The jury in the trial of former Manchester United player Ryan Giggs has been discharged following failure to reach a verdict on any of the three counts brought against him during a four-week long domestic violence case at Manchester Crown Court.
The news means that Giggs, 48, could be facing a retrial, with the Crown Prosecution Service set to consider whether or not it is in the public interest to proceed with such. A decision on a retrial will be reached next week and, should it be agreed upon, it would not take place until June 2023.
One juror was lost to illness and so the jury was reduced to seven women and four men. Their deliberations went on for more than 20 hours but they failed to reach any verdicts. Verdicts were fist considered by jurors on the afternoon of August 23.
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On Tuesday, Jude Hilary Manley gave the jury a majority decision, meaning a verdict of 10-1 could be returned rather than a unanimous one. However, on Wednesday afternoon, the jury foreman told the court jurors that no verdicts had been reached on any of the three counts Giggs denied.
Jurors were thanked by Judge Manley before they were discharged from their duties. Giggs was released on bail until a mention hearing on September 7.
The Welshman was accused of headbutting Kate Greville, using alleged coercive and controlling behaviour and there was a third charge of assaulting Greville's sister, Emma. Following a three-and-half-week trial in which Manchester Crown Court heard that Giggs’ “sinister” behaviour had left Greville, a 36-year-old public relations executive, to feel “violated”.
Under cross-examination, Greville, describing the night of November 1, 2020, claimed that Giggs “looked me straight in the eyes and headbutted me in the face” as she tried to move out of his house having learned of his infidelity. The court heard that she was left with swelling and a cut lip.
But Giggs described it as a "scuffle" and "tussle" over the then couple taking each other's mobile phones that ended with "an accidental clash of heads". Defence barrister Chris Daw QC had told the jury that if they thought the 13-times Premier League winner is “probably guilty” they must consider him not guilty.
Greville had accused Giggs of kicking her in the back and dragging her naked out of a hotel room during their relationship, with their near-constant communication over WhatsApp and email becoming a key pillar of the case. During 12 days of evidence, the jury heard a significant selection of almost 20,000 messages exchanged between Giggs and Ms Greville during their six-year on-off relationship.
These included a poem written by Giggs in which he referred to his manhood as a totem pole, gushing messages from Ms Greville about their sex life and emails sent by the former footballer with "blackmail" and "c***" in the subject line. As part of the defence's case, Sir Alex Ferguson, 80, stood in the witness box and told the jury that Giggs had a “fantastic temperament.”
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