The time has arrived for Ryan Giggs to “pay the price” after “the truth has caught up with him”, his ex-girlfriend’s barrister told the jury in the former Manchester United star’s assault trial.
Giggs, 48, is accused of assaulting ex Kate Greville, 38, and her younger sister, Emma Greville, 26, on November 1, 2020, with a further charge relating to controlling and coercive behaviour towards Kate Greville between 2017 and November 2020. He denies all charges.
“The reality is the truth has caught up with him and now it’s time,” Peter Wright QC said. “It’s time to pay the price.” But as the trial draws to a close, with the jury to begin deliberations on Tuesday, Giggs’ defence counsel Chris Daw QC told the jury that if they think the 13-times Premier League winner is “probably guilty” they must consider him not guilty.
On Monday the jury, made up of seven women and five men, heard closing statements from both the prosecution and defence, with both summarising the evidence heard in the first 10 days of the trial. Judge Hilary Manley also provided her directions to the jury, indicating that they must consider the coercive and controlling behaviour charge before the two counts of assault.
Speaking first, Mr Wright said: “This case is about the abuse of power of a man over another human being. It’s actually a tale which is as old as the hills.
“It is about a man who thinks, or thought, he could do whatever he liked in respect of his treatment of Kate Greville and that he could get away with it because the sad history of this relationship revealed that his excesses were endured by her, excused and kept private.
“But all that changed on the night of November 1 when the basis upon which he operated disintegrated before his very eyes and the public persona of Ryan Giggs was exposed to public scrutiny.
“When the woman he had controlled or coerced in their lengthy, fractious and volatile relationship had the courage to stand up to him. When later his messages in all their ugly detail were exposed to a wider audience than that was intended and the intended target.”
Mr Wright said that Giggs “treated her as a commodity” and the audio of the 999 call made on the night of the alleged assault was “a microcosm of the relationship.”
He credited Ms Greville’s willingness “to reveal in all its deeply embarrassing detail what he had said and done to her over in the period of their relationship”, adding to that the jury “may conclude speaking out was cathartic, the pent up emotions of what he had said done finally able to spill out.”
Continuing, Mr Wright said: “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.”
But in response Mr Daw claimed the prosecutor had “cherry-picked” evidence and stressed to the jury that it was up to the prosecution, rather than Giggs, to prove their case. He called on the jury to be “scrupulously fair” when judging the “deficiencies” in Giggs’ evidence. “To say probably guilty is a vote for not guilty,” he said. “Probably is not beyond reasonable doubt.”
In relation to Giggs’ alleged assault of Ms Greville, who says the former footballer forcefully headbutted her, Mr Daw said: “Just think about it, using common sense. He is taller than her, physically fit. A ‘major force’ headbutt causes only a little cut to the lip, no contact to the nose, no contact to the eye socket?
“It is simply utterly incredible that there was a headbutt,” he added “It was something that was created because she did have a cut lip and then she started screaming and shouting that he had headbutted her. You [the jury] will have to consider whether that was simply twisting reality.”
The trial continues.