The former Manchester United and Wales footballer, 48, “completely lost his temper” and attacked his then-partner Kate Greville and elbowed her sister in the jaw during an argument over his alleged infidelity, sources said. jury. The row at their home in Worsley, Greater Manchester, followed three years of “systematic and sometimes violent abuse” of Greville, 36, by the retired footballer, the jury heard. The trial at Manchester Street Crown Court heard details of explosive and threatening messages sent by Giggs to his ex-partner. An email, after Greville had blocked Giggs on social media, read: “Please unblock me. All this evil blocking is evil. Promise no more nude photos.” Another email accused Greville of saying “LIES LIES LIES” and said: “Only an evil freaking cunt does that. Absolutely amazing. Now I look crazy after telling three friends I’m going to Scotland at the weekend.” Giggs added : “I am so mad now that I am afraid of myself because I could do anything.” Giggs denies allegations of using controlling and coercive behavior against Greville between August 2017 and November 2020. He is also charged with assaulting Greville causing her actual bodily harm and jointly assaulting her younger sister Emma Greville at their home in Worsley on 1 November 2020. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges. Peter Wright QC, prosecuting, told jurors that while Giggs was “idolized” by his supporters on the pitch, behind closed doors there was a “very ugly and more sinister side to his character”, adding: “This, we say , was a private life that included a litany of abuse, both physical and psychological, of a woman he professed to love.” She said Giggs committed “systematic and at times violent abuse of a woman he professed to love … all the while preying on her vulnerabilities for his own gratification”. Wright told the jury Greville and Giggs had a “toxic” relationship and often argued over affairs the former midfielder allegedly had. Giggs would respond with “fake displays of indignation” and “allow” Greville to question herself, the court heard. Wright told jurors that the defendant would threaten to send “personal” photos of her to her friends unless she did what he said. He physically threw her and her belongings out of an address they were staying at after Greville questioned him about another woman and threw an object at her in a bust in a London hotel room, the jury heard. Their relationship culminated in a “heated” confrontation at their home on November 1, 2020, when Giggs “deliberately headbutted” Kate Greville, the jury was told. He allegedly elbowed Greville’s sister Emma Greville in the jaw when she tried to stop the pair from “wrestling together on the floor”. Giggs’ barrister, Chris Daw QC, said Giggs “fully accepts that his conduct, morally, was not perfect” and that he “did not always handle their affairs in the best possible way”. However, he added, the defendant denies coercive and controlling behavior or physically assaulting Greville and her sister. The charges, he said, are based on “distortion, exaggeration and lies.” Daw told jurors they may believe Giggs and Greville behaved “like bickering children or teenagers, at best” and likened their romance to other “dysfunctional relationships destined to fail”. The trial, before Judge Hilary Manley, is expected to last two weeks.
