RYAN Giggs’ ex-girlfriend screamed “get him off me” before he headbutted her in a drunken rage, a court heard today.
The ex-Manchester United player then allegedly threatened to do the same to Kate Greville’s sister Emma, yelling: “I’ll headbutt you next.”
The footballer is accused of ABH against his former partner, as well as subjecting her to three years of “controlling and coercive behaviour”.
He is also facing an assault by beating charge against 26-year-old Emma.
At the start of the second week of the trial, Emma said Giggs placed his hands on Kate’s shoulders during an argument and headbutted her in the lip “with lots of force”.
She told the jury the defendant then went on to blame her for the incident at his home in Worsley, Greater Manchester.
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“Afterwards he told me it was my fault he had headbutted Kate and turned to me and said ‘I’ll headbutt you next’,” she said.
“[He was] extremely angry. I felt fear as he had just headbutted Kate so why wouldn’t he do the same to me?”
Manchester Crown Court heard how Emma was looking after the couple’s puppy Mac on November 1, 2020, while Giggs and her sister had dinner at the Stock Exchange Hotel in Manchester city centre.
Emma said the PR executive was already planning to leave Giggs at a future date while he was away on touring duties after allegedly finding evidence he had cheated on her with eight women.
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She received a call from her sister who was “annoyed” they were late for dinner because Giggs had “been out all day drinking”, she said.
Later, Kate messaged her: “Pack my stuff in the car, we are leaving tonight”, the court heard.
Emma said her sister was “visibly upset” when she arrived and could see she had been drinking but was “not stumbling”.
Peter Wright QC, prosecuting asked: “Did she explain anything to you about the reason for her being upset at that time?”
Emma replied: “She just told me she confronted him about cheating but didn’t go into detail because we had a tight timescale.
“We wanted to get out of the house.”
Giggs followed about 15 minutes later, she said, and his mood was “not happy”, adding: “He was also very drunk.”
Emma said she retreated into a bedroom in the house before she later went back downstairs and saw her sister hugging the puppy in the hallway.
She told the court: “Ryan then said ‘say your goodbyes to the dog, you will never see him again’.
“It was in a snide manner, that he had the power, that he could keep the dog when he knew the dog was Kate’s.”
‘SHE WAS IN PAIN’
Giggs then accused Kate of taking his phone, said the witness, which she denied, so he picked up some of Kate’s belongings, including a handbag, and placed them in the hallway.
Emma told the court: “Ryan turned to Kate and said ‘if I don’t have my phone, you are not having yours.
“Kate grabbed it before he did and they were in physical contact with each other.”
She left to check on the dog and when she returned she saw Giggs’ legs sticking out of the ‘boot room’ into the hallway.
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.
“As I was pulling him up he was standing upright in the doorway.
“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.”
I felt fear as he had just headbutted Kate so why wouldn’t he do the same to me?
Emma Greville
Emma said she was “upset”, felt “shock” and immediately called her parents for advice on what to do next.
She next saw her sister in the kitchen as she tried to retrieve her phone from Giggs’ back pocket.
She told the court: “I said to Ryan ‘just give her phone back and then we will go’ and also said to him ‘I saw you on top of her grab her phone so I know you have her phone’.
“He called me a ‘a f****** liar’. Kate said to Ryan ‘See, I have proof’.
“He had gone from annoyed to extremely angry.
“He put both his hands on Kate’s shoulders and with lots of force used his head to headbutt her in the lip.
“She fell to the ground screaming and covering her face.”
Kate told her to call the police, she said, as Giggs pleaded with her not to do so and said ‘think about my daughter, think about my career’.
She said he told her to think about her sister’s career and that “it would be in all the newspapers”.
‘EXTREMELY ANGRY’
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.
Earlier, the court heard how Kate told bosses her bruises were from rough sex as they tried to block Giggs’ “intense” emails because they were “interring with her work”.
Kate’s PR firm manager Elsa Roodt – who appeared on a video link from Dubai – said that Q Communications had “no other option” than to try to stop Giggs’ messages from bombarding her after seeing marks on her arms following an incident at the Westin Hotel in 2017.
The witness also described seeing Kate with bruises on her arm after an incident in February 2020.
Ms Roodt said: “She said Ryan had got physical with her the night before in the hotel room.”
The boss described having to stop Giggs’ emails after they began distracting Kate.
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“At one stage, early on in her employment, we had to call our internet provider to block Ryan Giggs’ email,” Ms Roodt told the court.
“It was intense and Kate couldn’t do her work. We had no other option.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
