Ed Sheeran appears in court accused of ripping off 'Oh Why' song to create his hit 'Shape of You'

Ed Sheeran has denied he "borrows" ideas from unknown songwriters without acknowledgement, the High Court has heard.

On Friday, Andrew Sutcliffe QC, for two songwriters who have accused Mr Sheeran of infringing their copyright, said Mr Sheeran "borrows ideas and throws them into his songs, sometimes he will acknowledge it but sometimes he won't".

Sheeran is fighting a claim he copied parts of his 2017 hit Shape Of You from two songwriters, Sami Chokri and Ross O'Donoghue.

They say Sheeran's track infringes 'particular lines and phrases' from their song, Oh Why.

The barrister alleged the acknowledgement depended on how famous the other artist was, adding the two songwriters "are not Shaggy, Coldplay, Rihanna or Jay-Z, if they were they would have been treated in a very different way".

At the start of his evidence on Monday, Ian Mill QC, for Mr Sheeran, asked: "Do you accept that you behave or have behaved in that way?"

Sheeran said "no", before adding: "The examples he has been using are obviously famous artists, two of them are people I've made songs with."

He continued that "if Mr Sutcliffe would have done his research", he would have known there were "lots" of unknown artists he had cleared parts of songs with.

The Suffolk megastar described his songwriting process in the High Court trial, denying he had premeditated ideas.

He told the court: "As I hear a beat, I hear a song and melody comes out."

Cross - examining, Mr Sutcliffe argued: "The evidence is overwhelming that at the time of writing Shape of You, your songwriting process involved collecting ideas."

Mr Sheeran replied: "You say it's overwhelming, I don't agree with that."

He later said: "I write a lot of songs and if I haven't written a song within two hours, I see it as a failure."

Last week, the court was played 'Oh Why' and 'Shape of You.'

The trial is expected to last up to three weeks.