Giggs ‘head butted girlfriend’
Man United star subjected his lover to a litany of psychological and physical abuse, court told
FOOTBALL legend Ryan Giggs subjected his ex-girlfriend to a ‘litany’ of physical and psychological abuse before headbutting her in the face when she tried to leave him, a court heard yesterday.
The former Manchester United winger had skills which made him ‘a thing of beauty’ on the pitch – but behind closed doors there was ‘a much uglier and more sinister side to his character’, jurors were told by the prosecutor opening the case.
During a three-year relationship he is alleged to have subjected ex-girlfriend Kate Greville to a campaign of ‘control and coercion’ which created a ‘cycle of abuse’.
Giggs, 48, reacted to accusations of cheating with a torMiss rent of abusive messages ‘calculated to portray himself as the victim’, jurors were told.
He was accused of ‘gaslighting’ behaviour against the high-flying PR executive ‘calculated to erode any sense of self-worth’ and persuade her to rekindle their relationship.
Finally after more than three ‘turbulent’ years, Miss Greville decided to leave Giggs after learning he was again cheating on her, jurors at Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester heard.
While they were out together with friends at Manchester’s Stock Exchange Hotel on November 1, 2020, she put in place a ‘plan’ with her sister Emma – who was looking after the couple’s dog at his £1.7million mansion in Worsley – and left early.
‘She intended to make her departure before he got back from the hotel,’ prosecutor Peter Wright QC said.
‘The plan did not work.’ Instead, he told jurors, Giggs returned before she had left and a ‘heated argument’ erupted as the pair grappled over her mobile phone.
‘They grappled over her mobile’ ‘He read extracts from emails’
Greville’s sister was ‘deliberately elbowed’ in the jaw by Giggs as she attempted to intervene, Mr Wright said, before the argument spilled over into the kitchen.
‘At that stage, we say, the defendant entirely lost selfcontrol and he deliberately headbutted Kate, thereby causing swelling to her lips and bruising,’ Mr Wright said.
Emma Greville called police and Giggs was arrested.
The clean-shaven ex-footballer, who arrived at court dressed in a dark grey suit and striped tie, listened intently from the glass panelled dock in the Victorian courtroom as the case against him was outlined.
Jurors heard that the couple met in 2013 when Miss Greville was doing PR for some of Giggs’s businesses.
They began a secret relationship, jurors heard, but after media reports of the ‘affair’ in 2016, she learnt she was ‘not the only woman in his life’ and left him.
Miss Greville moved to Dubai to work in the Gulf state, but Giggs ‘followed’ her there aiming to win her back, and when she returned to Manchester the ‘turbulent’ relationship resumed.
By the summer of 2017, they were living together in a ‘settled relationship’ with periodic break-ups, Mr Wright said.
But over time his behaviour ‘became increasingly obsessive, controlling and coercive’, he added, and ‘on occasion physically abusive’.
This ‘emotional abuse’ was ‘calculated to erode any sense of self-worth’ or ‘independence of thought’, he added.
However it was also ‘interspersed’ with ‘acts of kindness or contrition, calculated to rekindle her affections’.
‘We say it was a deliberate course of conduct by him calculated to gaslight her into doubting herself in her instincts and wear down any resistance she may show to him or her behaviour to make her compliant,’
Mr Wright said. He read to jurors extracts from some of the ‘thousands’ of emails they exchanged during the relationship. One message from Giggs stated: ‘Please unblock me. All this blocking malarkey is poo. Promise, no more naked piccies.’
But in another entitled ‘LIES, LIES LIES’, Giggs told Miss Greville ‘I actually hate you for what you’ve done to me’. He added that he was ‘so f ****** mad right now and I am scaring myself because I could do anything’.
Mr Wright said these demonstrated ‘the subtle psychology of the gaslighter, as opposed to the loving acts of a partner built on mutual trust and respect’.
They shone a ‘shaft of light on the real Ryan Giggs who sits in the dock, not the public persona of Ryan Giggs the footballer’, he added.
Giggs is accused of using controlling and coercive
behaviour against Kate Greville between August 2017 and November 2020 during their ‘toxic’ relationship.
Allegations within the charge include that while they were staying at the Stafford Hotel in London, Giggs kicked her in the back and threw her out of the bedroom naked when she accused him of flirting with other women.
He is also alleged to have thrown her belongings out of the house on another occasion and threatened to send emails to her friends and her employers about their sexual relationship. Giggs also allegedly turned up unannounced at her home, workplace and gym when she tried to break up with him.
‘This was not an expression of love, this is obsessive behaviour by him,’ Mr Wright said.
Giggs is also charged with assaulting Kate Greville, causing her actual bodily harm, and of the common assault of her sister.
He has pleaded not guilty to all three charges.
Opening the prosecution case, Mr Wright told jurors that Giggs was ‘idolised by his adoring fans and supporters’.
‘On the pitch his skills were abundant and a thing of beauty.
‘Off the pitch, in the privacy of his own personal life at home or behind closed doors, we say the facts reveal a much uglier and more sinister side to his character. This was a private life that involved a litany of abuse, both physical and psychological, of a woman he professed to love.
‘A woman who, in reality, was – if the evidence is to be believed – treated in a way that cannot be excused or overlooked, by either an adoring public or the law.
‘This is a story of control and coercion of a woman who thought she was loved and respected; sadly the reality was very different. After years of turbulence, when the scales fell from her eyes, she realised she needed to remove herself from his sphere of influence.’
Delivering his own opening statement, Giggs’s barrister claimed while the pair behaved like ‘squabbling teenagers’ during their relationship, there were ‘lines he would never cross’.
Chris Daw QC told jurors Giggs ‘never once used unlawful violence’ against Miss Greville, ‘no matter how bad things got’.
Giggs stood down in June as manager of the Wales national team following his arrest.
The trial continues.