An ex-girlfriend of Ryan Giggs has told his assault trial she was “a slave” to his demands as she denied that bruising on her body was caused by “rough sex”.
Kate Greville claimed the Manchester United star was regularly aggressive and at times violent after “luring” her into a relationship when they were both married to other people.
Giggs is standing trial accused of using controlling and coercive behaviour against Ms Greville between August 2017 and November 2020, as well as assaulting her and her sister Emma.
He denies the charges against him.
Read live updates from the trial as they happened
Giving evidence for a second day in the trial, Ms Greville said she believed her relationship with Giggs would be a “fairytale” but it became “relentlessly awful”.
During cross-examination, Giggs’s defence barrister Chris Daw QC asked Ms Greville about her remark that she was a “slave to his every need and every demand”.
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“That’s what it felt like,” she replied. “If Ryan said do something, I would do it.
“He made me feel like I had to do what he said, otherwise there were consequences.”
Ms Greville has previously told a jury about an alleged incident in a Dubai hotel room in September 2017 when she claims Giggs bruised her arm when he “dragged” her while she was naked.
The court heard on Wednesday that Ms Greville told a friend who had noticed the bruise that it was the result of “rough sex”.
Mr Daw said: “You didn’t say anything about it being an assault.”
Ms Greville replied: “No, because I was embarrassed and I didn’t want to admit it.”
The defence barrister said: “It was a bruise caused by rough sex that the two of you enjoyed a lot.”
Ms Greville responded: “That bruise was not caused by rough sex.”
Mr Daw suggested Ms Greville’s account of the incident in Dubai was “completely manufactured”.
“No,” she replied.
Mr Daw said: “I suggest there was no deliberate assault.”
Ms Greville responded: “No, he grabbed me by my wrist and caused bruising.”
Mr Daw said: “All he did was take your arm off his.”
Ms Greville replied: “No.”
Mr Daw suggested to Ms Greville that she was saying “a complete pack of lies”.
“But it isn’t a pack of lies,” she replied.
The jury heard an exchange of messages from September 2017 – after the alleged Dubai incident – in which Ms Greville wrote to Giggs: “I want you so badly rough.”
Giggs replied: “Do you? I’m scared of hurting you.”
Ms Greville responded: “I want it to hurt a little. Not in a weird way. I just want you to shock and surprise me.”
Giggs said: “It’s a fine line.”
Ms Greville responded: “We will just have to have fun finding that line then.”
On Tuesday, Ms Greville told a jury that Giggs grabbed her by the shoulders and headbutted her in November 2020 after she earlier confronted him about his serial cheating.
She said in the lead-up to the alleged assault, she had learned he had had “full-on relationships” with eight women while they were together.
She has accused Giggs of “gaslighting” her and on Wednesday a juror asked the judge for a definition of the term.
Prosecutor Peter Wright QC told the jury the term derives from a film called Gaslight and is defined as: “To manipulate a person by psychological means into questioning his or her own sanity.”
The trial before Judge Hilary Manley was adjourned until Thursday.
