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By James Tozer for the Daily Mail
When her claim to have been headbutted by Ryan Giggs first caused a sensation throughout the world, Kate Greville was not shy to put herself centre stage.
Just two weeks later, she helped a newspaper photographer take what was billed as the first picture of her bruised lip as she walked the ex-couple's dog down a country lane.
But the three days she spent in the witness box at Manchester Crown Court last August were conspicuous by her avoiding the public glare.
On that occasion, Miss Greville dodged TV cameras and photographers outside the building, while in court she was shielded throughout from Giggs, the media and the public by a curtain.
While it meant her facial expressions could not be judged by reporters covering the case as Giggs' barrister attempted to rip her account to shreds, she maintained her version of events under significant pressure.
Nevertheless Chris Daw KC's forensic cross-examination cast key elements of what she described as the 'cycle of abuse' she suffered at Giggs' hands in a very different light.
ALLEGED 'PREGNANCY PLOT'
Mr Daw highlighted a message she sent a friend in October 2020 – just weeks before the alleged headbutt – that she was 'not walking away with nothing'.
It came after she told friends she was 'planning my attack' after learning Giggs had been cheating on her with eight other women.
'Your plan was to get pregnant by Mr Giggs,' he asked her.
Miss Greville replied 'absolutely not', saying she had meant she didn't want to walk away without their golden retriever puppy, Mac.
Mr Daw read out a message in which she asked Giggs about buying a £1,000 pair of Prada boots from Harrods.
He asked whether she had 'got very used to the lifestyle you enjoyed with Mr Giggs'.
But Miss Greville responded that she could 'still provide for myself' as a single woman even though she would not be entitled to any financial support as they weren't married.
She was then asked about a message she sent Giggs that month telling him she had had a smear test and 'I had cancerous cells'.
Giggs responded: 'Oh my God. How did you not tell me?'
The court heard Miss Greville told him it was 'something I want to deal with on my own'.
Mr Daw suggested: 'The truth is you were going to have your contraceptive out.'
'I was getting my coil out and I also wanted a STD test,' Miss Greville replied.
She said she 'completely' regretted making up the cancer scare 'lie', but insisted 'I needed to say something to get him off my back and for him to leave me alone.'
Under questioning, she admitted there had been 'no medical emergency' which necessitated the removal of the coil, but said it '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,' she added
Mr Daw 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.'
Miss Greville said: 'I disagree.'
He read out a text exchange in which Miss Greville asked Giggs if an eight-mile jog he was planning was to 'burn off that cheesecake'.
Giggs replied that he had done two work-outs, one at 8am that day and one the night before.
Mr Daw suggested this was a reference to their having had sex 'twice in 24 hours'.
But she retorted that it 'absolutely wasn't'.
Mr Daw asked her: 'If you had got pregnant with Mr Giggs, you would have anticipated a significant amount of support for a long period of time?
'You would have been tied together pretty much forever.'
But she replied: 'I know, and I would never have done that because that's not what I wanted.'
During her cross-examination, Miss Greville revealed she'd had a baby with her unnamed new partner 12 weeks earlier.
STAGED PHOTO
Miss Greville admitted speaking to a friend about being paid £5,000 for allowing a photographer for to take pictures of her injured lip days after allegedly being headbutted by Giggs.
But she said she never received any cash for the resulting article – and denied using make-up to 'enhance' the wound.
The photograph of her walking their dog Mac appeared in The Sun on November 16, 2020 – four days before she was interviewed by police about her allegations.
It was headlined: 'Living hell. Ryan Giggs's ex spotted with a bruised lip in first outing since Wales manager's assault arrest'.
Mr Daw highlighted a message exchange with her flatmate, Courtney, on November 10.
Miss Greville wrote: 'We can set up a pic and get money for both of us. What do you think?'
Courtney replied: 'I think yes.'
Miss Greville wrote back: 'We could get 5K.'
The friend replied: 'And kit our new apartment out.'
Miss Greville replied that she was thinking 'more to cover my legal costs' followed by a laughing emoji.
Courtney messaged to say 'Let's f****** do it', adding: 'A sofa like Molly-Mae's would be like 10K.'
'Need to sell some more stories,' Miss Greville responded.
Mr Daw asked if she was 'joking about making money in selling stories to newspapers'.
Questioned on whether she agreed 'this is you setting up a newspaper article for money about this case', Miss Greville replied: 'It was a picture.'
The court heard she later sent a link of the article to Courtney, adding it made her look 'awful but me looking rough makes it look less staged'.
'But it was staged, wasn't it?' Mr Daw asked.
'Yes, I did set it up,' she replied.
He put it to her that she was 'trying to get the public to turn on Mr Giggs'.
However Miss Greville said her intention had been to gain 'control of that first photograph' so that paparazzi would stop 'harassing me'.
Asked by Mr Daw if she 'enhanced' the lip injury with make-up 'to make it much worse than it was', she replied: 'No.'
But she admitted having filler in her lips shortly before the alleged attack, saying it made them more 'tender'.
Later under re-examination by prosecutor Peter Wright QC, Miss Greville said she was not paid for the image in the end, and never asked for any payment.
SEX BRUISES
Asked about a bust-up in a Dubai hotel room while they were on holiday in September 2017, Miss Greville agreed she told a colleague the following day that a bruise on her wrist had been caused by 'rough sex'.
But she insisted that had been a false cover story, telling jurors she had been 'embarrassed' and 'didn't want to admit' that it had been sustained in an assault by Giggs.
Under cross-examination, she admitted sending him a message from the beach days later showing off her tan after he flew home – and adding: 'My sex bruise is coming out nicely too!!'
But she insisted the comment was her way of 'making light' of the fact he had attacked her.
Mr Daw suggested to her that 'you did from time to time get bruises from sex.'
'Not that I recall,' she answered.
Mr Daw then read out an exchange of messages from them a few weeks later in which she wrote: 'I want you so badly rough.'
Giggs replied that 'I'm scared of hurting you', to which Miss Greville responded: 'I want it to hurt a little.'
When the former Wales manager replied that it was 'a fine line,' Miss Greville wrote: 'We will just have to have fun finding that line then.'
Giggs sent a photograph of a sex toy - a paddle - in an Agent Provocateur box, to which she asked: 'What's that?'
When he replied that she had 'asked me to be a bit more assertive, she messaged back: 'I'm intrigued.
'When are you using this?'
Miss Greville agreed there were 'dozens' of 'incredibly affectionate' messages between the pair during a five-day period after the alleged Dubai incident.
In one she referred to him as 'my gorgeous man' and said she'd 'had the best time as always'.
Miss Greville claimed this was her way of 'overcompensating' after Giggs made her feel his outbursts were 'my fault'.
Mr Daw said it was his client's case that all he had done was take her hand off his when he was putting her suitcase into the corridor following the row.
ALLEGED MANIPULATION
Asking whether it was her case that Giggs had been 'manipulating' her into a relationship, Mr Daw highlighted a 'provocative' photograph of herself in her gym gear which she had sent him shortly after they first met.
In a message referencing the photo years later, jurors were told Miss Greville wrote: 'I knew exactly what I was doing.'
In response, she told jurors she meant she knew he was 'interested' in her.
LOST PHONE
Jurors were told that police had wanted Miss Greville to hand over her phone as part of their investigations so her messages could be examined, only for her to say she had dropped it in a river.
'I tried to rescue my dog from the water and it
