Court told Ryan Giggs’ ex-girlfriend was ‘a scorned woman over footballer’s infidelity’

The ex-girlfriend of Ryan Giggs was a “scorned” woman who was “furious” about his inability to remain faithful to her, said the ex-Manchester United footballer’s barrister.

In his closing speech to the jury of seven women and five men, Chris Daw QC, said: “Infidelity is what this case is about”.

Giggs, 48, denies headbutting Ms Greville, 38, at his home in Worsley, Greater Manchester, on November 1 2020 and also deliberately elbowing her 26-year-old sister, Emma.

He has also pleaded not guilty to controlling and coercive behaviour towards Kate Greville between August 2017 and November 2020.

Mr Daw asked the jury at Manchester Crown Court to consider if the prosecution had “cherry-picked” evidence.

The court heard that some 19,671 messages between the couple during their six-year on/off relationship had been recovered as part of the investigation into the allegations – enough to fill 56 lever arch files containing 350 pages each.

Mr Daw said: “There is no argument in this case that both Ryan Giggs and Kate Greville were compulsive, if not addictive, messagers.”

He said it was “quite staggering” that if stacked up the files “could probably reach the ceiling”, compared with the prosecution’s selection of messages fitted into a “small, white” file”.

Human failures

Mr Daw went on: “Ryan Giggs is not on trial for being human or having human failures and succumbing sometimes to using extreme language, very rarely. His emotions got away with him on a very small number of occasions.

“From those thousands of messages the prosecution has managed to point to a tiny number of examples of loss of control in language. Not one single reference to him having been violent to her.”

He said though there were “dozens and dozens” of messages accusing Giggs of cheating and her not trusting him.

Mr Daw said: “That’s because infidelity is what this case is about.

“Why were the allegations made? There is no doubt that Ms Greville was deeply deeply upset, furious, about Mr Giggs’ inability to remain faithful for any length of time.”

He referenced Ms Greville’s “Final Goodbye” letter, written but not sent to Giggs in the days before the alleged assaults, which did not mention any claims of violence or controlling behaviour.

Mr Daw said: “What we can tell from that letter is Ms Greville feeling extremely angry and, I hesitate to say the word, scorned. But scorned it was by all of that infidelity.”

Lies

He said the university graduate and a “leading expert” in public relations and media communications had told “so many lies, so many that could not possibly be true”.

Lying to Giggs that she had cancer was a “pretty manipulative lie to tell anyone”, he said.

He said: “There was exaggeration at almost every stage and twisting from the beginning.”

Looking at photographs she had posted to Giggs during their relationship he said it was a “miracle she had any time to do anything except going on holiday”.

He said she took frequent foreign holidays with Mr Giggs and also with her friends, and enjoyed numerous dinners and parties with Giggs and friends.

She also had her own job and apartment, he said.

Mr Daw said: “What is he controlling? There is no evidence of him controlling anything she ever did, you may think.”

The barrister suggested it was “simply, utterly incredible” there was an attack with a headbutt on the evening of November 1.

He said: “It was something created because she (Kate Greville) had a cut lip – as he did – and she started screaming and shouting he had headbutted her.”

The defence say the clash of faces was accidental.

Cheat

Mr Daw told jurors the defendant was not on trial for “being flirtatious, an impulsive womaniser, an adulterer, a liar or a cheat”.

He said: “If they were crimes he would be guilty of them, or at least some of them. Being unfaithful is pretty much as old as the human race, you may think.

“If they were crimes just think how many prisons you would need. Probably five Strangeways in Manchester.”

Mr Daw said watching Giggs’ cross-examination by Peter Wright QC was “almost a blood sport”.

He said: “One of the leading barristers in the last 40 years against someone who had a limited education and whose talents mostly lie in his feet. If it was the other way round it would be like Mr Wright being in goal against Ryan Giggs at his peak.

“You may think he was like a rabbit in the headlights in the witness box faced by Mr Wright… and you may have thought Mr Giggs would have agreed with anything and that his career was at Bolton Wanderers rather than Manchester United.”