A UK choose on Friday successfully branded England footballer’s wife Rebekah Vardy a liar, rejecting her “Wagatha Christie” libel swimsuit against Coleen Rooney following a trial that lifted the lid on superstar skullduggery.
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South Africa-born High Court choose Karen Steyn discovered that allegations made by Rooney against Vardy have been “substantially true” and that Vardy was complicit within the launch of damaging tales to The Sun newspaper by her agent.
Vardy’s husband Jamie performs for Leicester City, whereas Rooney is the wife of former Manchester United star Wayne. The 12-day trial in May laid naked tabloid double-dealing and the lives of the wealthy and well-known.
The ladies’s legal professionals had additionally represented Hollywood actor Johnny Depp and Chelsea Football Club’s former proprietor Roman Abramovich.
Legal prices reportedly ran to round £3 million, most of which is able to now fall to Vardy.
Rooney mentioned in an announcement that she was “pleased” by the end result.
But she regretted the case was delivered to courtroom “at such expense in times of hardship for so many people, when the money could have been far better spent helping others”.
There was no fast remark from Vardy.
Fascination with the lives of the wives and girlfriends (WAGs) of top-flight footballers – and their very public falling-out – produced wall-to-wall protection of the trial.
The pair’s designer outfits and Coleen’s surgical boot made front-page information, whereas social media cut up into two camps – #CrewColeen and #CrewRebekah.
Coleen, the childhood sweetheart of England’s main objective scorer, was dubbed “Wagatha Christie” after she arrange an elaborate sting to attempt to decide who was behind the leaks, then introduced her findings publicly.
“It’s… Rebekah Vardy’s account,” she mentioned.
Vardy vehemently denied leaking tales that Rooney solely shared with chosen associates on Instagram and had sought “substantial libel damages”.
But Steyn discovered that Vardy and her former agent Caroline Watt have been “party to the disclosure”.
“It is likely that Ms Watt undertook the direct act, in relation to each post, of passing the information to a journalist at The Sun,” and that Vardy “knew of, condoned and was actively engaged in this process,” she dominated.
English libel legislation positioned the onus on Rooney to show that her put up alleging she had traced the leaked tales to Vardy was “substantially true”.
Steyn dominated that Rooney “had succeeded in proving” that time.
Vardy confronted prolonged cross-examination in the course of the trial and was even questioned on an interview the place she derided the penis dimension of her earlier boyfriend, the pop singer Peter Andre.
Rooney’s lawyer accused her of being “an entirely unreliable witness”.
But her lawyer mentioned Vardy was “entitled to an award of substantial libel damages” for severe hurt to her popularity.
Summing up, Rooney’s lawyer alleged that Vardy “regularly and frequently leaked information to The Sun about a number of people… as opposed to simply Mrs Rooney”.
He accused her of being “hand in glove” with Watt, who didn’t testify and was unable to current a cell phone she mentioned she had dropped within the North Sea.
The lawyer alleged that Vardy selectively deleted cellphone messages forward of the trial.
Vardy’s lawyer mentioned his consumer “made mistakes” by trusting Watt, claiming she was unaware her agent was leaking tales. He mentioned the case had been “serious and extremely upsetting” for his consumer.
Judge Steyn agreed that Vardy had been subjected to “vile abuse”, together with when she was pregnant along with her fifth baby. Nothing within the libel case gave “any justification or excuse” for that, she wrote.
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