Champions League winner Ryan Giggs pleads not guilty to abusing, headbutting and controlling ex-girlfriend over three-year period

Manchester United legend Ryan Giggs has pleaded not guilty to abusing and controlling his ex-girlfriend during their three-year relationship, as a court heard how the two-time Champions League winner allegedly headbutted her.

The Wales manager, 47, responded to the allegations at Manchester Magistrates Court, where he was escorted by a string of security guards.

Speaking only to confirm his name, address and enter his not guilty plea, Giggs is accused of causing actual bodily harm to Kate Greville, 36, at his residence in Worsley, Greater Manchester. 

He faces additional charges of engaging in coercive or controlling behavior against the PR Executive over a period of three-years. It has been clamed that during that time – between December 2017 to November 2020 – the former midfielder aimed "harassment, humiliation, degradation and abuse" at Greville.

Giggs is accused of common assault against Greville's younger sister at his home as part of a bombshell development that has shocked British football. 

Prosecuting him, Andrea Griffiths said that Giggs "isolated" Greville from friends and colleagues while subjecting her to "degrading treatment".

The alleged treatment, spanning "a very long period of time", Griffiths said, resulted in Giggs attacking Greville after a night out, with police finally called to the Class of '92 graduate's $2.4 million mansion on November 1 last year after reports of a domestic disturbance.

Arrested and bailed pending further inquiries, Giggs is scheduled to appear at Manchester Crown Court on May 26.

Carrying a maximum sentence of five years behind bars, coercive or controlling behavior became an offence in the UK in 2015 and is defined as an "act or a pattern of acts of assault, threats, humiliation and intimidation or other abuse that is used to harm, punish, or frighten a victim."

Greville first met Giggs when she was involved in PR for the Cardiff native's Hotel Football business venture, based opposite Old Trafford.

In April 2018, Giggs appointed her head of PR and communications for the hospitality management firm owned by Giggs and Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville, who played alongside him for the Red Devils during the 1990s and 2000s.

Involved in the Stock Exchange Hotel's launch in Manchester city centre, Greville also assumed a new PR consultancy post in July 2020 with a former employer.

Amid the furor, the Football Association of Wales has announced that caretaker manager Robert Page will lead Wales at the European Championship finals this summer following the charges lodged against Giggs.

In a statement, Giggs said: “I have full respect for the due process of law and understand the seriousness of the allegations."

“I will plead not guilty in court and look forward to clearing my name. 

“I would like to wish Robert Page, the coaching staff, the players and the supporters every success at the Euros this summer.”

A 13-time winner of the competition, reports have also claimed that Giggs was snubbed for inauguration into the Premier League Hall of Fame over the incident, with Arsenal icon Thierry Henry preferred instead.

This led to him becoming "shocked" and "livid", according to one account in the British press.

After marrying long-term partner Stacey Cooke in 2007, it emerged in 2011 that Giggs had conducted an eight-year affair with brother Rhodri's wife, Natasha. 

Members of Giggs' family turned their backs on him as a result, and when he was appointed Wales boss in 2011, Giggs' father Danny admitted to being "ashamed" of his son over the affair, saying: "I can't even bring myself to use his name."