According to what was said in court, Ryan Giggs hit his ex-girlfriend in the head after three years of physical and mental abuse that was like a “litany.”
The jury was told that the 48-year-old former Manchester United and Wales footballer “lost all control” during a fight about his alleged adultery. Then he attacked Kate Greville, who was his girlfriend at the time, and hit her sister in the face with an elbow.
The jury was told that the retired player had hurt Greville, who was 36 at the time, “regularly and sometimes violently” for three years before the fight at their home in Worsley, Greater Manchester.
During the trial at Manchester Minshull Street crown court, details about the rude and dangerous messages Giggs sent to his ex-partner were made public. When Greville blocked Giggs on social media, he sent him an email that said: “Please let me in. This silly stuff about blocking is a waste of time. Promise not to put up any more naked pictures.
In another email, Greville was accused of telling “LIES LIES LIES.” The email said: “Only a mean, nasty cunt would do that. Amazingly impressive After telling three of my friends that I was going to Scotland for the weekend, I now look like a total idiot. I’m so screwed up right now that I’m afraid of myself, Giggs continued. I could accomplish anything.
Giggs denies the claims that between August 2017 and November 2020, he forced and controlled Greville.
He is also accused of beating up Greville and her younger sister Emma Greville at their home in Worsley on November 1, 2020, causing them serious injuries. He has said he is not guilty of each charge.
On the field, Giggs’ fans “idolize[d]” him, but Peter Wright QC, a lawyer for the prosecution, told the jury that Giggs had a “much uglier and more sinister side to his character” off the field. He claimed that the woman he claimed to love had been subjected to a great deal of physical and psychological abuse in his private life.
He said Giggs hurt the woman he said he loved “systematically and sometimes violently” and “constantly took advantage of her weaknesses for his own pleasure.”
Wright told the jury that Greville and Giggs had a “toxic” relationship and often fought about the alleged affairs that the former player was having.
The court was told that Giggs would react with “false displays of anger” and “gaslight” Greville into wondering what was going on. Wright told the jury that if the defendant didn’t do what he asked, he would send pictures of her to her friends that were “of a personal nature.”
The jury was told that he threw her and her things out of the house they were staying in after Greville asked him about another woman and after they got into an argument in a London hotel room.
The jury was told that Giggs “deliberately” hit Kate Greville in the head on November 1, 2020, during a “heated” argument at their house. Emma Greville, Greville’s sister, tried to stop the two from “grappling on the floor,” but he allegedly elbowed her in the face.
Giggs “fully recognises that his moral behaviour was far from perfect,” his lawyer Chris Daw QC said. He also said that Giggs “didn’t always handle their arguments in the best way possible.”
He went on to say that the defendant denies using force or control over Greville or her sister or hurting them physically. He said that the accusations were “twisted, blown out of proportion, and not true.”
Daw said that Giggs and Greville may have acted “like bickering adolescents or, at best, teenagers.” He compared their relationship to “dysfunctional relationships that are doomed to fail.”
The trial in front of Judge Hilary Manley is expected to last two weeks.
