Ryan Giggs sobs in court as he recounts night in prison cell

• Day 7 - Mr Giggs says his 'love cheat' reputation is justified
• Day 6 - Sister claims Mr Giggs threatened to headbutt her next

Ryan Giggs burst into tears in the witness box during his trial as he recalled spending a night in the cells.

At 2.30pm, Chris Daw QC, for the defence, asked his client where he spent the night on Nov 1 - the evening he is alleged to have headbutted his former girlfriend.

Pressed on what that was like, he held back tears and said: "It was the worst experience of my life," before sobbing in court.

Judge Hilary Manley offered the defendant a seat, but he declined. After around 30 seconds, Mr Giggs took a sip of water, composed himself and continued to give evidence.

He told the court he got “hardly any” sleep that night at Pendleton Police Station, in Salford, and spoke to a solicitor for the first time the next day.

Mr Giggs was cross-examined by prosecutor Peter Wright QC and, during an exchange, the former footballer admitted he “monitored” his ex-partner Kate Greville and that he was a cheat and a liar.

He also said he had sent "constant unwanted messages, making constant unwanted calls to her and her friends when she tried to break off the relationship” and “turning up unannounced at her home, workplace and gym”, when it was put to him by Mr Wright.

In a moment of levity on an otherwise tense day at Manchester Crown Court, the Manchester United great laughed when he was asked to outline arguments he had with Ms Greville over the dishwasher.

He explained that owing to people making breakfast at different times during lockdown, the machine would go through up to four cycles a day and that “sometimes the glasses or the tablespoons were the wrong way round”.

Mr Giggs told the court, gesturing turning glasses spoons over, he would have to reload the dishwasher and put it on again.

He added: "So, I would call a team meeting, and I would say to everyone, not just Kate: 'Can we please just put the tablespoons the right way round?'

Mr Daw QC asked Mr Giggs: "Did you call it a team meeting?"

Again, Mr Giggs laughed in the witness box and said: "Well, yes, after a time, I was just like: 'That’s enough now. I’m sick of doing the dishwasher 24-7.'"

Asked about the evening of Nov 1, Mr Giggs told the jury Ms Greville kicked him “six or seven times” after they fell over bags in the hallway during a tussle for a phone.

"Kate just proceeded to kick me in the head," he said. “As soon as we were on the floor, I was getting kicked in the head, and I was just protecting my head.”

In an act of “tit-for-tat stupidity” after she had hidden his device, the defendant said he took his former partner’s phone and put it in his pocket.

This led to Ms Greville attempting to reclaim her handset, he told the court, adding: “We went all the way around the [kitchen] island.

"Kate was just grabbing my wrist and wanting to get my hand out of my pocket."

Mr Daw QC then asked if there was "any physical contact" between the two of them.

Mr Giggs answered: "Yes... It got more and more aggressive, a sort of tug-of-war and we clashed heads."

Mr Giggs added that "it happened really quickly" and gesturing with his palm towards his face, he told the jury: "I felt, like, my lips against hers."

With the police on their way, Mr Giggs was asked: “Did you give any thought at the time to the implications of being accused of headbutting your girlfriend?”

He said he had, adding that he “was confused and scared because now there looks like a situation that... and what happened is completely different. And I was scared”.

The court was told how during Mr Giggs’s more than 1,000 matches as a professional footballer, he was only sent off once - for Wales - and that was for two bookable offences, as opposed to violent conduct.

But Mr Wright QC said there was a “world of difference” between Ryan Giggs the footballer and the Ryan Giggs the public never saw. Mr Giggs disagreed.

Mr Giggs admitted he was “prone to regretting things you have done in anger when you have recovered your composure”.

The prosecutor said that this was what caused the “expression of emotion” in the witness box, adding “that what was going through your mind when you were spending a night in the cells”. Mr Giggs again disagreed.

The court was taken to a series of emails from Mr Giggs to Ms Greville during a time in which they had split up promising they could get a dog, move in together or have a baby if they were to get back together.

When Ms Greville was not responding, Mr Giggs messaged her to say: “Stop being a baby and call me please… Otherwise I will stalk you like mad, and you know how good I am at that,” along with smiling emoji.

Mr Giggs denied a list of allegations put to him by the Crown, including that he was a narcissist, manipulator, was controlling, aggressive and violent.

He did admit he was a liar and a cheat.

In his final exchange with Mr Daw QC, Mr Giggs admitted he was “a man with many faults and flaws” but that those did not include “a propensity to commit violence towards women” nor “to control and coerce women”.