- Pregnant Vardy 'told baby should be incinerated' after Rooney's post
- Rebekah Vardy takes the stand as a witness
- Rooney 'revelled in' being dubbed Wagatha Christie, says Vardy barrister
- Wayne Rooney will give evidence as witness
Rebekah Vardy and Coleen Rooney arrived at the High Court in central London on Tuesday to square off in one of the most highly-anticipated trials of the year.
The Wagatha Christie case, as it has been dubbed, finally got going after months of legal back and forth since Mrs Rooney posted on Instagram in October 2019 that Mrs Vardy had been leaking stories about her to the The Sun newspaper.
Mrs Rooney was flanked by her husband Wayne, whilst Mrs Vardy arrived alone, and it was team Rooney who drew first blood.
Judge Mrs Justice Steyn allowed for new evidence in the form of a witness statement from a family liaison officer for the Football Association during the Euro 2016 and World Cup 2018 international football tournaments.
There appears to have been a foul-mouthed row between the two about seats. This is where the pair first got to know each other as their respective husbands played for England.
The High Court then heard how Mrs Vardy was "subject to abuse and death threats" when she was seven-months pregnant following Mrs Rooney's Wagatha post.
Mrs Vardy's lawyer Hugh Tomlinson QC told the High Court that "someone told her that her baby deserved to be put in an incinerator".
Mrs Vardy's barrister said his client "needs to be able to clear her name through this case, so she can move on from this terrible episode".
The Vardy legal team also said that Mrs Rooney had “revelled in” being dubbed “Wagatha Christie”, and had shared posts which mocked her up as the renowned crime writer Agatha Christie.
Much of the morning saw Mrs Vardy's lawyers tearing apart Coleen Rooney's detective work, saying that her investigation was flawed, and that there was no "irrefutable evidence” that Mrs Vardy was the leaker.
Mrs Vardy's agent and close friend Caroline Watt featured heavily in the day's proceedings.
As has previously been heard, this agent lost her phone in the North Sea when a boat she was travelling on was hit by a wave, something the Rooney team say is part of a "campaign of deletion" by the Vardy team.
The Vardy team say that's baseless.
Mrs Rooney's lawyer David Sherborne described what he called a series of “most improbable events” that had affected the disclosure of evidence in the case from Mrs Vardy and those around her.
This included Ms Watt’s “poor unfortunate phone” falling into the North Sea “within days” of the court ordering that, even though she was not a party to proceedings, it should be searched for disclosure.
“What terrible luck,” Mr Sherborne said.
A suggestion that Mrs Vardy and her agent were involved in a “conspiracy” and “campaign of deletion” in relation to evidence in the case is “completely baseless”, Mrs Vardy's lawyer said.
The court heard some WhatsApp messages between Mrs Vardy and her agent, which included four-letter expletives to describe Mrs Rooney.
Commenting on a message in which Mrs Vardy said she would “love to leak those stories”, Mrs Vardy's lawyer said: “They are not stories about Mrs Rooney.
“It’s accepted that on some occasions the leaking of stories was discussed between Mrs Vardy and Ms Watt."
The afternoon session saw the Rooney legal team take the floor.
Coleen Rooney’s barrister said that she was appearing in the courtroom “not because she wants to, she’s here because she has to be. She’s been brought here because of something she wrote. She didn’t want to have to write it any more than she wants to be here.”
And he said the whole thing had made her paranoid.
Mrs Rooney's barrister then described it as "a detective story, and like any good detective story, you never find a person standing over the body with a smoking gun.”
Team Rooney say there are only two real suspects - Rebekah Vardy and her agent Caroline Watt. And they say that "if (Rebekah Vardy) gave Ms Watt the gun and the bullets, told her where to target them, told her what was happening and when, that makes her just as responsible as the person who pulled the trigger. To use an analogy, it is like hiring a hitman or woman".
Mrs Rooney's lawyers say that it was likely both of them were in it together, and the court heard an exchange between the two when they were discussing leaking other people's private information.
Mrs Vardy said: “I just don’t want it coming back on me”. Ms Watt replied: “I can tell someone” and Mrs Vardy answered by saying “yeah, do it”.
They say she had the means, motive and opportunity to do it.
Then, just before 4pm, Rebekah Vardy herself took the stand.
She said: “I didn’t give any information to a newspaper” and "I didn't leak anything to anyone".
Then Mrs Rooney's barrister handed her a copy of a News of the World article from 2004 in which she made derogatory remarks about Peter Andre's body after an alleged sexual encounter between the two.
Mrs Rebekah Vardy was asked whether it was “respectful” of Mr Andre’s “right not to share this information” about their sexual encounter with a newspaper.
And just minutes earlier, under questioning from Mrs Rooney’s lawyer, she agreed with his proposition that it was “wrong” and “upsetting” for someone to secretly pass on another person’s information that they didn’t want shared.
We now know Wayne Rooney - the former England captain and the country's record goalscorer - is going to give evidence, and other members of Coleen's family will take to the stand too.
The trial, listed for seven days, continues.
Relive the opening day below.
