‘Come quickly, he’s headbutted her’: 999 call revealed in Ryan Giggs trial

Giggs told police officers his ex-girlfriend had been injured in a ‘rumble’ on the floor of his Manchester mansion, and claimed he was kicked in the face
Former Manchester United footballer Ryan Giggs arriving at Manchester Crown Court (Steven Allen/PA)
PA Wire
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The 999 call from Ryan Giggs’ ex-girlfriend’s sister has been played in court, as she pleaded with police: “Please can you come quickly, he’s headbutted her in the face”.

Kate Greville, 36, says she was in a coercive and controlling relationship with the former Manchester United ace, 48, and claims she was assaulted when she tried to leave him.

Manchester crown court heard the emergency call from Ms Greville’s younger sister Emma on Friday morning, during the incident when police were called to Gigg’s mansion on November 1, 2020.

“He headbutted her”, she told the call operator. “Please can you come quickly. He has headbutted her in the face.”

Ms Greville can be heard telling Giggs “you’ve headbutted my sister”, and after some shouting she replies: “I don’t care if you have a daughter who is 17, I don’t care about your daughter.”

Kate Greville told jurors this week that Giggs had pleaded with her not to call police after the alleged assault, telling her: “This will ruin me.”

During the 999 call, Emma Greville is monitoring Giggs while they wait for officers to arrive, and tells the operator: “I think he might have done a runner”, before quickly adding: “Ryan, you’ve got to stay there.

“You headbutted my sister.”

Giggs can be heard saying “she had my phone”, and his former girlfriend screams out - apparently in pain – and says: “Oh my god it’s so bad.”

Emma Greville tells the operator again that Giggs “headbutted her, lip’s bruised, blood everywhere.

“She is in so much pain. She had been headbutted in the lip.”

Asked for her sister’s boyfriend’s name, she replied: “Ryan Giggs, the footballer Ryan Giggs.”

The operator then replied: “As in the Ryan Giggs?”

Emma Greville made a claim that Giggs “said he is going to headbutt me”, and as a row broke out she told the former footballer and Wales national boss: “Yeah, we are losers Ryan. What are you waiting for?”

Former Manchester United footballer Ryan Giggs leaves Manchester Crown Court (Steven Allen/PA)
PA Wire

Asked by the 999 call operator if she still needed an ambulance, Emma Greville replied: “It’s just a bust lip, I don’t know. He headbutted her right in the face so I can’t say.”

Jurors in the trial were also played footage of Giggs being questioned by a police officer at his home, shortly before he was arrested and locked in the back of a van.

One officer reported seeing blood around the ex-footballer’s mouth when they arrived.

Giggs said they had been out for a meal that evening, Ms Greville “accused me of a couple of things”, and she left and returned to the home they shared in Worsley, Greater Manchester.

“I then came home and asked her to leave – ‘why are you still here?’”, Giggs told the police officer.

Giggs said they rowed over custody of their five-month old cocker spaniel puppy, and Ms Greville then took away his phone.

“We got into a little bit of a tangle, and rumbled on the floor there”, he said, standing in the hallway of his £1.7 million mansion.

Giggs at Manchester Crown Court watching ex-girlfriend Kate Greville giving evidence on police video (Elizabeth Cook/PA)
PA Wire

“I didn’t know if she had got the phone or not. I’ve then tried to get the phone off her, we struggled on the floor, she has kicked me in the head and bust my lip. Then it’s all calmed down.”

Giggs said Ms Greville refused to leave the property and he went to ask his neighbour for help, and when he returned to the house he “stupidly” took hold of her mobile phone.

“There’s been a struggle. I’ve hit her in the lip”, he said. “I got injured first, then it calmed down.”

Asked if she will back up his story, Giggs replied: “She is going to say I’ve attacked her. Her sister…will obviously be on her side.”

Giggs admitted he did not know Ms Greville’s date of birth when asked, and told officers her possessions are in the driveway as he had moved them out of the house when she refused to leave.

Giggs denies coercive and controlling behaviour between 2017 and 2020, when he is accused of bouts of aggression and violence, bombarding Ms Greville with messages when she did not reply to him, and turning up unannounced at her home and gym.

The PR executive also claims Giggs threw a laptop bag at her head in a hotel room in Dubai, once threw her naked into a hotel corridor, and injured her wrist in another alleged incidence of violence.

Giggs denies ever being violent and has accused his ex-girlfriend of lying and exaggerating her story. On Thursday, she was accused of lying to him about a cancer scare and hatching a secret plot to get pregnant when their relationship looked to be ending, amid allegations of cheating.

The trial continues.

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