By Lucy Caulkett-
Ryan Giggs assaulted his then girlfriend, using a lot of force, before turning to her younger sister and saying: “I’ll head-butt you next,” a court has heard.
The trial on the sixth day of hearings in the case of the former Manchester United star’s assault trial, heard that the ex footballer also threatened to headbutt the sister of his girlfriend.
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The 48 year old former footballing ace is accused of assaulting Kate Greville, 38, and her younger sister at his home in Worsley, north-west Manchester, on November 1, 2020, with a further charge relating to controlling and coercive behaviour towards Kate Greville between 2017 and November 2020. He denies all charges.
Giggs, of Worsley, denies assault occasioning actual bodily harm of Ms Greville, assault by beating of her sister Emma Greville and a count of controlling and coercive behaviour.
During Emma Greville’s evidence on Monday, she described how she had been at Giggs’ house on November 1, 2020 while the defendant and Kate Greville went out for a meal.
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During that time, it was heard Kate Greville sent a message to her sister saying ‘Pack my stuff in the car, we are leaving tonight’, before returning to the home without Giggs.
Describing the defendant appearing at the address around 20 minutes later, Emma Greville said: ‘He was not happy… He wasn’t smiling, was in a visible mood… He was also very drunk… (Kate) was upset, still upset’
Giving evidence, Emma Greville went on to describe how an argument broke out over Kate Greville’s phone, which the witness said Giggs had in his back pocket.
Lots Of Force
Describing the moment of the alleged assault, Emma Greville said: “At that moment he put both hands on Kate’s shoulders and with lots of force used his head to headbutt her in her lip.
Giggs, who won 64 caps for Wales and 13 Premier League titles, two Champions League trophies, four FA Cups and three League Cups during his time at Manchester United. He is also a co-owner of League Two side Salford City and resigned from his role as Wales manager last month, citing the trial as a distraction as the national team prepares for its first
Emma Greville, the sister of Giggs’s former girlfriend Kate Greville, told jurors he was “extremely angry” during an altercation at his home on 1 November 2020. She said the former footballer became angry as he tried to retrieve a mobile phone from her sister’s hand, leading to a “scuffle” on the floor.
She described how she tried to pull Giggs away from her sister when he stood up and his elbow struck her in the face in “a ‘get off me’ manner”. The court heard Giggs then went “from annoyed to extremely angry” and head-butted Kate Greville in the face.
The witness said: “He put both hands on Kate’s shoulders and with lots of force used his head to head-butt her in her lip. Afterwards he told me it was my fault he had head-butt Kate and turned to me and said: ‘I’ll head-butt you next.’”
Emma Greville said her sister “fell to the ground screaming, covering her face” while Giggs walked away towards the kitchen.
Asked by the prosecutor, Peter Wright QC, how she felt when the former Manchester United player threatened to head-butt her, she said: “I felt fear as he had just head-butt Kate so why would he not do the same to me?”
Kate Greville, who had been in an on-off relationship with Giggs for about six years at this point, told her sister to call the police, the court heard. Jurors were told Giggs pleaded with the witness not to call the police and was saying: “Think about my daughter, think about my career.”
“He was still trying to talk to me while I was on the phone to police – to think about him and also think about Kate and her career … to persuade us not to call the police because he said it would be in all the newspapers,” she said.
The trial at Manchester crown court also heard from Kate Greville’s employer, Elsa Roodt, who said her company had to block Giggs’s emails because his then partner “couldn’t do her work”.
Appearing via videolink from Dubai, Roodt said: “At one stage, early on in her employment, we had to call our internet provider to block Ryan Giggs’ email. It was intense and Kate couldn’t do her work. It was interfering with her work and we had no other option than to try and block his email.”
Roodt said that when she started working for the company Greville was “very bubbly, very happy”, but described a noticeable difference in her over time. She told the court that at one point Greville “started to be very distracted” and seemed “a lot more worried”, becoming preoccupied with answering her phone and “being available at all times”.
Roodt was asked by Wright about seeing Greville the day after an incident with Giggs at the Westin hotel in 2017. She said Greville had bruises on her arm and “had been crying” and told her the pair had had an argument in the hotel room.
“I asked her how she got the bruise and she said after the argument they had ended up having quite rough sex and the bruises were from that,” Roodt said.
She also described seeing Greville with bruises on her arm after an incident in February 2020.
Roodt said: “She said Ryan had got physical with her the night before in the hotel room.”
Greville was currently a managing partner in the UK branch of Roodt’s business, the court was told.
Giggs, 48, denies using controlling and coercive behaviour against Kate Greville and assaulting her, causing actual bodily harm, and denies the common assault of Emma Greville.
Tears
The court also heard that Ryan Giggs had “tears in his eyes” when he knocked on his neighbour’s door wearing his slippers on the night he allegedly headbutted his ex-girlfriend, a court has heard.
Linda Chung said the former Manchester United star asked her to call the police when he turned up at her property on 1 November 2020, and when he revealed Kate Greville had accused him of cheating, she told him: “Oh Ryan, not this again.”
Giving evidence on the sixth day of the trial, Mrs Chung – who described Giggs as a “friend” as well as a neighbour – said she heard “loud banging” on her door on the night of the alleged assaults.
She told the jury that Giggs asked for help and “said words to the effect that Kate had been accusing him of seeing other women and he wanted me to go over and sort her out”.
Mrs Chung said her initial remark to him was “‘Oh Ryan, not this again”, in response to the cheating claims.
She then told the footballer: “I can’t help because I don’t know what’s happened”, the court heard.
Mrs Chung said Giggs asked her: “Can you call the police? She’s got my phone. She won’t leave.”
The neighbour told the court she refused to call the police and instead offered to let Giggs use her phone but he looked at her and “didn’t say anything”.
Mrs Chung added that Giggs “looked in distress” so she offered to let him enter her property or suggested that he lock himself in one of his bedrooms.
“I could feel my heart rate pounding,” she said.
“What can I do to help him without fuelling the situation?”
Giggs then walked away from Mrs Chung’s property towards his house, the court heard.
In a statement to police, which was read to the court, Mrs Chung said Giggs had “tears in his eyes” during their conversation.
She told the court: “He was at my door virtually crying.
“He never went outside with his slippers on.
“I was thinking it must be urgent. He’s come out of the house in the rain in his slippers.”Giving evidence from behind a screen in court, Ms Greville said she heard “shouting, arguing and scuffling around” from another room in Giggs’s property when she discovered the footballer lying on top of her sister trying to grab her phone.
“From her facial expressions I could tell she was in pain,” Ms Greville said.
“Kate said ‘get him off me’ so I put both my arms around his waist and as Kate was using her legs to push him off I was pulling.
“As I was pulling him up he was standing upright in the doorway. He turned to his right and his elbow touched my jaw and as a result I let go. Not in a gentle manner, it was a ‘get off me’ manner.”
Ms Greville said she then saw Kate in the kitchen as her sister tried to retrieve her phone from Giggs’s back pocket.
She told the court: “I said to Ryan ‘just give her phone back and then we will go’.
“I also said to him ‘I saw you on top of her, grab her phone so I know you have her phone’.
“He called me ‘a f****** liar’. Kate said to Ryan ‘See, I have proof’.
“He had gone from annoyed to extremely angry.
“He put both his hands on Kate’s shoulders and with lots of force used his head to headbutt her in the lip.
“She fell to the ground screaming and covering her face.
“Afterwards he told me it was my fault he had headbutted Kate and turned to me and said ‘I will headbutt you next’.
“I felt fear because he had headbutted Kate so why would he not do the same to me.”
Meanwhile, Kate Greville’s boss told the court that her company had to block Giggs’s “intense” emails.
Giving evidence via a video link from Dubai, Elsa Roodt said her PR business had “no other option” but to take the action because Ms Greville “couldn’t do her work”.
Ms Roodt told the court she asked Ms Greville about bruising on her arm in Dubai in 2017 and she said it was from “rough sex”.
The witness also described seeing Ms Greville with bruises on her arm after an incident in February 2020.
Ms Roodt said: “She said Ryan had got physical with her the night before in the hotel room.”
The court heard Ms Greville is currently a managing partner in the UK branch of Ms Roodt’s business.
The trial at Manchester Crown Court was adjourned until Tuesday.
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