Rebekah Vardy WINS latest round of Wagatha Christie battle in blow for Coleen Rooney
REBEKAH Vardy has today scored a knock-out blow against Coleen Rooney in the latest round of their blockbuster Wagatha Christie case.
The mum-of-five fought to get a "list of issues" in Coleen Rooney's defence thrown out on the grounds they are irrelevant or "wrong".
The High Court made the judgement today to strike out parts of Coleen's 50-page defence after they were ruled to be irrelevant or too weak to succeed at trial.
But the judge ruled against Rebekah's plea for a summary judgement on one of the three stories Coleen planted in an Instagram post regarding her "TV plans".
In her judgment, Mrs Justice Steyn dismissed a claim by Coleen that Rebekah showed "publicity seeking behaviour" when she sat behind her during an England game at Euro 2016.
The judge said: "The fact that a person seeks media coverage of their own attendance at a football match does not make it more probable that they would disclose private information about another person to the press."
She also said the argument was irrelevant, adding "it would be a waste of time and resources" for the claim to continue.
Other sections of Coleen's defence were removed because they were "of such limited and peripheral relevance".
Coleen’s hope of winning may now be seriously weakened and their 18-month Wagatha Christie fight could finally come to an end.
The decision to rule in Rebekah's favour is also likely to shorten the libel trial to five days - saving her £200,000 in costs.
A hearing last month heard how a future trial would last for nine days if parts of Coleen’s defence are not struck out - costing Rebekah £475,000.
Coleen has described the escalating costs as "grotesque" and has repeatedly tried to settle the feud - but may now double her efforts.
SHOWDOWN
In her court documents, lawyers for Rebekah used Meghan Markle's high-profile privacy case against the Mail on Sunday to argue some allegations made by Coleen should be dismissed.
The papers cite a ruling made by the judge in the Duchess of Sussex's successful legal battle that the "facts alleged must be sufficient".
Rebekah's lawyer Hugh Tomlinson QC said: "The purpose of this application is to clear away what we say is a mass of irrelevant or peripheral material to save time and costs."
He also denied Rebekah wanted parts of the defence thrown out because they would be "embarrassing" and instead insists "it is not necessary and will be a waste of everybody's time".
The lawyer added: "Most of the factual allegations which are made are, in fact, wrong, but considerable time and costs will be wasted in examining them... It will be a monumental waste of time and costs."
But the move to throw out part of the defence is opposed by Coleen.
'WIDESPREAD ABUSE'
The court was also told Rebekah and her family suffered "widespread abuse" as a result of the claims.
Mr Tomlinson the High Court: "She suffered widespread abuse and hostility as a result of the post for a long period and her children were also abused at school.
"It was a very serious matter for her."
Coleen turned detective in October 2019 and accused Rebekah of sharing stories from her personal Instagram account.
In the infamous post, Coleen said she posted a string of false stories via her Instagram account with restricted access to see if they appeared in the media, which they did.
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She then said the fake stories had only been viewed by one person, and ended dramatically: “It’s . . . Rebekah Vardy’s account.”
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Jamie Vardy's wife Rebekah, who was heavily pregnant at the time, denied the allegations and claimed several people had access to her account.
The court heard previously how Coleen's investigation was so top secret even hubby Wayne didn't know about it.
