Ryan Giggs assault trial told of alleged affairs

PR executive Kate Greville, 36, claimed she discovered the former Wales and Manchester United star's affairs on his tablet computer shortly before she decided to leave him.

Giggs, 48, is alleged to have headbutted her at his home in Worsley, Greater Manchester, on November 1 2020.

On Tuesday, a jury at Manchester Crown Court was shown a police interview with Ms Greville.

She said Giggs constantly denied he was cheating on her but she “needed to know the truth” so she checked his device.

She said: “The reality of what I had found on that iPad was way worse than I could imagine.

“Eight women he was having affairs with while he was with me. Full-on relationships.”

READ MORE: ‘Red flags’ seen in Ryan Giggs’ behaviour, trial told

She told police she met Giggs in 2013 and they started an affair when they were both married, and she left her husband two months later.

“It was like he was my best friend but there were definite red flags,” she said of Giggs.

She told police: “It was like he was almost two people. It was like, ‘Is he a good person? Is he a bad person?’

“I started to get horrendous anxiety.”

She described an incident during their relationship when the former Wales winger “flipped” in a hotel room and grabbed her by the wrists “hard”.

She said he “literally dragged” her naked body across the floor before he threw her belongings into the corridor.

Ms Greville said she was “left humiliated and embarrassed” as she found herself with no clothes on in the middle of the corridor.

She added: “That was the first time he was aggressive to me.”

Ms Greville said that after more stormy periods in their relationship Giggs told her he had a “plan” and they were going to get a dog and she moved into his house.

She added: “It was just on another level. There was lots of put-downs, taking the piss out of me all the time. Really secretive with his phone.”

Ms Greville said Giggs would tell her to leave, then beg her to come back, then criticise her if his evening meal was not ready.

“He was kind of gaslighting me,” she said.

“A very subtle kind of thing. I was like his housemaid or his mum, if his tea was not ready on time.”

Giving evidence from behind a curtain on Tuesday afternoon, Ms Greville was asked about photos showing bruising to her arm and knee following an incident in Dubai in February 2020.

Asked by Peter Wright QC, prosecuting, who was responsible for the injuries she replied: “Ryan Giggs.”

She said the player joined her in Dubai as part of a “reconciliation” after a period when they had split up.

She told the court: “We were walking back up to the hotel room and I was absolutely fine, I thought there were absolutely no issues.

“And then suddenly he said, ‘you are a liability when you are drunk’.”

Breaking into tears in the witness box, she added: “I constantly felt attacked by him so I felt he is having a go at me again.”

She said he called her by his ex-wife’s name – Stacey – which he used to do as the “ultimate insult” and stood in her way to stop her as she tried to leave their hotel room.

“He grabbed my bag and pulled my bag on my arm really hard to stop me from going – and I fell forward on my knee,” she said

Giggs is alleged to have “lost control” and headbutted Ms Greville after she decided to leave him, before elbowing her sister Emma in the jaw as she attempted to pull him off Ms Greville as they grappled on the floor.

Ryan Giggs, centre in light grey suit, arriving at Manchester Crown Court. Picture: Peter Powell/PA Wire

The court heard Kate Greville had already decided to leave Ryan Giggs by November 1 – the date of the alleged headbutting – following the discovery on his iPad of evidence of his string of alleged affairs “going back many years”.

Ms Greville said she had secretly signed up for a flat and had also planned to speak to a lawyer about their dog – a golden retriever puppy named Mac.

On the afternoon of November 1 she went with Giggs to the Stock Exchange Hotel – part-owned by the defendant and fellow ex-footballer Gary Neville – to meet up with friends including Neville’s personal assistant.

But an argument followed at dinner, Ms Greville said, when she told Giggs about a man who had previously asked her out for a drink.

Ms Greville said she stayed at the table for about 10 minutes after Ryan Giggs left and felt “a bit embarrassed” before she went up to the hotel room.

She told 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.

“I knew everything that he had done. I had the proof for the first time ever because he had always managed to convince me the whole thing was in my head and I was going crazy.

“I was upset at that point. I had kept all that inside me all along.

“I showed him some of the messages I had seen. I had taken screenshots, there was a lot. He said what I was saying was not true.

“I said ‘It’s there, you can’t deny it any more.

“Then he got in my face and screamed and told me to get out.

“He was very drunk and very angry.”

She then collected her belongings and called for an Uber from the hotel back to Giggs’ address in Worsley where her sister, Emma, was looking after their dog.

Ms Greville said she phoned her sister and asked her to “get my stuff and the dog” into her car.

She returned and was upstairs packing before 10 to 15 minutes later she saw lights outside as Giggs arrived with his housekeeper and a hotel concierge.

Giggs started unloading her belongings in bin bags from her car at the front of the house, Kate Greville told the court.

She said: “He was very angry. I had not seen him that angry before. He was drunk. I think whole situation had sobered me up.

“I was saying, ‘Please. I just want to go to my dad’s. I just want to take the dog.’ I was obviously very upset, he was my absolute world that dog.”

The pair then grappled over Ms Greville’s phone in the hallway of the house and inside an adjacent utility room.

Ms Greville continued: “He pushed me backwards, I ended up being on my back in the utility room. I was on my back on the floor with my phone in my hand.

“Ryan was on top of me. He’s pinning me down on the floor and trying to reach for the phone in my hand.

“I was trying to do everything I could to get him off me. I was shouting my sister for help: ‘Get him off me’.”

Her sister Emma, she said, then 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.

Giggs managed to grab Ms Greville’s phone, pushing her head into the floor as he got off her, she said.

Ms Greville said Giggs told her he had called the police and was going to tell the officers Ms Greville had attacked him and was a “psycho.”

She added: “He was really angry but quite with a cockiness to it. There was a certain baiting, he was trying to bait me basically.”

They then moved to the kitchen.

Ms Greville told the court of the alleged headbutt she claimed Giggs then carried out: “I said I’m glad the police are coming because you attacked me and I will tell them what happened.

“That’s when 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.

“I said, ‘I can’t believe you have just done that’. I was in shock. I fell backwards, my lip instantly swelled so I put my hands to my mouth. I could taste the blood.

“I was just in shock. All the other times he had hurt me, this was different. This was with real intent. He really wanted to hurt me.”

Ms Greville said Giggs then said to her: “You need to think about this Kate. This will ruin me and it will ruin you. Think about my job, think about my career, think about my kids.

“And I said, ‘Well, you shouldn’t have done it then’.”

Police arrived and Giggs was arrested.

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Giggs stood down in June as manager of the Wales national team after a period of leave since November 2020.

He denies using controlling and coercive behaviour against Ms Greville between August 2017 and November 2020, assaulting her, causing actual bodily harm, and the common assault of her younger sister.

The trial has been adjourned until Wednesday morning.

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