Key moments in the trial against footballer Ryan Giggs
As the trial of footballer Ryan Giggs comes to a close, here are some of the key moments which have marked the two week case at Manchester Crown Court.
The former Manchester United player and Wales manager is accused of using controlling and coercive behaviour against ex-partner Kate Greville, 38, between August 2017 and November 2020.
He is also accused of assaulting her, causing her actual bodily harm, as well as the common assault of her younger sister, Emma Greville, 26, in Worsley, Greater Manchester, on 1 November 2020.
Giggs, 48, denies all charges.
Giggs stood down as manager of Wales in June following a period of leave since November 2020.
During his time at Old Trafford, Manchester United won 13 Premier League titles, two Champions League trophies, four FA Cups and three League Cups.
He won 64 caps for Wales and is co-owner of League Two side Salford City.
The relationship started with an affair
The court heard the pair began a relationship in 2013, and, Ms Greville said, she believed he was her "soul mate", but also saw early "red flags".
Both were married but she said she was unhappy in a controlling relationship with her husband.
She said: "He would tell me about his marriage and he was not happy, I would talk about mine. Things developed from there and we started to have an affair. I left my husband two months later.
"He was like a best friend, a soul mate, he was the one to save me from that marriage. It was more than a sexual thing.
"It was like he was my best friend but there were definite red flags."
During their affair, she said Giggs kept promising he would leave his wife after she had ended her own marriage but it did not happen.
The affair became public in May 2016 and continued to be an on-off relationship. She told the jury: "It was literally like I was addicted to him. I couldn’t get him out of my head."
She also claims she was vulnerable and he used “techniques” to lure her in, alleging that led to a controlling relationship.
But Giggs told police it was his girlfriend who was "controlling of him" and refused to accept he was "in any way controlling or coercive".
He said their relationship had "ups and downs" but the "last thing I would want to do is to harm her physically and emotionally".
Fights
The court heard Ryan Giggs and Ms Greville's relationship was punctuated with a number of arguments.
The footballer acknowledged he did not always handle their arguments in the best way, and his barrister even referred to the couple as behaving like “squabbling teenagers”.
The court was told of many times when the pair would ignore each other's messages, and block one another.
But, despite the arguments, the court heard Ryan Giggs was "far from perfect" during his relationship with Ms Greville, but there were "lines he would never cross".
Ms Greville told the court of two occasions in Dubai, while Giggs visited her working there, where she claims the relation became violent.
On one occasion, at the Westin Hotel in Dubai in 2017, she claims she was left naked in a hotel corridor after Giggs threw her out following an argument.
She told how she confronted him about an alleged affair, where he “flipped” as he squared up to her face.
She said Giggs "flipped" again in a hotel room when he grabbed her by the wrists “hard”, and “literally dragged” her naked body across the floor before he threw her belongings into the corridor.
Giggs denies any "physical element" to the argument and said he started packing Ms Greville’s suitcase after telling her he did not want her to stay with him, ushering her towards the door.
He said they were "half outside", between the corridor and the room, before Ms Greville got back inside with her luggage. Later they made up and "had sex", he told the court.
Ms Greville also described a night in a London hotel after a row she alleges he threw a bag at her, leaving her with a lump on her head.
Their final argument happened following an argument at a Manchester hotel where the pair were staying. Giggs "stormed out" out of the restaurant and to their hotel room where they had planned to stay the night, while Ms Greville went back to their home to pack her things.
Lockdown
The couple moved in together, at his home in Worsley, Greater Manchester when the first lockdown was announced in March 2020.
Ms Greville told the court living with Giggs was "utter hell", adding "I felt like I was losing my mind. I was having panic attacks. It was a horrific time for me."
The jury of seven women and two men were played two videos of the couple in lockdown – one in which they exercised together in the garden and the other rapping along to 50 Cent’s In Da Club.
Mr Daw QC, defending Giggs, put it to Ms Greville that lockdown was obviously hard but the pair were doing normal things “much of the time” and having fun.
She responded: “It was not all fun. It doesn’t mean he was being nice to me all the time. At the start of lockdown it was fine but it got progressively worse.”
During lockdown, the couple also took part in online family quizzes, wine tasting on Zoom and had Michelin-starred chefs bring in food, the court heard.
But Ms Greville said there were arguments, including one involving loading the dishwasher - where Giggs called a "team meeting" with his family about how to load it after getting "wound up".
Giggs said lockdown was "a really happy time from my perspective", adding he and Ms Greville would "bicker" but had "no big arguments".
Giggs is unfaithful
Giggs told a jury he had never been faithful in any of his romantic relationships.
The former Wales international was asked if he agreed he was "well known" the world over for being a footballer.
Mr Daw added: "But you are also known for something else, you have a reputation for infidelity. Is that reputation justified?"
Giggs replied: "Yes."
Mr Daw continued: "In the course of your relationships with women, up to and including Ms Greville, have you managed to be faithful to any of them?"
"No," said Giggs.
The barrister asked: "If an attractive woman has shown you interest regardless of your marital status, are you able to resist?"
Giggs replied: "No."
He agreed he was a "flirt by nature" and confirmed he lied to his ex-wife Stacey and Ms Greville about his infidelities.
Letters and texts
The couple would often swap intimate love poems during their on-off relationship.
In the explicit messages Giggs told Ms Greville that he loved her "more than all of his Premier League appearances, which is a lot”, as well as making multiple references to his genitals.
Around 19,000 messages exchanged between the former couple - enough to fill 56 lever arch files.
Jurors also heard a "final goodbye" letter written by Ms Greville on October 29 2020 – three days before he allegedly assaulted her.
The letter, titled The Final Goodbye, details the former footballer’s alleged infidelities with at least eight women.
Ms Greville described Giggs as a "compulsive liar and serial cheat," telling him: "My gut always told me you couldn’t be trusted."
The night of the alleged headbutting incident
The court heard following an argument about Giggs' alleged affairs while they were having dinner at his Stock Exchange hotel in Manchester the former footballer "stormed out" out of the restaurant and to their hotel room where they had planned to stay the night.
She later went up to the hotel room where she confronted him about the affairs, telling the court: "He had packed up all of my things and said he wanted me to get out.
"He was basically saying he was finishing with me and he didn’t want anything more to do with me."
She went back to Giggs’ address in Worsley, Greater Manchester, where her sister, Emma, was looking after their dog, asking her to “get my stuff and the dog” into her car.
She returned and was upstairs packing before 10 to 15 minutes later Giggs arrived and he began unloading her belongings in bin bags from her car at the front of the house.
The pair then grappled over Ms Greville's phone where, she says, after Giggs pushed her backwards she ended up on her back with the phone in her hand, with him on top of her.
The court heard her sister Emma grabbed Giggs by the waist to pull him off, but he pushed his arm back to try to get her off him and it is claimed he had hit her in the jaw.
Ms Greville then said as Giggs told her he had called the police "he came towards me and headbutted me in my face".
"He just came at me, grabbed me by my shoulders and headbutted me in my face."
Recounting the moment he "looked her straight in the eyes" Ms Greville alleges she believed "he really wanted to hurt me".
The court heard she screamed "in pain" during a 999 call made by her sister - in a recording of the call, played to the jury, Emma Greville urges the police to “come quickly” as a female - Kate Greville - can be heard crying.
The call operator asks: “What injuries has your sister got?” Emma Greville replies: “He headbutted her lip I think, she has got blood everywhere.”
However Giggs maintains accusations he headbutted Ms Greville were "nasty lies", and his “head clashed” with his girlfriend’s but the blow was "not deliberate".
He told a court they had a "scuffle" adding, "I accept during this scuffle my head clashed with hers (Kate). I am not sure if it was the face or head but I am sure it was not deliberate."
Giggs said that on both occasions he was attacked in the tussle and added: “But I would agree that both sisters were hurt. I regret that this argument got so out of hand."
Giving evidence he told the court he no longer stood by that claim, and when asked why he had said it to police, Giggs said he did not know.
The former Wales manager also said trying to “dispose” of his ex girlfriend’s phone when police were called after an altercation was an “act of stupidity”.
Ryan Giggs arrested
On 1 November 2020 Giggs was arrested on suspicion of assaulting Kate Greville and he was led uncuffed from the property and into the back of a police van.
He was taken to Pendleton police station by officers on November 1 2020, and said spent the night in a cell, which he told the court, in tears it was the "worst experience of my life".
Giggs was arrested again following allegations made by Emma Greville.
He was interviewed by police again in December 2020 in relation to an allegation of coercive and controlling behaviour after officers obtained more alleged details from Ms Greville.