バーディー妻が巨額の裁判費用支払いへ　ルーニー氏の妻に敗訴

【ロンドンＡＦＰ＝時事】イングランドのサッカー選手ジェイミー・バーディーの妻と、元イングランド代表ウェイン・ルーニー氏の妻とが名誉毀損（きそん）をめぐって争っていた裁判で、裁判所が４日、バーディーの妻に１５０万ポンド（約２億４８００万円）の支払いを命じた。（写真はイングランドのサッカー選手ジェイミー・バーディーの妻レベッカ氏（左）と、同国の元選手ウェイン・ルーニー氏の妻コリーン氏）
　裁判の判決自体は２か月以上前に出ていたが、裁判官がバーディーの妻レベッカ氏に対して、ルーニー氏の妻コリーン氏が要した１７０万ポンド（約２億８０００万円）近い巨額の裁判費用のうち、９０パーセントを支払うよう命じた。
　二人の争いでは、まずコリーン氏が、一部の友人、もしくはレベッカ氏だけにしか公開していなかったインスタグラムのストーリーの内容を、レベッカ氏が元代理人とともに英大衆紙サンに流したとして、レベッカ氏を告発した。
　するとレベッカ氏はこれを激しく否定し、「名誉毀損による多額の慰謝料」の支払いを求めて高等法院で民事訴訟を起こした。しかし裁判官は７月、コリーン氏の主張は「おおむね真実」であり、レベッカ氏と元代理人が共謀して情報をリークしていたとして、同氏の訴えを退けていた。
　レベッカ氏の夫のバーディーは、イングランド・プレミアリーグのレスター・シティに所属する現役選手。一方、コリーン氏の夫のルーニー氏は、マンチェスター・ユナイテッドなどで活躍した元スター選手で、現在は米メジャーリーグサッカー（ＭＬＳ）のＤ．Ｃ．ユナイテッドで監督を務めている。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/10/06-13:54）

A UK judge has ordered England footballer's wife Rebekah Vardy to pay £1.5 million ($1.7 million) towards Coleen Rooney's legal costs following her failed Wagatha Christie libel suit, the High Court in London said Tuesday.
In an order made public just over two months after a decision was delivered in the high-profile civil case, judge Karen Steyn said Vardy should pay 90 percent of Rooney's nearly £1.7 million outstanding bill.
Steyn in late July had found that allegations made by Rooney against Vardy were substantially true, and that Vardy was complicit in the release of information to The Sun newspaper by her agent.
Vardy's husband Jamie plays for Leicester City, while Rooney is the wife of former Manchester United star Wayne.
The 12-day trial held in May laid bare tabloid double-dealing and the lives of the rich and famous.
Rooney racked up costs of more than £2 million, but £350,000 of those had already been incurred before the trial, so were removed to produce a final figure of £1,667,860.
The judge ordered Vardy to pay £800,000 of the bill by 4:00 pm (1500 GMT) on November 15.
She must also pay some of the costs incurred by seven journalists who were potential witnesses but did not give evidence, as well as her own potentially seven-figure legal expenses.
In her July 29 ruling, Steyn effectively branded Vardy a liar as she sided with Rooney, the childhood sweetheart of England's record goal scorer, in the bitterly fought case.
Fascination with the lives of the wives and girlfriends (WAGs) of top-flight footballers -- and the very public falling-out in this case -- produced wall-to-wall coverage of it.
Coleen was dubbed Wagatha Christie early in the saga after she set up an elaborate sting to try to determine who was behind leaks about her.
It's... Rebekah Vardy's account, she said, announcing her findings publicly.
Vardy, demanding substantial libel damages, vehemently denied leaking stories that Rooney had shared only with selected friends -- or Vardy alone -- on Instagram.
But Steyn found that Vardy and her former agent Caroline Watt had worked in collusion.
Paul Lunt, partner and head of litigation at law firm Brabners which represented Rooney, said her pursuit of evidence that Vardy had deliberately deleted or destroyed spiralled the costs.
(It) is a major reason why her legal costs increased substantially from the original estimates given to the court long before the start of the trial, he said Tuesday.
Vardy had argued for an 80 percent reduction while Rooney had asked for her to foot the whole bill, with Steyn deciding 90 percent was appropriate due to certain issues within the case.