Coleen Rooney has won her court case against Rebekah Vardy in the Wagatha Christie saga that gripped the nation.
Vardy will now be hit with an estimated bill of £3million to cover both WAGs’ legal costs after a judge said her evidence at times “evasive or implausible”.
Two-and-a-half years after Rooney made the bombshell claims about Vardy, famously renamed “Wagatha Christie”, the court found that Vardy, along with her agent Caroline Watt, were involved in the distribution of information.
READ MORE: Rebekah Vardy and Coleen Rooney set to face off with rival TV shows about court row
Information shared included marriage, birthday, Halloween, pyjamas, car crash, gender selection, babysitting and flooded basement posts.
They considered it likely that Ms Watt was involved in the direct act of passing information to The Sun, but found Vardy “knew of, condoned and was actively engaged” in the process.
Additional information from Rooney’s private Instagram account was “likely to have been passed to The Sun by the Claimant and Ms Watt, acting together”, court documents reveal.
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To win the case Rooney needed to prove her statement, which famously ended with her stating the person behind the leaks was “………Rebekah Vardy’s account”, were substantially true and in public interest.
She failed to prove that it was in public interest, but successfully proved that it was substantially true.
The court also determined that the loss of WhatsApp messages between Vardy and Watt was “deliberate rather than accidental”, adding that the missing data would have only supported Rooney’s truth defence.
Following the post from Rooney accusing Vardy of publishing stories about her, Vardy faced “vile abuse”.
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Mrs Justice Steyn said “Some members of the public have responded to the reveal post by subjecting Mrs Vardy to vile abuse, including messages wishing her, her family and even her then unborn baby, ill in the most awful terms.”
Mrs Steyn said that nothing which Mrs Vardy was accused of is justification for the subjecting her or her family to “such vitriol”.
Rooney has since issued a statement following her triumph as she said: “She said: “Naturally, I am pleased the judge has found in my favour in her judgement today.
“It was not a case I ever sought or wanted. ‘Both before and after my social media posts in October 2019, I made constant efforts to avoid the need for such a public and drawn out court case.
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“But all my efforts to do so were knocked back by Mrs Vardy and her lawyers.”
She added: “This left me with no alternative but to go through with the case to defend myself and to end the repeated leaking of my private information to The Sun.
“The leaks from my private Instagram account began in 2017. They continued for almost two years, intruding on my privacy and that of my family..”
Coleen explained that she bears Vardy “no ill will”, but said the judgement makes it “clear” that she was right with her Instagram post which prompted the trial.
To close up the statement she added: “Finally, I would to thank all of my legal team, my family and friends and everyone who has supported me – including the public – through this difficult and stressful time.”
(Image: Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
The court battle drew to a close back on May 19 meaning the result has taken more than nine weeks to come in delivering a victory for Coleen.
Coleen, 36, was locked in a bitter legal battle with Rebekah at London’s High Court after she claimed the 40-year-old’s Instagram account was behind a number of leaked stories about her to the tabloids.
Rebekah denied leaking stories to the media and sued her fellow footballer’s wife for libel, while Coleen defended the claim on the basis her Instagram post was “substantially true”.
The trial came to a close when both legal teams made their closing statements to the judge.
Mr Sherborne asked the judge to rule on two things – whether the post was “substantially true” and if it was a “statement of a matter of public interest”.
Sherborne also said there had been a “deliberate deletion and destruction of evidence”, and urged the judge to draw the inference that the disappearance of evidence was ‘deliberate’ and designed to hide Vardy’s actions.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
