Kate Greville: Ryan Giggs’s ex tells trial staged photo was to ‘take back control’ - court case latest

Ryan Giggs's trial was told his ex staged a newspaper photo in the days after he is alleged to have headbutted her, but she denied she did so in order to “turn the public against him”.

PR executive Kate Greville told Manchester Crown Court she arranged for the picture to be taken of her walking her dog along a country lane because she wanted members of the media to leave her doorstep.

The 38-year-old also told the court she is “hugely ashamed” she kept going back to him - and denied she had planned to get pregnant by him.

The court also heard she regretted wrongly telling him she had cancerous cells after a smear test, with her saying she wanted “to get him off my back”.

Giggs, 48, denies using controlling and coercive behaviour against Ms Greville between August 2017 and November 2020, assaulting her, causing actual bodily harm, and the common assault of her younger sister.

What did Kate Greville say about living with Ryan Giggs?

Ms Greville was asked at Giggs’ trial why she moved into the former Welsh international’s home during the first Covid-19 lockdown if “he had been a serial and violent abuser”.

She said: “It was a cycle of abuse that made me feel insecure.

“I kept going back, he kept promising the world.”

Her voice broke as she told the jury: “He made me believe that he would not do it again and, stupidly, I went back. I am hugely ashamed of that, but I did.”

Jurors at Manchester Crown Court heard that PR executive Ms Greville, 36, had described living with the defendant during the first Covid-19 lockdown from March 2020 as “utter hell”.

The pair moved in together for the first time after Giggs asked her to live with him at his property in Worsley, Greater Manchester, she said.

On Thursday, Chris Daw QC, defending, continued his cross-examination of Ms Greville, asking her: “Could you have gone to your parents or someone else?”

Ms Greville replied: “Yes.”

Mr Daw said: “Was one of the reasons you didn’t because actually you wanted to spend time with Ryan in his rather larger house?”

The witness said: “I wanted to stay with Ryan, not because of his house but because we had just started the relationship again.”

Mr Daw said: “Can I suggest that you would not have done that if he had been a serial and violent abuser?”

The barrister played to the jury two videos of the couple in lockdown – one in which they exercised together in the garden and the other rapping along to 50 Cent’s In Da Club.

Mr Daw put it to Ms Greville that lockdown was obviously hard but the pair were doing normal things “much of the time” and having fun.

Ms Greville said: “It was not all fun. It doesn’t mean he was being nice to me all the time.

“At the start of lockdown it was fine but it got progressively worse.”

What was said about her decision to leave Giggs?

During lockdown, the couple also took part in online family quizzes, wine tasting on Zoom and had Michelin-starred chefs bring in food, the court heard.

But Ms Greville said there were arguments, including one involving loading the dishwasher.

She told the court: “He was making me feel like I was stupid, the way I was loading it.

“I had to do it exactly the way he wanted to do it. That’s just one example of many.”

Mr Daw said: “You suggest in your various accounts that lockdown was a period of living hell.”

Ms Greville replied: “I felt like I was losing my mind. I was having panic attacks. It was a horrific time for me.”

Earlier this week, Ms Greville told a jury that Giggs grabbed her by the shoulders and headbutted her in November 2020.

In the lead up to the alleged attack, she said she learned he had “full-on relationships” with eight women while they were together.

On Thursday, Mr Daw said to Ms Greville: “I suggest to you that decision (to leave him) was entirely based on that issue, that infidelity. It was nothing to do with coercion, violence, anything like that.”

Ms Greville replied: “There’s a lot of emails between me and him where I say a lot more things about the control and coercion and manipulation.”

She said it was “incorrect” that her decision to leave Giggs was solely because “he was a cheat”.

What was said about a ‘plan’ to get pregnant’?

Mr Daw asked whether finding out Giggs was involved with other women made her decide she “needed to come up with a plan”.

Ms Greville told the court: “I needed a plan to get away in secret so he couldn’t find me, so he wouldn’t harass me. And how to let him know how I had found all those things out.”

Mr Daw said: “Your plan was to get pregnant by Mr Giggs.”

Ms Greville said: “No, absolutely not.”

Chris Daw also said: “If you had got pregnant with Mr Giggs, you would have anticipated a significant amount of support for a long period of time?”

He added: “You would have been tied together pretty much forever.”

Ms Greville replied: “I know, and I would never have done that because that’s not what I wanted.”

She agreed with Mr Daw that Giggs was “very flirtatious with women” and “got a lot of attention out and about in all sorts of situations, from both men and women, because he’s well known”.

She told the jury: “I left him that night because I found this out, but it was in combination with everything else that was going on at the time that made me take that decision that I didn’t want to be with him.”

The defence barrister said: “If you had just left him at that point you would have left with nothing financially.”

Ms Greville replied: “I didn’t want anything financially.”

She agreed she was not “remotely as wealthy” as Giggs, but said: “I could still take myself on nice holidays, buy myself nice things – he didn’t just provide me with that.”

Ms Greville disagreed with Mr Daw’s claim that: “When you were with Mr Giggs you would sometimes stay in hotels that cost more than some people earn in a year for a night.”

The court heard she messaged Giggs: “Can you ask your guy Pete at Harrods whether he can get those in a seven at Harrods?”, with a photo attached of a pair of Prada boots priced at £1,250.

What was said about cancerous cells?

In October 2020, Giggs messaged Ms Greville: “You have been in a weird mood the last couple of days”, the court heard.

Ms Greville replied: “Shall I tell you why I have been weird, if you really want to know. I was not going to say anything because I couldn’t bring myself to say it.

“I have not told anyone and the last time I told you anything you brushed it off.

“I had a smear test when you was away and I had cancerous cells. I had to go to hospital on Thursday.” Giggs responded: “Omg.”

Ms Greville said: “I don’t want to talk about it again until after Thursday. This is something I want to deal with on my own.”

Chris Daw said to Ms Greville: “The truth is you were going to have your contraceptive out.”

Ms Greville told the court: “I was getting my coil out and I also wanted a STD test. I wanted him off my back. I completely regret saying these things but I needed to say something to get him off my back and for him to leave me alone.”

Mr Daw said: “The true position is there was no medical emergency for the coil to be taken out.”

Ms Greville replied: “There was no medical emergency but it (the coil) was coming to an end and it needed taking out.”

“If I was saying I had cancerous cells then I would not have to have sex with him.”

What did the defence ask her about the alleged headbutt?

Chris Daw QC, defending Giggs, asked Ms Greville where the former Welsh international allegedly headbutted her, and she indicated her upper lip, between her lip and nose.

She said she had no idea which part of his head he used “because I didn’t see, because it was right in my face”.

Mr Daw said: “It wasn’t a headbutt, was it?”

Ms Greville replied: “Of course it was a headbutt.”

Mr Daw said: “It was two faces coming together in a very minor form of contact.”

She said: “That suggestion is completely false. What happened is he came at me with his arms on my shoulders, looked me straight in the eyes and headbutted me in my lip.”

What was said about a staged photo?

Jurors heard an article appeared in The Sun newspaper on 16 November with the photograph and a story which read: “Living hell. Ryan Giggs’s ex spotted with a bruised lip in first outing since Wales manager’s assault arrest”.

A week earlier on 10 November a friend messaged her: “I’m selling the next pic of you and getting some paper out of this (laughing emojis)”

Ms Greville replied: “We can set up a pic and get money for both of us. What do you think?”

The friend said: “I think yes.”

The complainant went on send her friend a link to The Sun article.

She tells her she looks “awful but me looking rough makes it look less staged”.

Under cross-examination, Mr Daw asked “But it was staged, wasn’t it?”

Ms Greville replied: “Yes, I did set it up.”

Mr Daw said: “You were setting up for public consumption a completely staged photograph where you were deliberately trying to make it look like something had happened to you?”

Ms Greville said: “No, I am not talking about an injury there.”

Mr Daw said: “You were trying effectively to tell the whole world a completely false story.”

Ms Greville replied: “I was trying to stop the paps turning up on my doorstep every day.

“To take back control.

“Obviously I had an injury and I wanted to show them the reality but it was about stopping the photographers and press turning up at my family’s door twice/three times a day to get pics of me.”

Mr Daw said “You were trying to get the public to turn on Mr Giggs.”

Ms Greville replied: “I wanted control of that first photograph and then it would end because they kept harassing me.”

Peter Wright QC, prosecuting, asked if she had any involvement in the written content of the article or was interviewed, to which she said no.

Mr Wright went on: “Have you every sought to be interviewed by anyone from the press?

“No,” she repeated.

She was also asked if she had sold the photograph or asked for payment for it to which she said she hadn’t.