Rebekah Vardy has accused Coleen Rooney of painting her as the “villain” in their ongoing feud.
Rebekah Vardy
The 37-year-old star became embroiled in a huge public scandal when Coleen took to Instagram in October last year and accused her of leaking stories to the media about her.
In the infamous post, 34-year-old Coleen said she posted a string of false stories to Instagram with restricted access to see if they appeared in the media - which she claims they did - and accused “Rebekah Vardy’s account” of being the only one which viewed the posts.
Rebekah denied the allegations, and claimed several people had access to her account.
And on Thursday (19.11.20), legal teams for the pair appeared in court for the first High Court hearing ahead of a libel trial next year, which was held to allow a judge to decide the "natural and ordinary" meaning of Coleen’s Instagram post and set down the parameters for the trial.
Lawyers for Rebekah - who was not present at the hearing - argued that Coleen’s “detective process” in her Instagram post was "to find the true villain of the piece”, and claimed “the finger is being pointed” at Rebekah as a person, rather than her Instagram account.
Hugh Tomlinson QC, for Rebekah, said: "The person is Rebekah Vardy, the finger is being pointed at her, as the villain, the person, the someone, the one person.”
However, court documents state Coleen - who was also not in court - only ever accused Rebekah’s account of accessing the stories, not the star herself.
They state: "The source of the leaks of the Defendant’s private information was the Claimant’s account.
"The emphasis of ‘except ONE account’ (with capital letters) and the final words of the post make clear that the responsibility lies with a particular account.
"As a result of this, a reasonable reader would conclude that there were reasonable grounds to suspect that the Claimant had leaked the information herself, but the finger is pointed firmly at the account, not the Claimant herself."
During the court hearing, it was also revealed the pair’s lawyers have agreed to meet for one final attempt to resolve the case outside of court, with a stay in place until February 8.
Justice Warby, the judge in the hearing, will deliver his decision on the nature of Coleen’s post on Friday (20.11.20).
If Rebekah and Coleen do continue with legal action in court, their libel case - which was brought on by Rebekah - will begin next year.
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