former Wales midfielder’s property. The officer said how he found Ms Greville sat on floor of the kitchen ‘visibly upset’.

In the footage, Giggs tells the officer ‘We had an argument and she said ‘I’m taking the dog’. We recently had a puppy, he’s in the garage. ‘He’s my puppy, no it’s not he’s mine’, that kind of thing.’

He then tells the officer that he ‘stupidly’ refused to hand over Ms Greville’s mobile phone which he had taken off her, before saying: ‘I hit her in the lip’, before accusing Ms Greville of ‘kicking’ him ‘in the head’ and ‘busting his lip’.

Later bodycam footage shows the officer cautioning a calm-looking Giggs – who is not put in handcuffs – before he is walked to a police van and locked in the back.

Today, jurors also heard two dramatic 999 calls made after the footballer’s alleged assault. During the calls, Ms Greville is heard shouting in the background: ‘Oh my god it’s so bad,’ while her sister says: ‘There’s blood everywhere’.

They listened to recording of the two calls by Emma Greville, the 26-year-old sister of Giggs’s former partner Kate, to 999 following the row in November 2020.

During the 999 recording, the call handler asks who the alleged offender is, prompting Emma to say: ‘Ryan Giggs. The footballer Ryan Giggs.’

The astonished call handler then replies: ‘The Ryan Giggs?’ 

It comes as bodycam of the incident, played in court, shows an officer walking into the property where Giggs is standing and asks the ex-footballer: ‘What’s been going on?’

Giggs, seen wearing a white shirt with a blood mark on it, responds to say he and Ms Greville, 38, had been out for a meal and a ‘few drinks in town’, while her sister looked after their dog at the house.

The ex-Wales midfielder tells the officer that, following an argument, he had asked his ex-partner to leave the property and the pair had ‘got into a little bit of a tangle’.

He then tells the police he tried to get his phone off her during the incident and there had been a ‘struggle on the floor’.

Giggs alleges to the police ‘she kicked me’ and ‘bust my lip’. 

The former footballer is in the dock at Manchester Crown Court accused of headbutting his ex-girlfriend and assaulting her sister during an incident at his mansion – as well as controlling and coercive behaviour towards Ms Greville. He denies all charges and is currently on trial.

Yesterday the court heard the former couple were ‘attached almost umbilically’ to their phones and Ms Greville claims he had ‘conditioned’ and ‘programmed’ her to get upset if he did not respond to her ‘instantly’. 

In her evidence this week, she alleged Giggs would have a similar angry reaction if she failed to reply to him within ten minutes, calling her a ‘whore’ and accusing her of sleeping with other men.

Jurors were yesterday shown video of Ms Greville sobbing as she told police that the former Wales midfielder had been having affairs with a dozen women.

The PR executive was filmed on a bodycam speaking to officers after the alleged assault in November 2020.

It comes after Ms Greville yesterday denied under cross-examination from Giggs’s lawyers that she had ‘planned’ to get pregnant with his child as their relationship broke down.

The court heard messages shared between Ms Greville and a friend in which he said: ‘I am not walking away with nothing’.

Jurors were also told how she had visited hospital to get her contraceptive coil removed, after telling Giggs she was going due to ‘cancerous cells’ discovered during a smear test.

Giggs’s lawyer, Chris Daw QC, said: ‘Your plan was to get pregnant by Mr Giggs.’

Ms Greville said: ‘No, absolutely not.’

Today, on the fifth day of the trial, jurors were played a recording of Emma Greville’s 999 call with the police following the alleged assault on her sister.

Emma, asked by the call handler why she is calling, says:  ‘Assault. He’s headbutted her.’ 

Swearing can then be heard in the background, along with crying and an argument between Giggs and Ms Greville.

Emma then says: ‘Can you come quickly?’, with the call handler asking: ‘Does she need an ambulance?’

In the recording, Emma then says: ‘He’s just headbutted in her face. ‘What? Ryan, I am saying anything I want to f***ing say. You have headbutted my sister. I don’t care if your daughter is 17, I don’t care about your daughter.’

The call handler then ask: ‘What’s he called?’ prompting Emma to reply: ‘Ryan Giggs.’ Giggs can then be heard shouting something inaudible in the background. She then responds: ‘It will be on the news, because you’ve just headbutted my sister.’ 

Giggs is then heard in the background saying: ‘She’s a psycho. She’s a psycho’. After hearing crying in the background, police ask: ‘Why is she crying?’

Emma replies, ‘She’s in pain,’ prompting the call handler to say: ‘Why?’ Emma says: ‘Because he’s headbutted her.

Later, police ask: ‘What’s his name? Emma replies: ‘Ryan Giggs. The footballer Ryan Giggs.’ The call handler then says: ‘The Ryan Giggs?’ Emma: ‘Yes. Can you come quickly please?’

The court also heard from PC Billington, who was one of the officers at the scene. 

After watching the video, PC Billington was questioned by prosecutor, Peter Wright QC.

Mr Wright QC said: ‘Mr Giggs was then taken to the police vehicles, and escorted to the police station, the court.’ Pc Billington: ‘That’s correct.’

Mr Wright QC continued: ‘At the time that you spoke to him, did you form the impression he’d been drinking?’

‘I believed he was intoxicated,’ the police officer answered.

Asked why he had formed that opinion, PC Billington added: ‘His slow response to my questions and his eyes were slightly glazed.’

In cross-examined by defence barrister, Marianne Alton, PC Billington was asked: ‘Was he calm throughout?’

PC Billington agreed.  The defence did not argue that Mr Giggs had not been drinking, but Ms Alton asked Pc Billington: ‘But he wasn’t stumbling about?’

‘No,’ the officer answered. She added: ‘He spoke coherently?’

PC Billington replied: ‘He responded coherently, yes.’

Yesterday, jurors were shown police body-cam footage of Ms Greville speaking to police in the aftermath of the alleged incident.

In the footage, she tells officers: ‘I found he had been cheating on me for the last six years with ten or 12 women. Every time I found something it got worse, I found his iPad, kept it all to myself for two weeks’. Ms Greville claims that Giggs had began ‘flipping his s**t’ and attacking her after she confronted him.

On the first day of his trial this week she told police in a later interview that he had eight other ‘full-on relationships that had gone on constantly from 2014’.

The evidence emerged as the former Manchester United star’s legal team accused Ms Greville of having ‘stopped contraception in a plot to get pregnant by him’.

She denied claims by the footballer’s lawyers that she ‘planned to get pregnant’ as their relationship broke down, the court heard.

Yesterday under cross examination Ms Greville had admitted to lying to Giggs about having cancerous cells detected in a smear test so she ‘would not have to have sex with him’. As their relationship came to an end she also messaged a friend saying: ‘I am not walking away with nothing’, amid claims she was trying to have his baby.

The messages were sent after the PR executive began to ‘plan’ leave Giggs, having allegedly found evidence on the footballer’s iPad that he had conducted ‘full-on’ affairs with eight other women during their relationship.  

The court was told how in October 2020, having found the messages, Ms Greville messaged a friend saying: ‘I need a plan’. Referring to the message, Christopher Daw QC, representing Giggs, 48, asked Ms Greville: ‘What were you talking about?’

Ms Greville told the court: ‘I needed a plan to get away in secret so he couldn’t find me, so he wouldn’t harass me. And how to let him know how I had found all those things out.’

Mr Daw said: ‘And walking away (with nothing)?’ Ms Greville replied: ‘I am talking about my dog. One hundred per cent, just the dog.’ Mr Daw said: ‘Your plan was to get pregnant by Mr Giggs.’ Ms Greville said: ‘No, absolutely not.’ 

The court also heard how Ms Greville messaged her friend saying that she was getting her contraceptive coil removed that week. The court heard Ms Greville later did have the coil removed, having told Giggs she was going to hospital after a smear test showed ‘cancerous cells’.

Chris Daw said: ‘The truth is you were going to have your contraceptive out.’

Ms Greville told the court: ‘I was getting my coil out and I also wanted a STD test. I wanted him off my back. I completely regret saying these things but I needed to say something to get him off my back and for him to leave me alone.’

Mr Daw said: ‘The true position is there was no medical emergency for the coil to be taken out.’ Ms Greville replied: ‘There was no medical emergency but it (the coil) was coming to an end and it needed taking out.’

‘If I was saying I had cancerous cells then I would not have to have sex with him.’

Mr Daw, refering to text messages between the pair, said: ‘I am going to suggest you were having active, regular and very enthusiastic sex with Mr Giggs at this time including when you had this coil removed.’ Ms Greville said: ‘I disagree.’

It comes as the court heard claims from Ms Greville that Giggs had kicked her in the back ‘so hard’ that she ‘fell off the bed’ during a stay at the Stafford Hotel in London in December 2019.

Ms Greville had previously alleged that during the incident she was thrown out of their room by Giggs, who then ‘threw a laptop’ at her head

The PR executive also previously told Giggs’s trial at Manchester Crown Court how the defendant had thrown her naked into a corridor during a separate incident at a hotel Dubai in September 2017. 

It comes as Ms Greville was quizzed by Giggs’s barrister about her decision to continue her relationship with the ex-footballer, despite her claims of physical and mental abuse.

Mr Daw also questioned her decision to move into the ex-Wales winger’s £1.7million mansion at the start of the first Covid lockdown in March 2020.

But a tearful Ms Greville said she was ‘ashamed’ of the decision to ‘keep going back’ to Giggs, telling jurors: ‘It was a cycle of abuse that he promised the world. He was very convincing, he could be very charming.

‘I went back again stupidly and I am ashamed of that, hugely ashamed of that, but I did.’

Mr Daw also took aim at Ms Greville’s suggestions that Giggs had interfered in her relationships with her friends in the lead up to the end of their relationship in November 2020 – when Giggs is accused of ‘headbutting’ her and assaulting her sister Emma.

He said in the months before their break-up, Ms Greville had enjoyed three holidays, to Ibiza, Portugal and Greece – the latter two of which she had flown out with her friends.

But Ms Greville replied: ‘He was creating really difficult relationships with these people. There’s many more months and weeks that I have a relationship with my friends that can be difficult. That’s just a holiday, or a long weekend.’ 

She also accused of the former Manchester United star of ‘flirting’ with her friend in ‘front of her face’ and then asking: ‘Does that make you jealous?’. 

Mr Daw also addressed claims made by Ms Greville earlier in the trial that she had found evidence on an iPad that the former footballer had engaged in ‘full on’ relationships with eight other women while with the PR executive.

He suggested that Ms Greville’s decision to leave the former footballer was ‘nothing to do with coercion, violence or anything like that – it was just to do with his cheating.’ Ms Greville said it was also about his ‘coercion and control and manipulating.’ 

Yesterday Ms Greville addressed a photograph that appeared in a national newspaper in the days that followed his alleged headbutting to ‘turn the public against him’.

PR executive Kate Greville told Manchester Crown Court she arranged for the picture to be taken of her walking her dog along a country lane because she wanted members of the media to leave her doorstep.

She alleges the former Manchester United footballer grabbed her by the shoulders, looked her in the eye and headbutted her face following a row at their home in Worsley, Greater Manchester, on November 1 2020.

Jurors at the trial of Giggs, 48, heard that an article appeared in The Sun newspaper on November 16 with the photograph and a story which read: ‘Living hell. Ryan Giggs’s ex spotted with a bruised lip in first outing since Wales manager’s assault arrest’.

A week earlier on November 10 a friend messaged her: ‘I’m selling the next pic of you and getting some paper out of this (laughing emojis)’

Ms Greville replied: ‘We can set up a pic and get money for both of us. What do you think?’

The friend said: ‘I think yes.’ Ms Greville wrote back: ‘We could get 5K.’ The friend said: ‘And kit our new apartment out.’

Ms Greville replies: ‘I think more to cover my legal costs (laugh emoji).’ Three days later her friend wrote: ‘Let’s f****** do it. ‘A sofa like Molly-Mae’s would be like 10K.’

Ms Greville said: ‘Need to sell some more stories.’ The complainant went on send her friend a link to The Sun article.

She tells her she looks ‘awful but me looking rough makes it look less staged’.

Ms Greville wrote: ‘I think it’s good I look shit to be honest.’

Under cross-examination, Chris Daw QC, representing Giggs, asked ‘But it was staged, wasn’t it?’

Ms Greville replied: ‘Yes, I did set it up.’

Mr Daw said: ‘You were setting up for public consumption a completely staged photograph where you were deliberately trying to make it look like something had happened to you?’

Ms Greville said: ‘No, I am not talking about an injury there.’

Mr Daw said: ‘You were trying effectively to tell the whole world a completely false story.’

Ms Greville replied: ‘I was trying to stop the paps turning up on my doorstep every day.

‘To take back control.

‘Obviously I had an injury and I wanted to show them the reality but it was about stopping the photographers and press turning up at my family’s door twice/three times a day to get pics of me.’

Mr Daw said ‘You were trying to get the public to turn on Mr Giggs.’

Ms Greville replied: ‘I wanted control of that first photograph and then it would end because they kept harassing me.’

Asked if she enhanced her appearance with make-up for the purpose of the photograph, Ms Greville replied: ‘No.’

Mr Daw said: ‘You just had a tiny, minor contact with Mr Giggs on the night (November 1).

‘I suggest you have enhanced that with make-up to make it much worse than it was.’

Ms Greville replied: ‘Not at all.’

Peter Wright QC, prosecuting, asked Ms Greville: ‘Did you have any involvement in the written content of The Sun article?’

‘No,’ said Ms Greville.

Mr Wright said: ‘Were you ever interviewed by anyone by the press?’

Ms Greville said: ‘No.’ Mr Wright went on: ‘Have you every sought to be interviewed by anyone from the press?

‘No,’ she repeated. Mr Wright asked her: ‘Were you left alone?’ Ms Greville said: ‘Not really, no.’

Mr Wright said: ‘Did you sell a story to the press?’ Ms Greville said: ‘No.’

Mr Wright asked: ‘Did you sell the photograph that was taken of you?’ Ms Greville said: ‘No.’ Mr Wright asked: ‘Did you ever ask for payment?’ ‘No,’ the witness replied.

Mr Wright said: ‘We have seen the messages with your friend Courtney … discussing about what you might do. Did you ever do it?’ Ms Greville replied: ‘No.’

She told the court that she voluntarily told the police about the article. Mr Wright asked: ‘What was your purpose in having that photograph staged?’ Ms Greville replied: ‘It was to stop the press turning up at my doorstep.  I was scared to go out. I felt trapped and my mum and dad were getting harassed.’

Giggs denies using controlling and coercive behaviour against Ms Greville between August 2017 and November 2020, assaulting her, causing actual bodily harm, and the common assault of her younger sister.

On Thursday morning, the court also heard how the pair were ‘utterly addicted’ to messaging and expected each other to reply ‘in seconds’, jury members in the footballer’s domestic assault trial have been told. 

Under cross-examination by Giggs’s lawyer, Ms Greville was asked about her complaining to the former Manchester United star regarding his response time to her messages.

The PR executive had previously claimed the ex-footballer was ‘unsupportive’ of her career and would ‘undermine’ her, including when she was looking to leave her then employer, GG Hospitality, run by Giggs and former team-mate Gary Neville, and set up her own business.

She also claimed Giggs, who she earlier in the trial claimed was having ‘full-on’ affairs with eight other women during their relationship, had ‘conditioned’ her to reply instantly to text messages and had made her feel ‘insecure’.

But Giggs’ lawyer, Chris Daw QC, challenged her claims. He read out a message sent by Ms Greville to Ms Giggs, in which she said: ‘My own f****** boyfriend can’t reply to a message,’ to which Giggs replied: ‘WTF I was sorting the kids out.’

Asked about the message, Ms Greville replied: ‘He had conditioned me to behaving like that, I was like you expect me to reply within seconds so why don’t you reply within seconds. I used to do it back to him…’

Mr Daw replied: ‘That’s a form of programming he did on you?’ Ms Greville said: ‘He did it to me so I ended up doing it back to him.’

Mr Daw said: ‘You were both like that and utterly addicted to messaging backwards and forwards.’ She replied: ‘We messaged a lot yes.’

Mr Daw said: ‘You both expected instant replies or got upset.’ Ms Greville said: ‘He conditioned me to being like that.’

‘Ryan was attached to his phone so for him to not look at his phone for an hour was nor normal at all… If I had not replied to something for an hour I would have got a message like that.’

Mr Daw said: ‘That’s what I was saying previously, you were just as bad as each other.’

Ms Greville said: ‘I felt it was him making me like that, he was making me react and act like that. It wasn’t a natural reaction for me to act like that.’ She said Giggs made her feel ‘very insecure’. 

The court heard how Giggs was ‘entirely supportive’ of his former girlfriend setting up her own business despite her claiming that he often undermined her career.

Mr Daw told the court about a message sent by Ms Greville in July 2019 saying; ‘I need to talk about setting up my business. Not now but when we are together. I need some help with accounts … need your help and advice.’

Giggs replied: ‘I will sort everything baby xx.’ Mr Daw told her: ‘You were actively pursuing different career options… and he was entirely supportive.’ She agreed and said: ‘We were in a relationship and that’s what people in relationships tend to do.’

But she later added that he would undermine her. She said: ‘When I originally said I was going to leave GG he didn’t want me to leave at all. That was a conversation. He told me in the office he didn’t want me to leave.’

‘He was like two different people. He’d say all these words but his actions didn’t match his words.

‘He would pepper the niceness with horribleness, and the other way around as well.’

Giggs’ barrister Chris Daw QC referred to an alleged incident at the Stafford Hotel in London, in December 2019.

Mr Daw said Giggs’ version of events on the night of the Stafford Hotel incident was that the pair had been at a work function and Ms Greville accused Giggs of flirting with a woman he had been paired with for a crazy golf competition.

Ms Greville said she had accused him of flirting but denied that she tried to ‘wind him up’ by flirting with another man at a club later on.

Mr Daw said that the next morning ‘you said to him: ‘I was so drunk I don’t remember much about that night”.

Ms Greville told the court: ‘While we were at breakfast I went to touch my head and my head was hurting. I said: ‘Did you throw a bag at me last night?’ and he said: ‘Yes, but you wound me up that much you made me do it’.’

Mr Daw said: ‘That’s all just lies, isn’t it?’ Ms Greville replied: ‘No, absolutely not.’

Referring to Ms Greville’s witness statement about the incident itself, he said: ‘You said ‘Giggs threw a bag at my head with a laptop in it which caused my head to swell and bruise, kicked me out of bed and threw me out of the hotel room naked again’.

‘You said the first time he was abusive to me was in a Dubai hotel room three years ago. ‘He dragged me by my arms and threw me out of the hotel room naked and then you say the second was at a hotel room in London’.

‘In your interview, you said he kicked you off the bed so hard you landed on the floor.

The barrister said: ‘Is that your evidence? He kicked you so hard you fell off the bed or in your interview were you trying to make everything sound as bad as it could?’

Ms Greville replied: ‘No it was 100 per cent what happened.’

The barrister referred to messages between Giggs and Ms Greville at the time of the trip to London, describing them as ‘good natured’ and ‘good humoured’ the day after the alleged incident on December 6.

On the following day, Ms Greville sent a message to Giggs while on a train to a wedding in Shrewsbury, saying ‘OMG dying’ because she had a hangover. Giggs replied to her saying: ‘Ropey’.

The barrister pointed out that there was nothing to suggest that she had been violently assaulted the day before.

Ms Greville said: ‘No, because he made me feel like it was my fault.’

The court heard Giggs travelled from London to Manchester and he picked Ms Greville up from Shrewsbury the next day

She messaged him to say: ‘Thank you for coming to get me, it’s very lovely of you.’ She said: ‘I needed to be at a work thing with him in Manchester and there were no trains from Shrewsbury.’

Asked why Giggs came to collect her when he could have got a taxi, she said: ‘He felt guilty about what he had done the night before.’

The barrister said: ‘This was the day after you claim he violently assaulted you and reading these messages we don’t even get a hint of that.’

Ms Greville said: ‘He made me feel like it was his fault, he made me feel insecure and made me feel I couldn’t have a problem with what happened because it was my fault.’

Jurors also heard that Ms Greville had described living with the defendant during the first Covid-19 lockdown from March 2020 as ‘utter hell’.

The pair moved in together for the first time after Giggs asked her to live with him at his property in Worsley, Greater Manchester, she said.

Mr Daw asked: ‘Could you have gone to your parents or someone else? Ms Greville replied: ‘Yes.’

Mr Daw said: ‘Was one of the reasons you didn’t because actually you wanted to spend time with Ryan in his rather larger house?’

The witness said: ‘I wanted to stay with Ryan, not because of his house but because we had just started the relationship again.’

Mr Daw replied: ‘Can I suggest that you would not have done that if he had been a serial and violent abuser?’

Ms Greville said: ‘It was a cycle of abuse that made me feel insecure. I kept going back, he kept promising the world.

‘He made me believe that he would not do it again and, stupidly, I went back. I am hugely ashamed of that but I did.’

Mr Daw played two videos to the jury of seven women and five men which showed the couple in lockdown – one in which they exercised together in the garden and the other rapping along to 50 Cent’s In Da Club.

Mr Daw put it to Ms Greville that lockdown was obviously hard but the pair were doing normal things ‘much of the time’ and having fun.

Ms Greville said: ‘It was not all fun. It doesn’t mean he was being nice to me all the time. At the start of lockdown it was fine but it got progressively worse.’

During lockdown the couple also took part in online family quizzes, wine tasting on Zoom and had Michelin-starred chefs bring in food, the court heard.

But Ms Greville said there were arguments, including one involving loading the dishwasher. She told the court: ‘He was making me feel like I was stupid, the way I was loading it. I had to do it exactly the way he wanted to do it. That’s just one example of many.’

Mr Daw said: ‘You suggest in your various accounts that lockdown was a period of living hell.’

Ms Greville replied: ‘I felt like I was losing my mind. I was having panic attacks. It was a horrific time for me.’

The court also heard how Ms Greville branded Giggs ‘disgusting’ as she told him ‘I actually hate you’ and ‘I will find someone a million times better’ in a rant-filled message after she found out about him cheating on her.

Ms Greville went through his phone after he returned home drunk and found he had been messaging other women.

Giggs had come home, vomited in the sink and then passed out in bed, she recounted earlier in her evidence.

She told the court that she also checked his iPad and says she found more evidence of him cheating on her.

Ms Greville admitted it was ‘common’ for Giggs to get attention from women.

Ms Greville also denied she had lied ‘prolifically’ to the police in her various accounts.

Mr Daw said to the witness: ‘Throughout your evidence, from start to finish, on the issue of controlling and coercive behaviour you have twisted the truth very carefully to try to implicate him in crimes he did not commit.’ Ms Greville replied: ‘I have told the truth.’ 

Mr Daw also asked Ms Greville where Giggs allegedly headbutted her during the alleged assault in November 2020.

She indicated to the court that it was her upper lip, between her lip and nose.

She said she had no idea which part of his head he used ‘because I didn’t see, because it was right in my face’.

Mr Daw said: ‘It wasn’t a headbutt, was it?’

Ms Greville replied: ‘Of course it was a headbutt.’ Mr Daw said: ‘It was two faces coming together in a very minor form of contact.’

She said: ‘That suggestion is completely false. What happened is he came at me with his arms on my shoulders, looked me straight in the eyes and headbutted me in my lip.’

Yesterday, Mr Daw QC, asked why Ms Greville had not told her friend and business partner Elsa Roodt about an alleged assault in Dubai in 2017 when asked.

Ms Greville, sat behind a curtain shielded from Giggs and the public gallery, said: ‘I was embarrassed and I didn’t want to admit it.’

Mr Daw said: ‘It was a bruise caused by rough sex that the two of you enjoyed a lot.’  Ms Greville replied: ‘That bruise was not caused by rough sex.’

The court also heard how a few days after the alleged Dubai incident Ms Greville messaged a photograph of herself to Giggs.

The message read: ‘Tan is coming along nicely. My sex bruise is coming along nicely too!!’

Mr Daw added: ‘The truth of it is you did from time to time get bruises from sex.’ Ms Greville said: ‘Not that I recall.’

Confirming that she had not reported the alleged assault to police in Dubai, she said: ‘No, I didn’t admit to the assault because I was embarrassed but I told Elsa we had argued. 

‘I was later to work, visibly shaken and very upset which was evident that day. I tried to play down the bruising on my arm.’

Digging deeper into the pair’s sex life, Mr Daw also told the court that Giggs had purchased and shared images of sex toys, including a paddle and handcuffs from lingerie brand Agent Provocateur.

Mr Daw said his client had bought the sex toys after Ms Greville had asked him to be ‘more assertive’ in the bedroom.

In a series of messages, read out in court by Mr Daw, Ms Greville messaged: ‘I want you, rough.’

Mr Giggs messaged: ‘Do you? I’m scared of hurting you. Ms Greville replied: ‘I want it to hurt, not in a weird way. I want you to surprise and shock me.’

Mr Giggs messaged: ‘It’s a fine line.’ Ms Greville replied: ‘Well we’ll just have to have fun finding that line then.’

The court heard Giggs then sent a picture of a paddle from Agent Provocateur. Ms Greville messaged: ‘What is that?’ Mr Giggs replied: ‘You asked me to be a bit more assertive.’

Ms Greville then sent: ‘When are we using this?’ prompting Mr Giggs to reply: ‘After I use these badboys,’ sharing a picture of handcuffs.

Ms Greville then replied: ‘They’re amazing… Oh my god this is brilliant.’

Questioning the witness, Mr Daw said: ‘You’re saying you didn’t receive any kind of bruise from sex. Ms Greville said: ‘I said not that I recall. We never used that paddle, not once.

Mr Daw said: ‘The sex bruise was a joke, not a rouse. It was something you were taking pleasure in.’ Ms Greville said: ‘I was joking about it being a sex bruise, I was making light of telling Elsa it was a sex bruise which was wrong.’

Jurors had previously heard how Ms Greville had received the message with a video clip, which she initially believed was a sex tape and that she feared the footballer would forward to her work WhatsApp group.

However the court heard the video attachment, which she did not open, was a clip of Ms Greville and another woman at a Christmas party dancing to Wham! hit ‘Last Christmas’.

The video shows the women dressed in black with Santa hats on dancing to a Christmas song, followed by two men beat boxing. 

Referring to the fact that Ms Greville said she deleted the attachment without viewing it, the barrister said: ‘You said it was ‘One of our videos we had done’, you meant a sexual video.’

Ms Greville said: ‘That’s what I thought it was but I didn’t view it.’

The barrister said: ‘You made a number of private videos and they were obviously not to be shared with other people and were not shared with other people. 

‘You said he was going to send the video to the group. Was he blackmailing you by sending a sexual video to the WhatsApp group?

The barrister told her: ‘You knew full well it wasn’t a sexual video, because you looked at it.’ Ms Greville said: ‘I don’t recall watching it.’

Ms Greville said she later handed her laptop over to police for them to look for it.

Earlier in the trial, Ms Greville batted off suggestions from the footballer’s legal team that was a ‘gold digger’, after it was revealed she told a friend she was ‘not going to walk away’ from their ‘violent’ relationship ‘with nothing’.

She told jurors in the domestic assault trial that she was initially attracted to Giggs ‘not because of his money and not because he was a footballer’ but because he was ‘very inspiring’.

In cross examination by the former Manchester United star’s lawyer, Mr Daw QC, Ms Greville was asked: ‘Did you tell your friend you weren’t going to walk away from Mr Giggs with nothing?’

Ms Greville confirmed: ‘Yes.’ However the PR executive said she was not after compensation from the former Wales midfielder. Asked if she was seeking damages from the 48-year-old, she said: ‘Absolutely not.’ 

Ms Greville told the court how she and Giggs were both still married when the affair started, but, ‘if anything was put off by the fact that he was a footballer.’

The barrister asked her: ‘Did Ryan’s public profile and wealth have anything to do with your interest in him?

Ms Greville said: ‘He was very inspiring, I looked up to him in terms of a business sense, who had worked hard…’ 

‘He was more attractive because he was successful and had done well for himself, not because of his money and not because he was a footballer, if anything that put me off, him being a footballer.’

She admitted to having sex with the former Manchester United star two months before leaving her husband, who she alleged in court was ‘controlling’.

Ms Greville claimed initially her and Giggs’ relationship had been ‘amazing’, but had then deteriorated before becoming ‘relentlessly awful’ while they lived together during the Covid pandemic.

She said Giggs preyed on her ‘vulnerability’ and damaged relations with her friends and family and that she became ‘a slave to his every need and every demand’.

Ms Greville told the court Giggs would sometimes show her affection but was ‘aggressive’ a lot of the time and would sometimes use violence against her.

‘He damaged relationships with my friends and isolated me from certain people. He had a negative impact on relations with my family. ‘ 

Asked about her claims of violence against her, Ms Greville, who earlier in the trial told the court she is now the mother of 12-week baby with her new partner, said: ‘It wasn’t consistent violence, he wasn’t regularly violent but there were times in our relationship when he was violent.’

She was also asked if she had looked up the term coercive control during the pair’s relationship and said: ‘I’m really into psychology when Ryan was making me feel like I was going crazy, paranoid, I googled how I was feeling. The thing that came up was ‘narcissistic personality disorder’ and what I was experiencing was exactly the same as that. ‘

Giggs was having ‘full-on’ affairs with eight other women during his ‘toxic’ six-year on-off relationship with Ms Greville, the court heard on Tuesday.

The PR executive made the discovery after accessing the football star’s iPad having ‘made it my mission to find out the truth’ about his other lovers, she told police.

She said how, during what she called a ‘cycle of abuse’, Giggs ‘dragged’ her out of the bedroom of a five-star hotel – leaving her naked in the corridor – after she accused him of ‘manically’ flirting with other women during a night out.

He then threw a bag containing her laptop at her head, giving her a ‘massive lump’, Manchester Crown Court heard.

When she attempted to leave him over his alleged flings and ‘controlling’ behaviour, Giggs would ‘bombard’ her with up to 50 messages an hour and threatened to ruin her career, she claimed.

Eventually she got into his iPad as she ‘needed to know the truth’ – and the ‘reality’ of his cheating was ‘way worse than I could imagine’, she said.

Giggs stood down in June as manager of the Wales national team following his arrest. 

The court heard that Ms Greville was employed by PR firm Tangerine for part of the alleged period of controlling behaviour and also by Giggs’ own company, GG Hospitality.

Giggs’ legal counsel, Chris Daw QC, said his client encouraged her career ambitions and went on to introduce most of her clients when she set up her business herself and earned a six-figure salary.

He said Ms Greville was ‘always completely financially independent’ and was free to travel and see her friends.

Giggs stood down in June as manager of the Wales national team following a period of leave since November 2020.

During his time at Old Trafford, Manchester United won 13 Premier League titles, two Champions League trophies, four FA Cups and three League Cups.

He won 64 caps for Wales and is co-owner of League Two side Salford City.

Giggs met Ms Greville in 2013 after she helped promote his Hotel Football venue, launched with ex-United teammate Gary Neville.

He divorced his wife Stacey in December 2017.  Giggs found love again with lingerie model, Zara Charles, 33, who has ‘supported’ him through the charges.