Thursday 19 May 2022 03:43 PM Wagatha Christie trial: Rebekah Vardy's husband Jamie is blasted by Coleen ... trends now

Jamie Vardy was today blasted by Coleen Rooney's lawyer for failing to give evidence under oath on the bombastic final day of the Wagatha Christie case where his wife Rebekah was accused of lying to the High Court.

Celebrity lawyer David Sherborne claimed Mrs Vardy's case had 'disintegrated' during the week-long trial in an eviscerating attack on the wife of Premier League footballer at the Royal Courts of Justice.

And Mr Vardy also came in for criticism, with Mr Sherborne accusing him of not being willing to be called as a witness so he could avoid giving evidence under oath. Instead he gave a statement outside accusing Wayne Rooney of talking 'nonsense' about him and his wife.

Mrs Rooney's bronzed barrister, who has also represented Meghan Markle, Johnny Depp, Kate Moss, Sir Paul McCartney and Sienna Miller, said: 'It's not lost on the court, I'm sure, that Mr Vardy was perfectly willing to give a statement not under oath but apparently not willing to provide one for the process of these proceedings.' He added: 'Or else the Claimant [Rebekah] did not wish for his evidence to be tested.'

It came after Tuesday's evidence where Jamie accused Wayne Rooney of ‘talking nonsense’ about them. England’s record goalscorer Mr Rooney said he was asked to step in by manager Roy Hodgson and his deputy Gary Neville because of concerns in the international team’s camp over Mrs Vardy’s diary column in The Sun.

Mr Sherborne read out Jamie's press statement, which said: 'Wayne is talking nonsense. He must be confused because he never spoke to me about issues concerning Becky's media work at Euro 2016. There was nothing to speak about, I know this because I discuss everything with Becky.' 

In response to Mr Sherborne, Rebekah's QC Hugh Tomlinson said today that her husband 'couldn't have given any relevant evidence' and 'couldn't have assisted the court in the slightest'.

It came after Tuesday's evidence where the Jamie and Rebekah dramatically left the Wagatha Christie libel trial early after her husband accused Wayne Rooney of ‘talking nonsense’ about them.

Jamie Vardy led his wife out of the High Court during a ten-minute interval. Moments later, her legal team told the judge she had gone because she ‘was not feeling very well’. The Rooneys appeared in good spirits and were smiling as they left court at the end of the day’s proceedings.

In an unusual step, Leicester City striker Vardy, 35, issued a statement in which he disputed Rooney’s account to the court.

However his carefully worded comments stopped short of accusing the Derby County manager of lying under oath.

Rooney, 36, had told the court about an ‘awkward’ chat in which he asked Vardy to speak to his wife because her behaviour was a potential distraction for the England team during the Euros in 2016.

He said it broke an unwritten rule among the players not to court publicity during big tournaments. He was giving evidence during his wife Coleen’s ‘Wagatha Christie’ libel trial, launched after she accused Mrs Vardy of leaking information.

Rooney said that the leaks had been ‘very traumatic’ for his wife, as she had not known who was behind the betrayal and who she could still trust.

Rebekah Vardy today blamed her publicist for selling stories about Coleen Rooney and admitted she regretted calling Coleen a 'c***' and her husband Wayne a 'sh*tebag' in abusive messages - but insisted her rival's Wagatha Christie Instagram reveal was 'misconceived'.

Mrs Vardy's barrister Hugh Tomlinson QC said that his client is a victim - and now accepts the possibility that her friend and former agent Caroline Watt may have been the source of the leaks, declaring his client: 'Does not know to this day what happened'.

It came on the final day of the Wagatha Christie libel trial brought by Mrs Vardy to 'establish her innocence and vindicate her reputation' after Mrs Rooney accused her personally leaking false stories to The Sun in October 2019.

Mr Tomlinson said 'Mrs Vardy has obviously made mistakes. One of them, the most serious, was to trust someone she shouldn't have' [referring to her agent Caroline Watt]. Another is the way she talked in private conversations with Ms Watt. She accepts she said things which, had she known they would come out in public, she would not have said.'

He added: 'This is a case about Mrs Vardy and the way she has been treated by thousands, maybe tens of thousands of people on social media… this goes on to this day. Even during this trial she's continued to receive abuse on social media.'

The barrister continued: 'Throughout this case, she (Mrs Vardy) has sought to find out the position. The very first thing she said to Mrs Rooney was 'send me the evidence, send me the posts. The suggestion that she is trying to hide something is quite wrong'.

Rebekah Vardy 'lied under oath', gave 'implausible' evidence that 'cannot be trusted' and deleted incriminating WhatsApp messages in a fatally flawed libel action she brought against her rival Coleen that should never have made it to the High Court, Mrs Rooney's barrister declared today.

Mr Sherborne said that Mrs Vardy's case had 'almost entirely disintegrated' over the course of the trial, which entered its seventh and final day today.

He added: 'Anyone could be forgiven for wondering how on earth this case has been allowed to get this far. She [Coleen] finds herself at the end of a seven-day libel trial, and for what?'

Mr Sherborne said: 'Mrs Vardy was a highly unreliable witness. Her evidence should be treated with the utmost caution. Its accuracy simply cannot be trusted. The contrast in the way Mrs Rooney gave evidence could not have been clearer.'

He said Coleen 'had been honest' while Rebekah's 'evidence was 'ill-considered and lacking in candour'.' He said Mrs Vardy's memory had been 'selective' as she gave evidence.

Referring to the 'disappearance' of the WhatsApp messages between Rebekah and her agent and publicist Caroline Watt, central to the case, Mr Sherborne said her explanation that the loss happened during export to her solicitors was 'impossible.'

The fact Ms Watt's phone was 'dropped in the North Sea' during a trip to Scotland was 'fishy enough', Mr Sherborne said.

'There is only one conclusion and that is that Mrs Vardy deleted the WhatsApp chat and it was a deliberate lie to cover up her wrongdoing. There is no other plausible explanation. The only conclusion the court can reach is that she deleted the WhatsApp chat and then lied under oath about it', he told Mrs Justice Steyn.

Mrs Vardy, who left the courtroom with a laptop in hand about half an hour after the hearing started this morning and returned with a bottle of Lucozade an hour later, says she brought the case so she could clear her name and 'establish her innocence and vindicate her reputation' after Mrs Rooney accused her personally leaking false stories to The Sun in the now infamous Wagatha Christie Instagram post in October 2019.

'The burden lies on us to establish on a balance of probabilities that the post is substantially true. It is what she [Coleen] believed at the time... and it is what she believes even more so now that we have got to the end of the case', Mr Sherborne said.

Finishing his statement this afternoon he said: 'Mrs Rooney was right in what she said in her reveal post, and she still is'.

As the Wagatha Christie case came to an extraordinary crescendo today, the High Court also heard:  

Rebekah Vardy was a 'highly unreliable witness' whose memory was 'selective' while Coleen Rooney 'had been honest', court hears. Mrs Rooney's legal team accused her of lying and deliberately deleting WhatsApp messages; Coleen Rooney's barrister David Sherborne also had a go at Jamie Vardy after the Leicester City striker complained about allegations of his wife Rebekah's media antics outside the Royal Courts of Justice - but did not give evidence under oath; Mr Sherborne claimed Mrs Vardy had carried out 'targeted' deletions of her WhatsApp messages with agent Caroline Watts and said a 'substantial' amount of vital evidence had been lost in the case due to 'deliberate deletion'. He told the High Court that even Rebekah's own expert' had concluded the way the data has been lost was 'surprising' saying there was 'no plausible explanation for this'; Sherborne told the High Court that Rebekah had a 'long history of setting up fake staged' photos and pointed out how she initially denied organising the pap opportunity in Russia before claiming she couldn't remember the incident;  The court heard that Rebekah and her publicist Caroline Watt are the 'only possible suspects' for leaking Coleen's gender selection and flooded basement posts to the media, and that it is 'clearly more than probable' that they secretly passed on information about Coleen's 2019 'car crash';   Mr Sherborne said Rebekah's excuse that she didn't reply to Caroline Watt's 'it was me' text because she was watching Dancing On Ice is 'implausible' and 'inconsistent'. She claimed that 'the word 'leak' comes so easily from Mrs Vardy's mouth';  The barrister claimed the Wag had carried out 'targeted' deletions of her WhatsApp messages with Caroline Watt and said a 'substantial' amount of vital evidence had been lost in the case due to 'deliberate deletion'; Mrs Vardy left the courtroom with a laptop in hand about half an hour after the hearing started this morning. She was missing for at least an hour before returning with a bottle of Lucozade just before lunch; MailOnline revealed that Coleen and Wayne Rooney have gone on their summer holidays with their four sons. The case was meant to finish yesterday. A source said: 'It's been a long and gruelling process for both Wayne and Coleen and they didn't want to disappoint their children';

David Sherborne claimed he had proved that Rebekah Vardy had 'regularly and frequently' leaked information to The Sun about his client and others in her sphere.  He said: 'Just because she [Vardy] was not the one who pulled the trigger on occasion, it does not mean she was not responsible'.  

Mr Sherborne also said the court 'can and should conclude' that the loss of WhatsApp messages between Rebekah Vardy and her publicist Caroline Watt was 'the result of deliberate deletion'. 'The loss of documents is substantial in this case,' he said. 

Mr Sherborne said these were deliberately deleted - despite claims from Vardy they were lost accidentally.

He described the case as a 'deliberate trail of destruction' and a 'series of improbable events'.

Vardy's suggestion that a 'new phone' was responsible for the loss of messages is 'wholly unsupported by the evidence' said Mr Sherborne, with no evidence a new device was used to log into Instagram.

'If there was no new device, and the experts are agreed that there was not, then the only explanation is manual deletion,' he added.

He said Rebekah deleted the messages to 'cover up the collusion' between her and Ms Watts, claiming they had been 'corrupted' during the exporting process.

'She says the WhatsApp export was carried out on an old laptop which stopped working between October and December 2019 and no longer functions,' says the lawyer.

When Coleen's legal team asked to forensically examine the laptop they were told it had been 'disposed of' by Rebekah because it 'had been damaged beyond repair'.

'No explanation has been given for this deliberate destruction of evidence', he said.

'She could not recall when she actually destroyed the laptop but accepted it was after she had been told to preserve everything.'

Then, the fact Ms Watt's phone was 'dropped in the north sea' during a trip to Scotland is 'fishy enough', Mr Sherborne said.

'If Ms Watt's phone had not been destroyed then the claimant's messages (including all media files) would have been accessible. It was therefore necessary for both to be destroyed to properly cover up any wrongdoing and conceal discovery.  RIP Ms Watts phone'.

He then pointed to the fact that the court had also not heard evidence from agent Caroline Watt who he alleged 'clearly had repeated contact with these journalists'. Ms Watt had a 'hand-in-glove' relationship with Mrs Vardy, Mr Sherborne claimed, adding: 'No Caroline Watt is like Hamlet without the Prince of Denmark'.

Rebekah said in evidence that in her WhatsApp messages she had ‘used the word “leak” where I probably shouldn't use the word “leak”,’ .

Mr Sherborne said she had just ‘doubled down on her excuses’ in ‘another feat of linguistic gymnastics’.

He accused her of ‘deliberately lying’ and her contemporaneous messages should be given more weight than her oral evidence in the witness box.

Examining messages from Rebekah to her agent on the Danny Drinkwater leak, she said ‘I want paying for this x’.

He said: ‘This is just another example, as with Mr Andre, where she is trading money for private information.’

Turning to the 2018 World Cup and the staged photo of Rebekah and eight other WAGs outside a St Petersburg restaurant, Mr Sherborne said she initially denied any involvement in the incident in her witness statement to the court.

‘Once we had seen the messages between her and Ms Watt, this was inconsistent with her sworn statement. She then said she did not remember the incident.

‘It was hard to keep up with her explanations as she gave evidence in relation to this leak. Her case shifted at every stage with further and more fanciful explanations being made in the witness box.’

Mr Sherborne described Rebekah’s explanation that she ‘leaked’ information about her own miscarriage ‘utterly hopeless’.

On 6 August 2019, she messaged Ms Watt about an unidentified girl: ‘She's gone and done it now leak the Maldives stuff x’.

An article which later appeared explained Danielle Lloyd had a miscarriage - there is no mention of the Maldives in that article, with the Maldives honeymoon reported on 11 April 2019.

Rebekah claimed she had not leaked anything about Ms Lloyd and said the word ‘leak’ should mean ‘publish an article about her own miscarriage in Closer Magazine’.

‘This makes no sense,’ said Mr Sherborne.

‘It’s clear that she’s telling Ms Watt to leak private information about someone else, the Maldives stuff. One can only dread to think what it was.’

The case brought by Mrs Vardy, which has captivated millions and cost the WAGs a small fortune, was due to finish yesterday but went into extra time to allow barristers to prepare their final arguments at the Royal Courts of Justice. 

Rebekah arrived at the Royal Courts of Justice on The Strand at 10am, but was not accompanied by her husband Jamie who is playing for Leicester City against Chelsea tonight. She wore a £900 business-like black trouser suit with a green top. It was also the first time she wore her hair down and without sunglasses. She added a £5,000 heart-shaped rose gold Chopard diamond necklace around her throat.

The Rooneys are believed to have booked to go abroad believing it would all be over by now. The couple have sat through every day of the evidence but missed today's closing speeches because they had a holiday booked with their children Kai, Cass, Klay and Kit. 

The family were given permission from the judge to be absent. Mrs Justice Steyn will hear the final arguments today before publishing a written judgment in the coming weeks.

It's not known where the family are off for their sunshine break, but it has been timed for the end of the Championship season, which saw manager Wayne's Derby County relegated to League One after finishing second from bottom. Pre-season training will begin again in early to mid June.

The blockbuster trial has captivated millions with its twists and turns, and even split households into #TeamRooney or #TeamVardy factions.

The High Court trial centres around a viral social media post in October 2019, in which Coleen, 36, said she had carried out a 'sting operation' and accused Rebekah, 40, of leaking 'false stories' about her private life to the press.

Coleen, the wife of former England footballer Wayne Rooney, publicly claimed an account behind three fake stories she had posted on a personal Instagram account with The Sun newspaper was Rebekah's.

Rebekah, who is married to Leicester striker Jamie Vardy, denies leaking stories to the media and is suing her fellow footballer's wife for libel, while Coleen is defending the claim on the basis her post was 'substantially true'.

Over six days in courtroom number 13 at the Royal Courts of Justice, the pair have each given evidence, as has Rooney, also 36, who played for Everton and Manchester United and now manages Derby County.

Outlining Rebekah's case on May 10, her barrister Hugh Tomlinson QC said she had 'no choice' but to bring the case against Coleen so she could clear her name and 'establish her innocence and vindicate her reputation'.

David Sherborne, representing Coleen, told judge Mrs Justice Steyn that the case is essentially a 'detective story' and 'like any good detective story, you never find a person standing over the body with a smoking gun'.

He said there was 'inference', adding: 'You just have to conclude that it is more likely than not that Mrs Vardy was responsible, either directly or through Ms (Caroline - Mrs Vardy's friend and agent) Watt.'

Both footballers' wives have been seated just feet apart in court, in front of their barristers, for each day of the hearing. There was no hearing yesterday, but Rooney has attended every day. Vardy only appeared on Tuesday.

The fake stories Coleen planted on her Instagram during the sting operation featured her travelling to Mexico for a 'gender selection' procedure, her planning to return to TV and the basement flooding at her home.

In a now infamous post on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, she wrote: 'I have saved and screenshotted all the original stories which clearly show just one person has viewed them. It's ........... Rebekah Vardy's account.'

MailOnline readers on either #TeamVardy or #TeamRooney have called for the case to be televised - and joked about bringing out the popcorn rather than doing a day's work - while completely captivated by three days of Rebekah's extraordinary evidence, Coleen's debut in the witness box and star witness Rooney's testimony.

Others have obsessed over the rivals' expensive outfits as they arrive and the often comical court sketches of Rooney, whose drawn likeness has been compared to Lenin, Mike Tyson and even the humble Maris Piper potato.

In six days of evidence, Rebekah compared Peter Andre 's penis to a 'chipolata', and there were tears of laughter when she said arguing with Coleen was like arguing with a pigeon because 'it's still going to s**t in your hair'.

There were more laughs when Vardy was bamboozled by a reference to Davy Jones' Locker when the court heard her phone ended up at the bottom of the North Sea. Then Coleen revealed for the first time that she split from her husband Wayne, who blushed in court as she described how he was caught drink-driving with a 'party girl'.

Day 6 - Jamie Vardy accuses Wayne Rooney of talking 'nonsense' about his wife before leaving early after Rebekah falls ill

The Vardys leave early

Rebekah Vardy dramatically left the Wagatha Christie libel trial early on Tuesday after her husband accused Wayne Rooney of 'talking nonsense' about them.

Jamie Vardy led his wife out of the High Court during a ten-minute interval.

Moments later, her legal team told the judge she had gone because she 'was not feeling very well'.

The Rooneys appeared in good spirits and were smiling as they left court at the end of the day's proceedings, as legal experts predicted the case was going their way.

Wayne Rooney: Roy Hodgson asked me to speak to Jamie about his wife

Wayne Rooney told the High Court there was 'a lot of negativity' surrounding Mrs Vardy's column for The Sun and so he agreed to ask Vardy 'to ask his wife to calm down'.

Rooney recalled sitting down with his teammate over a can of Red Bull and a coffee in the England squad's games room during the competition in France.

He said: 'I remember the conversation I had with Jamie. It was awkward for me to speak to a teammate about his wife. It wasn't my place to speak to Mrs Vardy. I was asked to speak to Mr Vardy and I followed those instructions.'

Rooney said he did not know whether Vardy had raised the issue with his wife, saying: 'If Jamie gives that information to his wife or not is not down to me.' He was asked whether he was certain the conversation took place and replied: 'I'm sat here under oath. I 100 per cent spoke to Mr Vardy on the situation. Again, if he wants to relay that back to his wife that's entirely his business.'

...but Jamie brands his evidence 'nonsense' 

Around two hours later, Vardy issued the statement through his wife's PR agent. He said: 'Wayne is talking nonsense. He must be confused because he never spoke to me about issues concerning Becky's media work at Euro 2016.

'There was nothing to speak about, I know this because I discuss everything with Becky.'

The Vardys arrived at court hand in hand, and continued to hold hands throughout most of the morning's hearing. Mrs Vardy, who wore a £1,100 navy trouser suit by US designer Veronica Beard, briefly rested her head on her husband's shoulder when they arrived back in the court after the lunch break.

They failed to reappear in court after the ten-minute mid-afternoon break, when Mrs Vardy's legal team announced she had left because she was feeling unwell. It was the second day in a row that the 40-year-old left early.

Wayne Rooney says Coleen became 'a different mother and a different wife' as she 'struggled' with fallout from her 2019 Wagatha Christie post

Wayne Rooney claimed his wife Coleen Rooney had become a 'different mother and a different wife', adding that she had 'really struggled' with the fallout from her notorious 'Wagatha Christie' post three years ago.

Rooney also revealed he was asked by England manager Roy Hodgson to request that Jamie Vardy asked his wife Rebekah to 'calm down' during Euro 2016 in France, as the £3million trial continued at the High Court in London. Court observers said there was 'lots of whispering' between Rebekah and Vardy during Rooney's evidence.

Rooney, the side's captain, said he was pulled aside by Hodgson and his assistant Gary Neville and asked to raise the 'awkward' issue with Vardy over concerns that Rebekah was 'causing problems and distractions' for the team. He told the court about the conversation with Vardy, saying: 'We were in the games room, there was table tennis. I spoke to him, he had a can of Red Bull and I had a coffee, I remember those details because it was so awkward.'

Speaking about Hodgson's request, Rooney said: 'They asked me to, as captain, would I be able to speak to Mr Vardy on issues regarding his wife and I think we all knew we spoke about it, it was an awkward subject.' Among the issues was the idea Rebekah had 'some kind of column in The Sun', the court heard. Rooney said the boss wanted him 'to ask his wife to calm down and not bring any issues off the field that were unnecessary'.

Rebekah's lawyer Hugh Tomlinson QC asked him: 'Ask his wife to calm down... she wasn't dancing on tables?' Rooney - who had earlier sworn to tell the truth while holding a Bible in his hand - said: 'No, I wasn't aware of that. It was a lot of negativity amongst a lot of media coverage which as a group of players and as the manager of England he didn't want that to happen, so he asked would I be able to speak to Jamie and I went and done so.'

Rooney added: 'I think there was a few things at the time with Rebekah which the leaders of the team asked me to speak to Jamie about. I was at the understanding Rebekah had a column in The Sun newspaper and as I state... I obviously had better things on my mind. It was obviously awkward for me.'

Coleen's 'fake' Instagram posts about gender selection in Mexico and a flooded basement

The three stories posted by Coleen Rooney on her private Instagram account as part of her 'Wagatha Christie' investigation were revealed in court documents as the bomshell £3million libel trial continued.

Coleen has said she planted the stories - two of which were fake - as part of a 'sting operation', with the viewers restricted to only Rebekah Vardy's account, to see whether they would be leaked to The Sun newspaper.

The true one of these stories revealed in the High Court papers in London this morning was posted by Coleen on January 22, 2019 when she uploaded a picture on the private account, showing damage to her car after a collision.

The next day Rebekah said in a message to her agent Caroline Watt: 'She's a nasty b***h x' and 'I've taken a big dislike to her!... Would love to leak those stories x'. Rebekah claims her comments were not about Coleen.

Rebekah Vardy 'gave a photographer access to her Instagram account so he could sell stories'

Rebekah Vardy gave a photographer access to her Instagram account so he could sell stories, the court heard.

Public relations consultant Penelope Addarewa told how she was in a bistro with 'a well known' person who she overheard discussing the matter with photographer Danny Hayward.

She said she was 'taken aback' after hearing the 'revelations.

Mrs Addarewa said the claim was made during a 10-15 minute conversation which took place in the aftermath of Coleen Rooney's bombshell post and the 'media storm that followed in October 2019.

She said: 'They were talking about Coleen and Rebekah and how it's all going off here'. Danny said Becky was keeping to her story or words to that effect. He was talking a lot about Becky. He was just so blaze. I was just taken aback. I was really surprised.'

The mystery man, known only as 'Y' in the court, was speaking to Mr Hayward had not arrived at the meeting but the conversation took place on a speakerphone.

She said in her statement: 'The topic of Mrs Rooney and Mrs Vardy came up during their 'chat'.

'I cannot recall what exactly got them on to the topic but I specifically recall Danny mentioning that he had a means of access to Mrs Vardy's Instagram account and how he had that means of access for a long time.

'Their discussion of this topic was promoted by Mrs Rooney's statement some days earlier. Danny seemed to be speaking as though he even had a means of access to Mrs Vardy's Instagram account at the time of the meeting.

'Danny also mentioned that he had been involved in the sale of stories using Mrs Vardy's Instagram account as the source for the story.

'Y and Danny did not discuss the specifics of any particular story but he spoke openly in general terms about the fact that stories were sold with Mrs Vardy's Instagram account as the source.

'I specifically recall Danny saying that Mrs Vardy was not only aware that Danny had a means of access to her account but also that she was well aware that access had been and was being used to take content and pass it to the press.

'This much was abundantly clear to me from listening to the exchange, though there was no express discussion of Mrs Vardy personally benefitting from a financial perspective and it would therefore be speculative for me to suggest so.'

She said the 'boasts' were said in a 'blaze' way. Mrs Adaarewa added: 'From the discussions between them it was clear to me that they all worked closely together regularly, including Caroline Watt, who had been scheduled to attend the meeting but who had not in fact attended, and that they had worked and collaborated together on what seemed like a number of matters in the past. '

She declined to give the name of the mystery man saying it was 'unfair' and she did not want to 'upset his work'. She said the meeting was unrelated.

Day 5 - Coleen lays bare her 'Scousetrap' plot that saw her accuse rival WAG Rebekah of leaking 'fake stories'

Euro 2016 seating row behind Coleen that led to a FA official being told to 'f**k off'

Rebekah Vardy's evidence about why she sat behind Coleen Rooney at a football match is 'simply untrue', a former Football Association (FA) employee has told the High Court.

Harpreet Robertson, a former ticketing manager and family liaison officer for the FA, was questioned over the seating arrangements at one of England's matches at Euro 2016.

Ms Robertson told the court she believed Mrs Vardy made a 'choice' to sit in seats behind Mrs Rooney at the match, alleging in her witness statement that Mrs Vardy's evidence over this was 'simply untrue'.

In her own witness statement, Mrs Vardy said: 'We went to a game one day and Coleen and her family were sitting in our seats. Rather than make a fuss we sat in the nearest seats available.'

Mrs Vardy denied she had intentionally swapped seats to be seen near Mrs Rooney and in the pictures.

However in her witness statement, Mrs Robertson said: 'Becky never expressly refused to take the seats that she had been allocated, her guests did this instead, but it appeared that she wanted to be sat in the seats that were right in the eye line of anyone looking at, or photographing, Coleen'.

Ms Robertson added: 'The following morning, the tabloid papers were full of photographs of her sat directly behind Coleen. This was precisely the kind of media attention that the FA, and I, had tried to avoid.'

In her witness statement, Ms Robertson also said that she would reserve seats at matches for her and FA security team members, but found a number of people already sat in those seats.

She continued: 'I asked them to move but they refused and were incredibly rude and abusive to me, remarking words to the effect of 'we can sit where we like, f*** off'.

'Scousetrap' sting operation revealed by Coleen

Coleen said despite never being friends with Rebekah, she became suspicious of the rival WAG when she began 'fishing for information'. 

She said the 'Scousetrap' sting was not 'plucked out of thin air', saying she had thought long and hard before making the now-infamous social media post accusing Rebekah.  

Describing how her investigation began to gain momentum, Coleen said: 'There were a number of things that added up with the others. I didn't just pluck it out of thin air.

'I suspected this person was having a relationship with The Sun so I googled it, looked at past articles and saw the connection between Rebekah Vardy and The Sun.

'This thing was not just thought of overnight. I did think of it for a long time. As I've said I'm not one who just jumps on things.'

She said: 'I was trying to get more information and put it together with the information I already had. I came up with Rebekah Vardy. There was no other person who my private Instagram who was in a position to give this information to The Sun.

She added she became suspicious of Rebekah as she would 'regularly' message Coleen when there was press coverage about Wayne Rooney's wife.

Saying Rebekah was 'not in my circle', Coleen said: 'I felt like when she contacted me it was to try and get information out of me.'

Coleen Rooney ramped up her Wagatha Christie 'sting' amid reports of husband Wayne's 'misbehaving' with a barmaid  

Coleen revealed how she personally doubled down in her secret 'Wagatha Christie' investigation when her husband Wayne was 'misbehaving' with a blonde barmaid during a ten-hour bender with teammates in Florida.

Coleen also admitted keeping her probe secret from the former England captain - as well as lying to Rebekah Vardy after being asked why she had unfollowed her on Instagram, as the women's £3million libel trial continued.

London's High Court heard the sting gathered momentum at a time when Rooney was 'misbehaving.' Asked if that was the case by Rebekah's barrister Hugh Tomlinson QC, Coleen replied: 'There's been a few unfortunate things that have happened and they have been publicised. It's happened quite a few times and I've dealt with it. We've dealt with it as a couple, as a family. There are a few things that have been publicised over a few years.'

Speaking of Rebekah's response to her 'troubles', Coleen said: 'I did feel that when there's tough times going on, I felt Mrs Vardy would message more. I felt It's when there are things in the news, she would message me and say How are you?'. I felt like it was fishing for information.'

The court heard one occasion when Rebekah went 'fishing for information' happened hours after her husband allegedly 'spent time' with the barmaid in Florida. Coleen told how Rebekah got in contact after The Sun told how she was threatening to quit the US and return to Britain after Rooney's encounter with Vicki Rosiek when he was playing for DC United in Washington.

Making contact with Coleen at lunchtime on February 11 2019, the day after the article appeared, Rebekah wrote: 'Hi my love! Hope you are ok! Just saw another s***ty story online! Can they not just leave you guys alone...I don't know how you do it! It's relentless...stay strong. Sending hugs.

Coleen replied: 'Thanks, just a pain in a**e...it's the kids half term so just gonna come home.' Messaging Coleen back, Rebekah wrote: 'It's a joke! Annoys me someone close to you is clearly selling you out! And for what...I don't blame you come home and be with your family'.

Rebekah's 'evil' messages

Talking about Rebekah's frequent exchanges with her publicist Caroline Watt about her private life, which emerged during the libel case, Coleen said: 'She's got no need to talk about me. I just felt that the messages that went on between them are evil and uncalled for'. 

These included Rebekah apparently calling Coleen a 'c***' for unfollowing her on Instagram. 

Coleen told the judge: They're totally the opposite of the truth. I'm not a bad person. It's totally untrue. I didn't think there was any need for it/'It's nothing to do with them.'

She added of Rebekah: 'I didn't trust her - I didn't believe her. I did not believe a word that was coming out of her mouth.'

She said she wasn't trying to portray Rebekah as 'a valiant' and thought much of the response to her post was 'ridiculous'.

Coleen said she 'hated every minute' of the furore which erupted.

She accepted she had images on her phone which made light of the matter including references to the Scooby Doo gang 'unmasking a villain' and comparisons with Agatha Christie.

But she insisted she was not 'delighted' with the reaction to the post.

Coleen said: 'No I wasn't. I have never craved press attention. I have had it and I have accepted it. I have never drawn attention to myself.'

Coleen also told how she kept tabs on whether stories had been published about her during her investigation by making online checks. She said: 'Sometimes I do Google News and click my name in and articles come up.'

And Coleen told of her shock at receiving a legal letter of complaint about a month after the Wagatha Christie post. She said: 'I was quite spooked by that, I've never been in a position to be sent a lawyer's letter before. Any lawyer's letter would be threatening to me, I've never had one before.'

Asked about trolling directed at Rebekah after the post, she said: 'It was disgusting, I would never wish that on anyone.'

Coleen Rooney claims she 'hated every minute' of Wagatha Christie fallout

Coleen Rooney claimed that she 'hated every minute' of the Wagatha Christie fallout after accusing Rebekah Vardy of leaking 'fake' stories to the media, even though her £3million libel trial heard she saved a Scooby Doo meme about her 'unmasking the villain' saved on her phone.

Rebekah's barrister last week claimed that fellow Wag Coleen had revelled' in the national reaction to her bombshell October 2019 post.

But Wayne Rooney's wife told London's High Court that she thought much of the response to her post was 'ridiculous' and said she was 'not delighted' by the reaction. She insisted: 'I have never craved press attention in my life, I have had it and I have accepted it and I have tried to cope with it, and I have lived my life as best as I can in the public eye.'

Rebekah's lawyer Hugh Tomlinson QC said Coleen had used her fame for 'commercial purposes', to which she answered: 'Yeah I have been fortunate that things have come my way and I have took the opportunities and used them.

She said she had appeared in a Netflix documentary that was about Wayne, then added: 'I wanted to continue at school but the pressure became quite big at a young age.

'I felt like that was something that I could then control in a way and I think I have done a lot and obviously I haven't worked for a while because I have had children and I just wanted to be a mum. But I never wanted to be in the public eye, I was thrown into it and I have worked with it.'

Coleen didn't confront Rebekah before Wagatha Christie post 'because she didn't believe a word that was coming out of her mouth'

Coleen said she did not believe Rebekah would 'tell the truth anyway, even if I confronted her'. Asked whether the best thing to do would have been to warn her this was going on, she asserted that Rebekah had told a 'lot of lies'.

Crucially, she added that not only did she think it was Rebekah's account that was leaking stories to The Sun, but also Rebekah herself was aware. 'I believe she knew all along', she said.

In addition, Coleen told how she did not contact her rival after making her Wagatha Christie discovery as 'did not believe a word that was coming out of her mouth'.

Explaining why she made her 'It's… Rebekah Vardy's Account' post instead of contacting Rebekah, she told the court 'I thought maybe if I did approach her she might twist it and cover it up somehow and might not be truthful so I didn't give her the opportunity.'

Asked about Rebekah's response to the post she said: 'She said she had zero interest in what was going on in my life which I didn't think was true because she talks about me a lot. So that was a lie.'

Coleen used a photo of her niece to give Rebekah Vardy the false impression she was 'broody'

Coleen Rooney used a photo of her niece as part of the sting operation, the High Court heard.

She posted a photo of herself with her brother's daughter, captioned 'Broody', which she admitted under questioning from Rebekah's barrister Hugh Tomlinson, was to give the false impression to Rebekah that she longed for a baby girl.

The photographs were of her niece, the court heard, but her family would 'not know what I was doing with them'.

She said: 'I have photographs with the little girl but it doesn't say gender selection.'

Coleen explained that around that time she accepted a friend request, [from footballer Tom Cleverley] which is why some stories show they have been viewed by two people - including Rebekah.

Asked if she unblocked her other followers from her story shortly afterwards, Coleen said: 'Yes.'

She said this was so she could carry on with her holiday, and post things that she would normally post.

Coleen: I lied to Vardy when I unfollowed her - and wouldn't be bothered if she did the same to me

Coleen Rooney has admitted keeping her 'Wagatha Christie' probe secret from husband Wayne - as well as lying to Rebekah Vardy after being asked why she had unfollowed her on Instagram, as their libel trial continued.

Asked by Rebekah's lawyer Hugh Tomlinson QC at the High Court in London this morning why she had not told the ex-England captain about it, Coleen replied: 'One thing I don't do is put any troubles or worries on anyone else.

'I don't like to put pressure on anyone until I need to. That's what I've always done. I wanted to do it for myself without telling anyone. There's trust and there's trust. It was quite hard keeping it to myself but I had to do it if I wanted to find out who was doing it to me.'

During cross-examination about her actions, 36-year-old Coleen also told Mr Tomlinson at the £3million trial: 'Yes I did lie, it was a cover-up for what I was investigating, I had my suspicions.'

The court heard that Coleen unfollowed Rebekah in early 2019 and received a message a month later asking her if Rebekah had 'done something to offend you.' The court heard that on March 3 that year, Rebekah sent Coleen a note saying: 'I saw you had unfollowed me and I wasn't following you anymore on Instagram...just wanted to ask if I had done something or offended you in anyway? Literally only noticed the other day'.

Coleen admitted she 'told her a fib' in her reply, saying she 'didn't even know' - adding that her children used her phone often and she would check to see what happened. In fact, the court was told that she had deliberately unfollowed her because of concerns that stories were being leaked from her account.

Day 4 - Coleen reveals her marriage was on the rocks due to Wayne's naughtiness as Mrs Vardy breaks down in the dock over online hate

My marriage almost fell apart after Wayne's drink-driving, Coleen Rooney tells court

Coleen told the 'Wagatha Christie' libel trial how her marriage almost fell apart after her husband Wayne was caught drink-driving with a party girl.

Taking to the witness stand for the first time on day four of the £3million trial at the High Court, Mrs Rooney recalled the aftermath of the incident involving former office worker Laura Simpson in 2017, when she and their children stayed with her parents.

Mrs Rooney, who claims fellow Wag Rebekah Vardy leaked stories about her private life to the Press, said: 'I was in a vulnerable situation… I didn't know how my marriage was going to work out.

'Me and Wayne were trying to figure out our relationship and where we were going. But I didn't want the public to know that... I hadn't settled on: 'This is it, we are getting back together.'

She said she nearly split from former England striker Mr Rooney as she described the upset caused by a newspaper story stemming from a private Instagram post at the time, featuring her husband and their children in pyjamas.

Coleen: Sarah Harding caught Vardy taking pictures inside her handbag

Rebekah got into a heated argument with Sarah Harding at the 2018 National Television Awards after the Girls Aloud singer spotted her rifling through her handbag, the High Court heard.

The story - which was published in several tabloid newspapers at the time - was mentioned by Coleen Rooney in written documents she submitted to the High Court as part of the £3million Wagatha Christie libel trial.

Coleen claimed: 'She got in a spat with former Girls Aloud group member Sarah Harding during the 2018 event because Sarah apparently caught Becky taking photographs of the contents of Sarah's handbag when Sarah had dropped it on the floor.

'Their dispute subsequently appeared in The Sun.' 

Message about my late sister made me 'sick', says Mrs Rooney

On another day of bombshell revelations in the trial, Mrs Rooney, 36, said in written evidence that a message between Mrs Vardy, 40, wife of Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy, and her agent Caroline Watt referencing her deceased sister 'knocked me sick' when it was disclosed.

Mrs Rooney wrote in her statement: 'While they were discussing her messaging me in order to cover her tracks, Becky says to Caroline Watt, 'Maybe I should say something about Rosie'.

'Rosie is a reference to my sister who suffered with Rett syndrome and passed away in 2013 at the age of just 14.

'The mere fact that Becky would suggest seeking to use Rosie's name in conversation with me in order to put me off the scent of suspecting Becky as the person responsible for leaking my private information to The Sun is really low and sad. It actually knocked me sick when I read that message from Becky to Caroline.'

Rebekah: I was bullied and manipulated and need to clear my name

Rebekah Vardy told London's High Court that she feels she has been 'bullied and manipulated' during the Wagatha Christie libel trial, and denied throwing her PR agent Caroline Watt 'under a bus'.

Jamie Vardy's wife said she pressed on with legal action despite a letter from Coleen's solicitors which she perceived as a 'threat' because she 'didn't do anything wrong'.

Asked how she has found giving evidence this week, Rebekah said: 'Exhausting, intimidating, I feel like I've been bullied and manipulated'.

Explaining her motivation for suing Coleen for libel, she sobbed: 'I didn't do anything wrong - I wanted to clear my name, and not just for me, for my family and my children.'

She also denied personally leaking information to The Sun, denied speaking to or messaging any journalists about any of Coleen's posts, denied asking her agent Ms Watt to pass on information and denied deleting messages from her WhatsApp.

Rebekah also said said the suggestion that she had thrown under agent 'under a bus' in the case was 'not right'.

I was scared I was going to lose the baby, emotional Rebekah tells High Court

An emotional Rebekah Vardy said that she feared she was going to lose her fourth baby after Coleen Rooney accused the WAG of leaking stories to the Press in October 2019.

London's High Court has heard how Rebekah was subjected to abuse and threats after Coleen's Wagatha Christie post to Instagram while Jamie Vardy's wife was heavily pregnant.

Asked to describe her state of mind at the time the allegations were made, she told her laywer: 'Constant anxiety, panic attacks, and I was scared I was going to lose the baby'.

She began sobbing again when asked about her state of mind when she had her fourth baby, barely two months after Coleen's Wagatha post. 

'I wasn't in a good place,' she said.

Asked when her daughter was born, she said, crying, 28th December, 2019 and repeated the date. She was offered the chance to compose herself, but continued giving evidence.

Rebekah Vardy DENIED telling her PR agent to leak Coleen Rooney's car crash to the press

Rebekah Vardy has denied instructing her agent Caroline Watt to view Coleen Rooney's private Instagram account to leak information about the WAG's 2019 car crash to the Press.

London's High Court has heard how Ms Watt texted Rebekah admitting that she had given information about Coleen's crash in Washington DC to The Sun newspaper.

Rebekah said it 'appeared' that Ms Watt was the source of the story, but said she didn't reply to her text because she was too engrossed watching Gemma Collins' Dancing On Ice 'faceplant'.

Mr Tomlinson asked: 'Were you instructing Caroline Watt to go into

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