The lights are out in court 13 and it is now down to Ms Justice Steyn, veteran of cases on Guantanamo Bay and Saudi arms deals, to decide whether it was in fact………Rebekah Vardy, who leaked Coleen Rooney’s private information to The Sun.
Ms Vardy, 39, sued Ms Rooney for defamation after Ms Rooney publicly accused her account of being the source of stories in the tabloid press. The seven-day trial wrapped up on Thursday with closing speeches from both sides. There is now a wait of possibly months before the judge, Ms Justice Steyn, releases her judgement.
Here are the top moments from the High Court trial:
For three days Ms Vardy was put through her paces in the witness box at her trial against Coleen Rooney. Ms Rooney’s hotshot lawyer David Sherborne, famed for representing A-listers from Johnny Depp to Hugh Grant, had a particularly combative style and accused Ms Vardy on multiple occasions of “lying” under oath.
“You are making this up aren’t you Mrs Vardy?” and “That’s a lie isn’t it?” were regular refrains.
At one point he put to the fooballer’s wife: “The reason you can’t get your story straight is because you are lying”. She defiantly replied: “No I am absolutely not lying.”
In one unfortunate moment, which was pounced upon by Mr Sherborne, Ms Vardy – referring to a message exchange with her agent Caroline Watt – said: “If I’m honest I can’t remember.”
“I’d much rather you are honest because you are sitting in a witness box in a trial,” Mr Sherborne quipped.
On day one of the trial, barrister David Sherborne attempted to show Ms Vardy had little regard for people’s privacy by carefully reading out the words: “Peter’s hung like a small chipolata, shaved, slobbery, lasts five minutes.”
He was reading the headline of a 2004 News of The World interview with Ms Vardy. Holding out an A3 printout of the article to Ms Vardy in the witness box, he continued to read excepts from the piece, which claimed former pop star Mr Andre had “the smallest trouser equipment I’ve ever seen”.
Ms Vardy later told the court the interview was “one of my biggest regrets”. Mr Andre also dramatically hit back at the re-surfaced interview, telling his Instagram followers: “It’s been the butt of all jokes. I’ve take it for 15 years.”
In a memorable moment, Rebekah Vardy asked the court “who’s Davy Jones?” following a nautical reference by Ms Rooney’s laywer on day three.
Mr Sherborne had accused Ms Vardy of deleting crucial evidence and complained that messages could not be recovered from her agent’s phone because it was “now in Davy Jones’ Locker”. Ms Watt’s phone was dropped into the sea on a boat trip in Scotland last year, the court heard.
Ms Justice Steyn had to clarify what was going on to Ms Vardy, saying “it’s an expression”. Davy Jone’s Locker is a metaphor for the bottom of the sea, where drowned sailors and shipwrecks ultimately go and it was popularised by the film franchise Pirates of the Caribbean.
Ms Vardy’s lawyer, 68-year-old Mr Hugh Tomlinson, had a more subdued style compared to the excitable Mr Sherborne. But in one of his more lively moments in court, Mr Tomlinson took on Footbal Association family liaison officer Harpeet Robertson – who had been called as a witness by the defence.
Mr Hugh Tomlinson QC (left) with Rebekah Vardy
Ms Vardy had already shown her dislike of the FA employee earlier in the trial, so Mr Tomlinson opened with: “When you first met Mrs Vardy, the two of you never got on?”
“No that’s not correct”, Mrs Robertson hit out. “There was a bad feeling between you?” Mr Tomlinson asked.
“Not from my side,” maintained Ms Robertson, adding combatively that in her evidence “there are no assumptions just facts”.
Ms Robertson testified that Ms Vardy and her guests had sat near Coleen Rooney, in the wrong seats, at a Euro 2016 match so that she could get more press attention. “Becky’s evidence on this topic is simply untrue,” Ms Robertson said.
Lawyer David Sherborne
Coleen Rooney says she had no choice but to try to expose the source of the leak
