Before being headbutted by Ryan Giggs in a drunken frenzy, his ex-girlfriend yelled “get him off me,” a court heard today.
I’ll headbutt you next, the ex-Manchester United player allegedly yelled as he threatened to do the same to Emma Greville, Kate Greville’s sister.
The football player is charged with ABH against his ex-girlfriend and three years of “controlling and coercive behaviour” toward her.
He is also charged with beating 26-year-old Emma during the alleged attack.
Emma testified that Giggs headbutted Kate in the lip “with plenty of force” at the beginning of the second week of the trial while putting his hands on her shoulders.
She testified before the jury that when the defendant blamed her for the incident at his home in Worsley, Greater Manchester, she continued.
After headbutting Kate, he blamed me and turned to me, saying, “I’ll headbutt you next,” she claimed.
“[He] was furiously angry. Having just been headbutted, I was terrified.
On November 1, 2020, while Giggs and her sister were having dinner at the Stock Exchange Hotel in the heart of Manchester, Manchester Crown Court heard how Emma was taking care of the couple’s puppy Mac.
When Giggs was gone on tour, Emma said the PR executive was already making plans to split from him after supposedly discovering evidence that he had cheated on her with eight different women.
Giggs had “been out all day drinking,” according to the call she received from her sister, who was “annoyed” they were late for dinner.
According to the testimony given in court, Kate later texted her, “Pack my stuff in the car, we are leaving tonight.”
When Emma arrived, she noticed that her sister was “not stumbling” but was “clearly unhappy” and appeared to have been drinking.
Did she provide you any information about why she was upset at the time? demanded Peter Wright QC, the prosecutor.
Since we were on a strict time schedule, Emma retorted, “She only told me she confronted him about infidelity but didn’t go into detail.
Our goal was to leave the house.
She stated that Giggs arrived around 15 minutes later, and that he was “not happy” and “extremely inebriated.”
Emma claimed that after retreating to one of the home’s bedrooms, she later returned downstairs and discovered her sister hugging the puppy in the hallway.
In her testimony before the court, she added, “Ryan then said, ‘Say your goodbyes to the dog, you will never see him again.’
The fact that he had the authority to do so and could retain the dog despite knowing that it belonged to Kate was said in jest.
According to the witness, after Kate denied removing his phone but Giggs continued to accuse her of doing so, he took some of Kate’s possessions, including a handbag, and dumped them in the hallway.
Ryan went to Kate and warned her that if she didn’t have her phone, neither would she, Emma testified to the court.
“They were touching one other physically because Kate grabbed it before he did.”
She went outside to check on the dog, and when she came back inside, she spotted Giggs’ legs hanging out into the hallway from the “boot room.”
She said: “I could hear shouting, arguing, and scuffling around.
“Kate was lying on her back and Ryan was lying on top of her. Ryan was trying to grab Kate’s phone.
“His face was in her line with her face. Her legs were more bent up and he was lying flat on top of her.
“From her facial expressions I could tell she was in pain.
“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.
“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.”
Emma claimed to be “upset,” “shocked,” and to have called her parents right afterwards for guidance on what to do next.
When she was attempting to take her phone out of Giggs’ back pocket, she next encountered her sister in the kitchen.
She testified before the court, saying, “I begged Ryan, ‘Just give her phone back and then we’ll go,’ and I also told him, ‘I saw you on top of her take her phone so I know you have her phone.
He referred to me as a “f****** liar.” Ryan was informed by Kate, “See, I have proof.”
“His irritation had turned to tremendous rage.
“He placed both of his hands on Kate’s shoulders and headbutted her in the lip with great power.
She claimed that Giggs begged her not to do so and urged her to “think about my baby, think about my career” as Kate instructed her to do so.
She claimed that he advised her to consider her sister’s profession and warned her that “it will be in all the newspapers.”
Emma said she thought her sister’s relationship with Giggs varied from “loving to being very distant”.
Swearing and shouting featured in their arguments but “nothing physical” until the night of November 1, she said.
Giggs denies assaulting Kate causing her actual bodily harm and assault by beating of Emma.
He has also pleaded not guilty to controlling and coercive behaviour against Kate between August 2017 and November 2020.
