Man Utd icon ‘headbutted’ ex-partner amid ‘litany of abuse’ – lawyers
Former Manchester United and Wales footballer Ryan Giggs subjected his former girlfriend Kate Greville to "systematic and at times violent abuse," jurors at his assault trial were told on Monday.
Over a near three-year relationship, Giggs, 48, carried out a "litany" of physical and psychological abuse and "entirely lost his self-control" when he allegedly attacked Kate Greville and then elbowed her sister in the jaw as they argued about Giggs' alleged infidelity, it was also claimed.
This incident occurred at their former home in Worsley, Greater Manchester, on November 1 in 2020 where Giggs is said to have "deliberately head-butted" Greville and elbowed her sister Emma in the jaw as she tried to stop them from "grappling together down on the floor".
In another ugly alleged skirmish at London's luxury Stafford Hotel, Giggs is said to have kicked Greville in the back and then threw her "out of the hotel bedroom naked" followed by her bag when she accused him of flirting with other women.
The trial being held at Minshull Street crown court in Manchester also heard details of threatening and expletive-laden messages that Giggs sent his ex-partner.
In one email, after Greville blocked Giggs on social media, he begged: "Please unblock me. All this blocking malarkey is poo. Promise no more naked piccies."
This was possibly a reference to behavior Peter Wright QC, prosecuting, described when he explained how Greville and Giggs would often argue about affairs he was allegedly having in their "toxic" relationship.
According to Wright, Giggs would "gaslight" Greville into doubting herself and then threaten to send images "of a personal nature" of the 36-year-old to her friends unless she did what he said.
The prosecuting QC told jurors that though Giggs was "idolized" by football fans, he possessed a "much uglier and more sinister side to his character" behind closed doors in his private life, which "involved a litany of abuse, both physical and psychological, of a woman who he professed to love".
Giggs carried out "systematic and at times violent abuse," "while all the time preying on [Greville's] vulnerabilities for his own gratification", Wright said, with another email showing Giggs claiming that he was scaring himself "because I could do anything."
Giggs accused Greville of lying in the correspondence and said: "Only an evil horrible c**t does that. Absolutely astonishing.
"Now I look an utter twat after telling three of my friends I’m going to Scotland at the weekend," he added.
Giggs denies the charges leveled against him for using controlling and coercive behavior against Greville in their relationship, which spanned from August 2017 and November 2020.
Pleading not guilty to all counts, he has also been charged with assaulting Greville, causing her actual bodily harm, and carrying out a common assault on her younger sister Emma at their home on November 1, 2020.
Defending Giggs, his barrister Chris Daw QC noted that Giggs "fully accepts that his behavior, on a moral level, was far from perfect" and that the former Wales manager "didn’t always handle their arguments in the best possible way."
Claiming that the accusations were built on "distortion, exaggeration, and lies", however, Daw added that his client denied using coercive and controlling behavior and also assaulting Greville and her sister Emma.
Daw likened their finished romance to comparable "dysfunctional relationships that are destined to fail", and said that jurors might come to the conclusion that Giggs and Greville had conducted themselves "like squabbling children, or teenagers, at best".
Heard before Judge Hilary Manley, Giggs' trial is expected to last two weeks.
