Judge in Ryan Giggs trial tells jurors to ‘put aside any feelings of sympathy’

The judge in Ryan Giggs’ domestic assault trial today warned the jury to ‘put aside any feelings of sympathy’ when considering whether witnesses became distressed during their evidence.

In summing up the case, Judge Hilary Manley referred specifically to the former Manchester United star and his ex-girlfriend Kate Greville, outlining the decisions the jury must make.

Giggs is accused of using controlling and coercive behaviour and of assaulting Ms Greville. He is also accused of assaulting Ms Greville’s sister, Emma. He denies all charges. 

The judge also told the court how Giggs has no previous conviction or cautions against his name, and described him as ‘a man of good character’.

She added: ‘Controlling behaviour is a term that requires no further definition. Coercive behaviour is behaviour that involves one person forcing or compelling another to do or not to do something or to act or not to act in a certain way.

‘Examples of this can include the use of violence, threats, intimidation. The defendant’s behaviour can be designed or intended to force or compel Kate Greville to behave in a particular way herself or to maintain control over her.

‘You must be sure his behaviour amounted to controlling or coercive behaviour or behaved in that way repeatedly or continuously.

‘The defence case is he did not use controlling or coercive behaviour and did not act in any of those ways.’

Judge Manley also talked about the alleged events in Dubai, saying: ‘Ms Greville alleges the defendant was aggressive with her, that he threw her out of a room at the Westin Hotel naked…and the defendant started an argument and in the hotel room, ordered her to leave and pulled her handbag on her arm so he caused bruising to her wrist.

‘The defence says there was no aggression or violence whatsoever. The prosecution say these are examples of controlling and coercive behaviour and are relevant events although the events took place outside the jurisdiction.’

She said the jury must not convict Giggs solely or mainly on the events in Dubai and must consider whether alleged events which happened in England are proved.

Judge Manley then turned to the assault charges, and said: ‘[It is alleged] that the defendant deliberately headbutted Kate Greville and caused her injury to her lip. The defendant says any contact between faces was accidental and occurred during a scuffle over her mobile phone.

‘The definition of assault is the deliberate use of force by the defendant on someone else. What is ABH? ABH is any injury caused by the assault.

‘The prosecution must make you sure that he deliberately headbutted Kate Greville to the facial area and the headbutt caused injury to Kate Greville’s lip.

‘Assault by beating reflects the allegation the defendant during the first scuffle between him and Kate Greville deliberately elbowed Emma Greville as she tried to pull him off her sister.

‘The defendant says he was not aware of Emma Greville being present and if she was he did not elbow her as described. It was not deliberate and in fact accidental.

‘The prosecution must make you sure the defendant intentionally or recklessly inflicted unlawful force. Injuries do not have to be caused, it’s the unlawful force.’

Judge Manley also dealt with the subject of alcohol in the case.

She said it was accepted by both prosecution and defence that Giggs and Ms Greville had drunk alcohol on the evening of November, but Giggs was not saying his behaviour was adversely affected by drink.

She said in any event, that would not provide him with a defence.

The judge also said the jury can take into account Giggs’ previous good character and lack of previous convictions. She said this could be considered a ‘positive feature’ and that his good character made it ‘less likely’ he had done the actions he has been accused of.

Prosecutor Peter Wright in his closing speech told the jury that a passage in the 999 call, was a ‘microcosm of the entire case’.

The jury heard the emergency operator ask ‘what’s happening there?’ to which Emma Greville replied ‘Assault. Headbutted her’.

The operator then tries to clarify the situation by asking: ‘Who’s assaulted who?’ to which Giggs replied: ‘You f****** caused this’.

Mr Wright said: ‘What a remark, not ‘it was an accident’, he didn’t mean it. The reference ‘You f****** caused this’ is to Emma, not to Kate, because of what she says.’

Emma Greville is then heard to say: ‘How have I caused this?… I think yeah, he’s just headbutted her in the face… Ryan I am saying anything I want to f****** say, you have headbutted my sister… I don’t care if your daughter is 17, I don’t care about your daughter.’

Mr Wright continued: ‘In that microcosm what we have is unlawful acts of violence by the defendant in counts two to three, an attempt by him to absolve any responsibility on his part for what he has done, those acts of violence by blaming another or the other, the one on the receiving end of his excesses, when that fails emotional blackmail and as a last resort an attempt to avoid the consequences. That’s the microcosm of this case in this short exchange.’

He added: ‘It’s about what he’s not known for, what lies hidden beneath the surface of this character and of his character. It’s about the abuse of power by a man over another human being. It’s actually a tale that is as old as the hills and repeats itself in this case before your very eyes at various points from that 999 call.

‘It’s about a man who thinks or thought he could do whatever he liked in respect of his treatment of Kate Greville and he could get away with it because of the sad history of this relationship, revealing that his excesses were endured by her, excused and kept private.

‘But all that changed on the night of November 1, 2020, when the basis upon which he operated disintegrated before his very eyes and the private persona of Ryan Giggs was exposed to public scrutiny.

‘When the woman he coerced and controlled during their lengthy, fractured and volatile relationship, had the courage to stand up to him, when what he was capable of was witnessed and experienced by her sister, when later his messages in all their ugly details were exposed to a wider audience than that intended.

‘His expressions of affection were utterly hollow, 19,000 expressions of affection or a man prepared to do and say whatever he wants to get his own way.’

Talking about Giggs’ text to friends, Mr Wright said: ‘Just waiting for the bars to open so I can get some c****e’.

‘He treated (Kate Greville) as a commodity and continued to do so, that’s the Ryan Giggs that sits in the dock and the Ryan Giggs who was properly lauded by his former manager and the general public and by a wider audience.

‘The reality is the truth has caught up with him and now it’s time, it’s his time to pay the price.’

He added: ‘She had the courage not only on that night but in the crucible of the witness box to speak up to reveal in deeply embarrassing detail about what he had said and done to her over the period of their relationship. You may conclude that speaking out was for her very cathartic, the pent up emotions about what he had said and done were able to finally spill out.

‘You will no doubt consider how she fared when matters were put to her, explaining, countering, refuting each assertion put to her. Deeply embarrassing and private material.

‘Scheming, manipulative, devious? Or a previously emotional, brittle and vulnerable woman, previously malleable to this man had reached her breaking point and was now empowered and able to speak out.’

‘The truth is there are two very different Ryan Giggs. The one exposed for public consumption and the Ryan Giggs that exists on occasions behind closed doors, even he recognises this.’

Mr Wright continues: ‘When the mask slips, he is the persona reflected in counts one to three, the living embodiment of contradictions in this case.

‘When angered he would and could revert to acts of aggression and violence including the barely concealed threat of domination because that is his master card, it’s the trump card in this case.’

The prosecutor added: ‘His ultimate trump card was physical domination, the shouting and screaming, the turning up unannounced, the throwing of personal items at her or smashing of them in emphasis if he did not get his own way or if she tried to defy him, designed to humiliate and dominate.’ 

It comes after toe-curling messages he sent to her were read out in court in court last week. One such example was: ‘It blows my mind that your surname is Greville. It rhymes with [Gary] Neville, who is one of my besties, and Breville, which is my favourite toastie maker… it’s these things that make us so special.’ 

The court previously heard how Giggs once danced on a chair with former Man United teammate Neville during a boozy Christmas party, according to chairman of his football club Karen Baird. 

The jury also heard on Friday how loved-up Giggs messaged Ms Greville saying: ‘You are the jam in my doughnut, the truffle in my pasta and the salt in my tequila.’

He also compared her to Fort Knox, ‘because it’s full of gold’.

In another exchange, Giggs told Ms Greville he had made ‘scrambled eggs a la chef Giggsy’ for breakfast, and messaged his former flame saying: ‘I think you’re fandabidozi’. 

Giggs also wrote an acrostic poem using the first letters of Ms Greville’s surname, including ‘Gorgeous’ for ‘G’, ‘Vivacious’ for ‘V’ and ‘Everything I’ve Ever Wanted’ for ‘E’.

The trial also heard on Friday from Giggs’ former boss Sir Alex Ferguson, who explained how he would make an example out of the player in the Manchester United dressing room, but insisted that he never saw him get ‘angry or aggressive’.

The legendary ex-football boss, 80, who managed Giggs throughout the vast majority of his career, said he would give the Welsh midfielder the ‘sharp end of my tongue’ when he was upset at his team’s performance.

But the tough-talking Scottish manager insisted ‘I knew he could take it’. Speaking from the witness box in Giggs’ domestic assault trial, he also praised his former player’s temperament as ‘wonderful’.

Sir Alex appeared at Manchester Crown Court on Friday as a character witness for Giggs, who is accused of ‘headbutting’ his ex-girlfriend Ms Greville during a row at his £1.7million mansion in Worsley, Greater Manchester, in November 2020.

The former Wales midfielder is also accused of assaulting Ms Greville’s sister, Emma, during the same row and using coercive and controlling behaviour towards his former girlfriend. He denies the allegations and is on trial.

On Friday, Sir Alex, who appeared as a character witness for Giggs, described him as having a ‘fantastic, wonderful temperament’ and someone who never got ‘angry or aggressive’ despite playing top level football under him.

He told the court that he had known him since the age of 13 and found him to be one of the best-behaved players he has ever worked with, both on and off the pitch.

Sir Alex said: ‘When I first met him he was at a local team and training at Manchester City’s ground. We were working hard to get him to come to Clifton (Manchester United’s training ground).

‘He came to us with his father on one occasion and after that we started visiting his house to convince him to come to Manchester United.

Sir Alex, who was in the witness box for around ten minutes, revealed that he regularly visited Giggs’ home with Archie Knox, his assistant at the time.

He continued: ‘Our main contact was Ryan’s mother. She was very good about it all. Ryan was a quiet boy, he just sat there and listened to what his mother was saying.’

Sir Alex, who was wearing a grey suit, white shirt and purple tie told the court that after Giggs signed for Manchester United, he took him personally under his wing after he broke into the first team at the age of 17.

Sir Alex said: ‘He was being compared to George Best. There was a lot of press and media attention on him. I saw him every day, I was his manager. The boy was great, he was no problem.’