Ryan Giggs grabbed his ex-girlfriend by the shoulders and headbutted her after she had earlier confronted him about his serial love cheating, a court heard.
Public relations executive Kate Greville said that before the alleged assault in November 2020 she had known he was having “full on relationships” with eight women while they were together.
The discovery of messages “going back years” on the ex-Manchester United footballer’s iPad led her to decide to leave him, she said.
Giving evidence at Manchester Crown Court from behind a curtain, Ms Greville said she had secretly checked into a flat and planned to “disappear” from Giggs’ home in Worsley, Greater Manchester, where she had lived since of the Covid-19 lockdown in March. 2020
On the afternoon of November 1 he went with Giggs, 48, to the Manchester Stock Exchange Hotel, owned by the defendant and fellow ex-footballer Gary Neville.
But an argument followed over dinner at the restaurant, he said, when he told Giggs about a man who had asked him for a drink earlier.
Image: Ryan Giggs at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court, where he is accused of controlling and coercive behavior against ex-girlfriend Kate Greville between August 2017 and November 2020
She told the court: “I said to this guy, ‘I can’t believe you asked me out, you have a girlfriend.’
Asked how Giggs responded, he said: “It was ‘why didn’t you say you had a boyfriend?’ He was angry. He kept trying to me. He wanted me to agree with him. I wasn’t ready to do that. I defended myself.”
She said she “walked out” and went up to the hotel room where they had planned to spend the night.
Ms Greville, who is 36, said she stayed at the table and felt “a bit embarrassed” before going up to her hotel room.
She said: “He packed all my things and said he wanted me out.
“He basically said he was breaking up with me and wanted nothing more to do with me.
“I knew everything I had done.
“I first got tested because I had always managed to convince myself that it was all in my head and I was going crazy.
“I showed him some of the messages I had seen.
“I had taken screenshots, there were a lot of them.
“He said what I was saying was not true.
“I said ‘it’s there, you can’t deny it anymore.’
“Then he got in my face and shouted and told me to get out.
“He was very drunk and very angry.”
She said she collected her belongings and ordered an Uber to Giggs’ address where her sister, Emma, was looking after her golden retriever puppy Mac.
Ms Greville said she called him and asked him to “put my stuff and the dog” in her car.
She returned and was upstairs packing before 10 to 15 minutes later she saw lights outside when Giggs arrived and began unloading her belongings into bin bags from her car at the front of the house, he said.
Mrs Greville said: “She was very angry. I’ve never seen her so angry before. She was drunk. I think the whole situation had woken me up.
“I said, ‘Please. I just want to go to my dad’s house. I just want to take the dog.’ Obviously he was very upset, he was my absolute world that dog.”
The pair then fought over Ms Greville’s phone in the hallway of the house and inside an adjacent utility room, the court heard.
Mrs Greville continued: “He pushed me backwards, I ended up on my back in the washroom.
“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 and trying to grab the phone in my hand.
“I was trying to do everything I could to get him away from me. I was yelling at my sister for help, ‘Get him off me.’
Image: Wales sacked manager Ryan Giggs in November 2020 before appointing Rob Page as his successor in June 2022
Ms Greville said Emma grabbed Giggs by the waist to pull him away, but he pushed his arm back to try to pull her away from him and is claimed to have punched her in the jaw.
Giggs managed to grab Ms Greville’s phone and pushed her head to 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 that Ms Greville had attacked him and that she was a “psycho”.
He added: “He was very angry, but with an arrogance.
“There was some baiting, he was trying to hook me, basically.”
Then they moved to the kitchen.
Mrs Greville said: “I said, ‘I’m glad the police are coming because you attacked me and I’m going to tell them what happened.’
“That’s when he came towards me and head butted me in the face.
“He came up to me, grabbed me by the shoulders and head butted me in the face.
“I said, ‘I can’t believe you just did that.’ I was in shock. I fell back, my lip instantly swollen and I put my hands over my mouth. I could taste the blood.
“I was just in shock.
“All the other times I’d hurt myself, this was different. This was with real intent. I really wanted to hurt myself.”
Ms Greville said Giggs told her: “You have to think about this, Kate.
“This will ruin me and you.
“Think about my job, think about my career, think about my kids.
“And I said, ‘Well, you shouldn’t have, then.’
Police attended and Giggs was arrested.
Giggs denies using coercive and controlling behavior against Ms Greville between August 2017 and November 2020, assaulting her, causing actual bodily harm and common assault on her younger sister.
Ms Greville will continue to testify on Wednesday.