Gary Neville is dragged into Ryan Giggs' court case as messages and emails are read to the jury
- Ryan Giggs denies using controlling and coercive behaviour against ex girlfriend
- Kate Greville said he 'headbutted' her during fight over eight alleged affairs
- She worked in 2019 at GG Hospitality, a company owned by him and Neville
- Ms Greville claims Giggs 'would bombard her with up to 50 messages an hour'
- Her work laptop emails were read out to court saying: 'F****** unblock me now'
- They met after she promoted his Hotel Football venue, launched with Neville
- She says Neville's assistant was present at Giggs and Neville owned hotel dinner
- Ms Greville said Giggs was 'angry' and 'drunk' at table that a man asked her out
Gary Neville has been brought into Ryan Giggs' domestic abuse court case as Whatsapp messages and emails were read to the court.
Manchester Crown Court was told that Giggs met Kate Greville in 2013 after she helped promote his Hotel Football venue, launched with ex-United teammate Neville.
The 48-year-old is accused of using controlling and coercive behaviour. As well as 'bombarding' Ms Greville, she claims, with up to 50 messages an hour and threatened to ruin her career.
She then later joined Giggs' company GG Hospitality, owned by him and his former Manchester United team-mate, in 2019 and emails from that time sent from Giggs' mobile phone and Ms Greville's work laptop were read to the court.
She claims he would get jealous and emails show he accused her of sending private messages and dating a man who also worked for the same firm owned by Giggs.
It was also mentioned during the trial that Neville's assistant was present for an argument the couple had during a dinner at a hotel which jointly owned by Giggs and his former United teammate.
Gary Neville has been brought into Ryan Giggs' domestic abuse court case as Whatsapp messages and emails were read to the court. Pictured: Salford City owners Neville and Giggs celebrate after 2019 match
Manchester Crown Court was told this evening that Giggs met Ms Greville (pictured) in 2013 after she helped promote his Hotel Football venue, launched with ex-United teammate Neville
Th 48-year-old (pictured, Giggs leaving court yesterday) is accused of using controlling and coercive behaviour 'bombard' Ms Greville, she claims, with up to 50 messages an hour and threatened to ruin her career
The court heard how the ex-Wales winger said in the messages, sent to ex-girlfriend Ms Greville: 'I am am so f****** mad right now I'm scaring myself because I could do anything,' before adding: 'I actually hate you for what you've done to me. Hate you. HATE HATE HATE...'. Pictured: A mock-up version of the messages read out in court
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One text from Giggs said: 'I hope your company fails too. We'll tell people what a horrible c*** you really are. You've hurt me like no one else has. That's closure, don't ever contact me again'
Giggs sent an email with the subject: 'WTF!!! Blocking me' after Ms Greville had blocked his calls on WhatsApp.
His follow-up email read: 'F****** unblock me now.'
Ms Greville said she had blocked Giggs after finding out he was in a relationship with another woman she named as Zara Charles.
Giggs then said if Ms Greville did not unblock his personal WhatsApp number he would 'chase her' on the work WhatsApp group.
Ms Greville said: 'It scared me what he would send and how it would make me look to everyone else.
'He could send anything because he was not rational. He could potentially send something of a very private nature, of a very personal nature, something that would embarrass me.'
Jurors were also asked if they had any personal connection to Sir Alex Ferguson, former defender Neville or executive David Gill - sparking speculation the trio could play a role during the trial.
In another instance, Neville's name also cropped up when she and Giggs met friends including his former teammates' personal assistant for dinner at the Stock Exchange Hotel - part-owned by the defendant and Neville - for dinner.
She said she was already planning to leave Giggs at a later date when he was due to be away with the Wales football team and she had signed for a flat in secret. She planned to speak to a lawyer about their dog.
Ms Greville said the argument with Giggs started after she told a friend that a man had asked her out for a date.
She said Giggs asked her why she did not tell the man that she had a boyfriend and he was 'angry'.
She told the court: 'I said to this guy 'I can't believe you have asked me out, you have a girlfriend.'' Mr Wright asked what was the response from Giggs. Ms Greville replied: 'It was 'why didn't you say you had a boyfriend?'.
She then told he court: 'He was angry. He kept having a go at me. He wanted me to agree with him. I was not prepared to do that. I stood up for myself.'
Ms Greville told the court Giggs kept telling her to apologise.
'I stood my ground and he stood up and stormed out,' she said.
'He left me at the table. I sat there in disbelief that he had managed to twist this and turn this on me.'
Ms Greville said she sat there for 10 minutes 'embarrassed' before going up to their hotel room where Giggs had packed up her belongings.
She explained: '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 said Giggs had been 'screaming' at her during their argument at the hotel and that she had ordered an Uber from the hotel.
Ms Greville said she then 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 claims 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 and blocked her vehicle with his own car, Ms Greville also told the court.
'I was really upset at this point,' she said. 'I was saying: 'Ryan, please let me go... I just want to go'.
'I was pushing him... trying to hold him off from getting things out of the car. I hadn't seen him that angry before. He was drunk.
'I know the whole situation had sobered me up. I had had a few drinks... but what had happened had cleared my head.'
She said Giggs was 'throwing' out her belongings and she was telling him she just wanted to go to her father's home.
'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'.'
Kate Greville said her sister Emma 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 that he was trying to 'bait her' when the moved to the kitchen and this is when she claims he 'headbutted' her.
She also told Manchester Crown Court, he 'came at me from nowhere' during a row over her finding evidence of eight alleged affairs 'going back many years' on his iPad.
Ms Greville said her lip 'instantly swelled' during the incident at his home in Worsley, Greater Manchester, in November 2020, and that she believed she had also broken her elbow after he pinned her to the floor in their utility room as he tried to snatch her phone from her hand.
Ms Greville told the court that, during the incident, Giggs moved into the kitchen and refused to give her back her phone.
She said: 'I said ''I'm glad the police are coming because you attacked me and I'll tell them exactly what happened''. That's when he came up to my face and headbutted me. He came at me from nowhere, grabbed me by the shoulders and headbutted me in the face. I said ''I can't believe you've just done that''.
'I was in shock and fell backwards, my lip instantly swelled so I put my hands over my mouth and I was really worried because I could taste the blood and thought he had split my lip open.
'All the other times he had hurt me, this was different, he really wanted to hurt me, he looked me straight in the eyes and headbutted me.'
Former Manchester United footballer Ryan Giggs leaving Manchester Crown Court today where he is accused of controlling and coercive behaviour against ex-girlfriend Kate Greville between August 2017 and November 2020
After police were called, she told the court how Giggs turned to her and said: 'You need to think about this Kate, this could ruin me and it could ruin you.'
Ms Greville also told jurors how Giggs had 'meant' to harm her and that the alleged attack was different to all the other times she said he had hurt her.
Recalling the moment she said: 'He said that the police had been called, that they were on their way and he was going to tell them that I attacked him and that I'm a psycho.
'He was angry but there was cockiness to it. He was trying to bait me. We moved then to the kitchen. I reached out to try and get my phone.
'I told him 'I'm glad the police are coming because you attacked me and I'll tell them exactly what happened'
'And that was when he came forward to me and head butted me in the face. He came at me from nowhere, grabbed me by the shoulders and head butted my face.
'He didn't say sorry, he said nothing to me. I said: 'I can't believe you've just done that.' I was in shock, I fell backwards, and I could feel my lip swell immediately.
'I put my hand over my mouth and could taste the blood. All the other times he hurt me, this was different, he meant to hurt me. He looked at me straight in the eyes and head butted me straight in the face.
'He said 'You need to think about this Kate, this could ruin me and it could ruin you' He was saying 'think about my job, my career, my kids' and I said 'you shouldn't have done it then.''
Yesterday on the first day of his trial, the court heard how the former Manchester United star, 48, sent swear-word filled messages to his ex-girlfriend, asked her to unblock him on the promise he would stop sending nude 'piccies' and threw her out of a five-star hotel naked after she accused him of flirting with other women.
Kate Greville (pictured), 36, told jurors the former Manchester United and Wales star became 'angry' and 'came at me from nowhere' during a row over her finding evidence of alleged affairs 'going back many years' on his iPad
Ryan Giggs at Manchester Crown Court today watching ex-girlfriend Kate Greville giving evidence on police video played to the jury after he is alleged to have headbutted her
Jury members were told how the ex-Wales winger penned one message titled 'Lies, Lies Lies' - and another entitled 'Blackmail' - to former girlfriend Emma Greville after she blocked him from sending texts.
The court heard how Giggs said in the messages: 'I am am so f****** mad right now, I'm scaring myself because I could do anything,' before adding: 'I actually hate you for what you've done to me. Hate you. HATE HATE HATE...'
In another message, sent after he was blocked by Miss Greville, he said: 'Please unblock me. All this blocking malarkey is poo. Promise, no more naked piccies.'
A third message featured the header 'blackmail', the court heard. But jurors were only told that it contained the word 'please' as well as an unspecified attachment.
It comes as barristers representing Giggs yesterday told a court that that he and Ms Greville behaved like 'squabbling teenagers' during their relationship.
But they insisted that there were 'lines he would never cross', Chris Daw QC added, saying that Giggs 'never once used unlawful violence' against her during their relationship, 'no matter how bad things got'.
The retired footballer is accused of using controlling and coercive behaviour against Miss Greville, 36, between August 2017 and November 2020.
He is also charged with assaulting and causing her actual bodily harm in relation to an alleged headbut during an incident at his £1.7m mansion during a row over his alleged infidelity,
Giggs also faces an allegation of common assault of her sister, Emma Greville, at his home in Worsley, Greater Manchester. Giggs has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Delivering an opening statement to the jury, Mr Daw said Giggs fully accepts that his behaviour - on a moral level - at times during their time together was 'far from perfect'.
The defendant also acknowledges that he did not always handle their arguments 'in the best possible way' and the jury may think the couple behaved like 'squabbling teenagers' in their numerous message exchanges, Mr Daw said.
However much of the evidence jurors would hear amounted to 'exactly the sort of thing that goes on between arguing couples day in, day out', he told them.
Addressing the night of the alleged assault, Mr Daw said the accusations were 'based on distortion, exaggerations and lies'. 'He assaulted no-one,' he added.
Mr Daw said that in the weeks before the incident, Miss Greville had 'said to her friends that she was determined not to walk away from the relationship with nothing'.
Speaking about the alleged headbut, he said that while the pair were 'tussling' over her phone, both tripped and fell to the floor, and Miss Greville kicked him in the face as he tried to disentangle himself.
Mr Daw said Giggs was not even aware that her sister was in the house at the time and certainly did not elbow her, as alleged.
The alleged headbutt was 'not only a nasty lie but a ridiculous one', he said, as the evidence will show there was mere 'minor and accidental contact' between their faces.
Denying the prosecution claim that Giggs subjected Miss Greville to controlling and coercive behaviour, Mr Daw pointed out that she had been earning a six-figure salary during the relationship - assisted by his introducing 'most of her clients' to her.
She kept her own apartment and was free to travel and see friends, he added, saying that in 'stark contrast to the picture painted by Miss Greville, Mr Giggs did not control or coerce at all'.
Telling jurors they were not there to judge Giggs on 'the morals of infidelity', he urged them: 'Keep your eye on the ball.'
It comes after the court heard how Giggs subjected his girlfriend to a 'litany of physical and psychological abuse' and headbutted her at his £1.7m mansion during a row over his alleged infidelity.
Prosecutor Peter Wright QC told Manchester's Minshull Street Court that Giggs's private life 'involved a litany of abuse of a woman he professed to love'.
Ms Greville will continue to give evidence on Wednesday.
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