Brabners leads successful Rooney defence in Wagatha Christie trial

We’re pleased to have helped Coleen Rooney robustly defend her position in the libel case brought against her by Rebekah Vardy.

The high-profile trial, which has acquired the #WagathaChristie moniker, centred on allegations that Rebekah Vardy and her PR agent Caroline Watt had been habitually leaking private information about the Rooney family to The Sun newspaper.

Our team spent more than two years pulling together the detailed case that was deployed by Mrs Rooney at the final hearing of Mrs Vardy’s claim. After a two-week trial, Mrs Justice Steyn found in favour of our client following Mrs Rooney publicly linking the leaking of stories to Rebekah Vardy’s Instagram account.

In 2020 Mrs Rooney moved from her original solicitors specifically to be able to instruct Brabners, where her legal case was co-ordinated and led by our litigation team, headed by Paul Lunt and Jamie Hurworth. Mrs Rooney was represented in court by David Sherborne and Ben Hamer, under instruction from Brabners.

The case represents the latest in a series of positive and high-profile instructions for Brabners’ litigation team, having successfully defended England cricket captain Ben Stokes against charges of affray, as well as spearheading his successful privacy claim against The Sun newspaper.

The firm’s litigation team has also been instructed by a number of individuals in relation to the Yorkshire cricket racism scandal and has received instructions from Harriet Robson in connection with her relationship with Manchester United footballer Mason Greenwood.