Giggs ‘not on trial for being a liar, cheat and no-good heartbreaker’
Lawyer quotes Aretha Franklin song
RYAN Giggs is not on trial for being a flirt or a serial love cheat, a jury was told yesterday.
The former Manchester United ace has denied headbutting his ex girlfriend Kate Greville during a row after she accused him of seeing other women.
In court last week, Giggs, 48, admitted he had never been faithful to a lover.
But Chris Daw QC, summing up the case for the defence at Manchester crown court, said: “He is not on trial for being flirtatious, for being an impulsive womaniser, for being an adulterer.
“He is not on trial for being a liar or a cheat, or as Aretha Franklin would say, he is not on trial for being a ‘no-good heartbreaker’.”
Giggs denies attacking PR executive Kate, 38, and assaulting her 26-year-old sister Emma during a bust-up at his home in Worsley, Gtr Manchester, on November 1, 2020.
He also denies using controlling and coercive behaviour towards Kate.
The jury heard the pair were addicted to sending messages and there were a total of 19,671 of them over their “five or six year” relationship.
Mr Daw said the prosecution had “cherry-picked a handful of horrible emails” to support its case.
He said Giggs and his ex were “compulsive if not addicted messagers” who sent tens of thousands of messages.
Mr Daw added: “Just imagine how long it would have taken to read everything that passed between them in a five-year period.”
But Peter Wright QC, prosecuting, said: “The messages in this case, all of them, when contextualised, tell their own sorry tale of emotional manipulation, physical excess and control and coercion.”
And he told the jury there were “two very different Ryan Giggs”.
He said: “The one who is exposed for
public consumption and the Ryan Giggs who exists on occasion behind closed doors.”
The prosecutor added: “This case is about abuse of power of a man over another human being. It’s actually a tale which is as old as the hills.
“It is about a man who thinks, or thought, he could do whatever he liked in respect of his treatment of Kate Greville and that he could get away with it because the sad history of this relationship revealed that his excesses were endured by her, excused and kept private.”
He continued: “But all that changed on the night of November 1 when the basis upon which he operated disintegrated before his very eyes and the public persona of Ryan Giggs was exposed to public scrutiny.
“When the woman he had controlled or coerced in their lengthy, fractious and volatile relationship had the courage to stand up to him.
“The reality is the truth has caught up with him and now it’s time. It’s time to pay the price.”
Mr Wright also praised the courage of the alleged victim.
He said: “Let’ s just consider what Kate Greville was prepared to do.
“She had the courage not only on the night but later in the crucible of the witness box to speak up.
“To reveal in all its deeply embarrassing detail what he had done and said to her in the period of their relationship.
“You may think that speaking up was, for her, cathartic. “Scheming? Manipulative? Devious? “Or a previously emotionally brittle vulnerable woman, previously malleable to this man, who had eventually reached her breaking point and was now empowered and able to speak out.”
The trial continues.
The truth has caught up with him. It’s time to pay the price
PETER WRIGHT QC ON AIMS OF PROSECUTION