Former Manchester United footballer Ryan Giggs arrives at Manchester Crown Court today where he is accused of controlling and coercive behaviour against ex-girlfriend Kate Greville
Ryan Giggs was today told ‘it’s time to pay the price’ by prosecutors as lawyers began summing up the case in his domestic assault trial.
Judge Hilary Manley earlier warned the jury to ‘put aside any feelings of sympathy’ when considering whether witnesses became distressed during their evidence over the last three weeks.
In his closing speech at Manchester Crown Court, prosecutor Peter Wright QC reiterated there were ‘two very different Ryan Giggs’.
He said: ‘The one who is exposed for public consumption and the Ryan Giggs who exists on occasion behind closed doors.’
Mr Wright invited the jury of seven women and five men to conclude the defendant is ‘not a thing of unalloyed beauty but when the mask slips’ is the person capable of the charges he faces.
The former Manchester United star, 48, is on trial over allegations he assaulted his ex-girlfriend Kate Greville, 38, causing her actual bodily harm, and of controlling or coercing her during their relationship between August 2017 and November 2020.
He also denies assaulting the PR executive’s 26-year-old sister, Emma, in the same incident at his home in Worsley, Greater Manchester, on November 1 2020.
Mr Wright said: ‘This case is about abuse of power of a man over another human being. It’s actually a tale which is as old as the hills.
‘It is about a man who thinks, or thought he could do whatever he liked in respect of his treatment of Kate Greville and that he could get away with it because the sad history of this relationship revealed that his excesses were endured by her, excused and kept private.
‘But all that changed on the night of November 1 when the basis upon which he operated disintegrated before his very eyes and the public persona of Ryan Giggs was exposed to public scrutiny.
‘When the woman he had controlled or coerced in their lengthy, fractious and volatile relationship had the courage to stand up to him.
‘When later his messages in all their ugly detail were exposed to a wider audience than that was intended and the intended target.’
The court last week heard some of the toe-curling messages Giggs (left today) sent Ms Greville (right) during their relationship
Giggs’ expressions of affection across more than 19,000 messages exchanged between the former couple, enough to fill 56 lever arch files, were ‘utterly hollow’.
Mr Wright said: ‘The messages in this case, all of them, when contextualised, tell their own sorry tale of emotional manipulation, physical excess and control and coercion.’
He went on: ‘The reality is the truth has caught up with him (Giggs) and now it’s time. It’s time to pay the price.
‘Let’s just consider what Kate Greville was prepared to do. She had the courage not only on the night but later in the crucible of the witness box to speak up. To reveal in all its deeply embarrassing detail what he had done and said to her in the period of their relationship.
‘You may think that speaking up was, for her, cathartic. The pent-up emotions of what he had said or done were to finally spill out.
‘Scheming? Manipulative? Devious? Or a previously emotionally brittle vulnerable woman, previously malleable to this man, who had eventually reached her breaking point and was now empowered and able to speak out.’
He said a ‘microcosm of the entire case’ could be heard in the initial stages of the first 999 call to police from Emma Greville on the evening of November 1.
Mr Wright said: ‘In that microcosm what we hear is unlawful acts of violence by the defendant and an attempt by him to abdicate any responsibility on his part for what he has done by blaming another or the other.
‘The one on the receiving end of his excesses and when that fails emotional blackmail as a last resort. An attempt to avoid the consequences. The problem for Ryan Giggs is he had gone too far once too often to someone who was impervious to his pleading and threats.
‘And he had done it to Kate who was fortified by her recently found resolve and so each of them were then equipped to stand up to him, to disclose what he had done and what he was capable of. Eventually it had caught up with him… and he has no-one else to blame for it but himself.’
Mr Wright also referred to messages sent by Ms Greville to Giggs, which read: ‘You’re a liar. You’re a cheat. You’re a narcissist. You’re a manipulator. You’re controlling. You’re aggressive. You’re violent.’
The prosecutor said: ‘They encapsulate what he was like, a message he took no issue with at the time… The truth was known by both of them and encapsulated in that message.
‘He knew how to hurt her, demean her and violate her, ‘Give the therapist a call Kate’.
‘He said he was capable of scaring her or the object of his outrage about what he was capable of, something she knew only too well.’
Mr Wright referred to the c*** emails sent by Giggs to Ms Greville, which he described as a ‘metaphor’ for everything Giggs was capable of in the case.
He also referred to Giggs’s conversations with police in the body worn footage, when Giggs said ‘But I have hit her in the lip’.
He said: ‘Compare and contrast the calm and cool Ryan Giggs with the one on the 999 call earlier.’
Concluding his closing speech the prosecutor said: ‘Mr Giggs had done it too many times… Emma Greville was impervious to his pleas and Kate Greville was fortified by her recently found resolve.
‘Is it any wonder there was a degree of celebration to this man being removed and in custody after what he had exposed her to over a number of years and both of them that night?
‘Mr Giggs said they were all losers, we disagree. The loss is all his and he has no one else to blame for it than himself.’
Giggs (pictured today) is also charged with assaulting Ms Greville and causing her actual bodily harm at his home in Worsley, Greater Manchester, on November 1 2020 and common assault against her younger sister, Emma, in the alleged same incident
Ryan Giggs’ toe-curling poetry and text messages to Kate Greville
His poem:
‘My darling Kate,
‘Unequivocally our love was fate,
‘I fell in love with you at first sight,
‘I remember cos I was as high as a kite,
‘Those beautiful eyes made me shiver,
‘I’m not going to lie I think of you, I dream of you,
‘Can’t help thinking pulling you was my greatest ever coup,
‘That stomach, those abs,
‘Those pictures you send so I can keep tabs,
‘You make me feel funny down there,
‘Especially when you’re there, and you look up and stare,
‘I am beginning to think you are always right,
‘That’s ok, it will keep us tight,
‘I’m gonna end by saying you are my love, my friend, my soul,
‘And most of all you believe in me which makes me as hard as a totem pole.’
The jury also heard on Friday how loved-up Giggs messaged Ms Greville saying: ‘You are the jam in my doughnut, the truffle in my pasta and the salt in my tequila.’
He also compared her to Fort Knox, ‘because it’s full of gold’.
Giggs also wrote an acrostic poem using the first letters of Ms Greville’s surname, including ‘Gorgeous’ for ‘G’, ‘Vivacious’ for ‘V’ and ‘Everything I’ve Ever Wanted’ for ‘E’.
It came as the judge told the court how Giggs has no previous conviction or cautions against his name, and described him as ‘a man of good character’.
She added: ‘Controlling behaviour is a term that requires no further definition. Coercive behaviour is behaviour that involves one person forcing or compelling another to do or not to do something or to act or not to act in a certain way.
‘Examples of this can include the use of violence, threats, intimidation. The defendant’s behaviour can be designed or intended to force or compel Kate Greville to behave in a particular way herself or to maintain control over her.
‘You must be sure his behaviour amounted to controlling or coercive behaviour or behaved in that way repeatedly or continuously.
‘The defence case is he did not use controlling or coercive behaviour and did not act in any of those ways.’
Judge Manley also talked about the alleged events in Dubai, saying: ‘Ms Greville alleges the defendant was aggressive with her, that he threw her out of a room at the Westin Hotel naked…and the defendant started an argument and in the hotel room, ordered her to leave and pulled her handbag on her arm so he caused bruising to her wrist.
‘The defence says there was no aggression or violence whatsoever. The prosecution say these are examples of controlling and coercive behaviour and are relevant events although the events took place outside the jurisdiction.’
She said the jury must not convict Giggs solely or mainly on the events in Dubai and must consider whether alleged events which happened in England are proved.
Judge Manley then turned to the assault charges, and said: ‘[It is alleged] that the defendant deliberately headbutted Kate Greville and caused her injury to her lip. The defendant says any contact between faces was accidental and occurred during a scuffle over her mobile phone.
‘The definition of assault is the deliberate use of force by the defendant on someone else. What is ABH? ABH is any injury caused by the assault.
‘The prosecution must make you sure that he deliberately headbutted Kate Greville to the facial area and the headbutt caused injury to Kate Greville’s lip.
‘Assault by beating reflects the allegation the defendant during the first scuffle between him and Kate Greville deliberately elbowed Emma Greville as she tried to pull him off her sister.
‘The defendant says he was not aware of Emma Greville being present and if she was he did not elbow her as described. It was not deliberate and in fact accidental.
‘The prosecution must make you sure the defendant intentionally or recklessly inflicted unlawful force. Injuries do not have to be caused, it’s the unlawful force.’
Judge Manley also dealt with the subject of alcohol in the case.
She said it was accepted by both prosecution and defence that Giggs and Ms Greville had drunk alcohol on the evening of November, but Giggs was not saying his behaviour was adversely affected by drink.
She said in any event, that would not provide him with a defence.
The judge also said the jury can take into account Giggs’ previous good character and lack of previous convictions. She said this could be considered a ‘positive feature’ and that his good character made it ‘less likely’ he had done the actions he has been accused of.
It comes after toe-curling messages he sent to her were read out in court in court last week. One such example was: ‘It blows my mind that your surname is Greville. It rhymes with [Gary] Neville, who is one of my besties, and Breville, which is my favourite toastie maker… it’s these things that make us so special.’
The court previously heard how Giggs once danced on a chair with former Man United teammate Neville during a boozy Christmas party, according to chairman of his football club Karen Baird.
The jury also heard on Friday how loved-up Giggs messaged Ms Greville saying: ‘You are the jam in my doughnut, the truffle in my pasta and the salt in my tequila.’
He also compared her to Fort Knox, ‘because it’s full of gold’.
In another exchange, Giggs told Ms Greville he had made ‘scrambled eggs a la chef Giggsy’ for breakfast, and messaged his former flame saying: ‘I think you’re fandabidozi’.
Giggs also wrote an acrostic poem using the first letters of Ms Greville’s surname, including ‘Gorgeous’ for ‘G’, ‘Vivacious’ for ‘V’ and ‘Everything I’ve Ever Wanted’ for ‘E’.
The trial also heard on Friday from Giggs’ former boss Sir Alex Ferguson, who explained how he would make an example out of the player in the Manchester United dressing room, but insisted that he never saw him get ‘angry or aggressive’.
The legendary ex-football boss, 80, who managed Giggs throughout the vast majority of his career, said he would give the Welsh midfielder the ‘sharp end of my tongue’ when he was upset at his team’s performance.
But the tough-talking Scottish manager insisted ‘I knew he could take it’. Speaking from the witness box in Giggs’ domestic assault trial, he also praised his former player’s temperament as ‘wonderful’.
Sir Alex appeared at Manchester Crown Court on Friday as a character witness for Giggs, who is accused of ‘headbutting’ his ex-girlfriend Ms Greville during a row at his £1.7million mansion in Worsley, Greater Manchester, in November 2020.
The former Wales midfielder is also accused of assaulting Ms Greville’s sister, Emma, during the same row and using coercive and controlling behaviour towards his former girlfriend. He denies the allegations and is on trial.
On Friday, Sir Alex, who appeared as a character witness for Giggs, described him as having a ‘fantastic, wonderful temperament’ and someone who never got ‘angry or aggressive’ despite playing top level football under him.
He told the court that he had known him since the age of 13 and found him to be one of the best-behaved players he has ever worked with, both on and off the pitch.
Sir Alex said: ‘When I first met him he was at a local team and training at Manchester City’s ground. We were working hard to get him to come to Clifton (Manchester United’s training ground).
‘He came to us with his father on one occasion and after that we started visiting his house to convince him to come to Manchester United.
Sir Alex, who was in the witness box for around ten minutes, revealed that he regularly visited Giggs’ home with Archie Knox, his assistant at the time.
He continued: ‘Our main contact was Ryan’s mother. She was very good about it all. Ryan was a quiet boy, he just sat there and listened to what his mother was saying.’
Sir Alex, who was wearing a grey suit, white shirt and purple tie told the court that after Giggs signed for Manchester United, he took him personally under his wing after he broke into the first team at the age of 17.
Sir Alex said: ‘He was being compared to George Best. There was a lot of press and media attention on him. I saw him every day, I was his manager. The boy was great, he was no problem.’
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