Rebekah Vardy’s agent ‘not fit to give oral evidence’, court told as preliminary hearing takes place in Wagatha Christie court case

metro.co.uk:

Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy’s ‘Wagatha Christie’ case has taken place today, in which the court was told Vardy’s agent is ‘not fit to give oral evidence’.The pair have been engaged in a libel dispute since Rooney, 36, accused Vardy, 40, of leaking stories she had planted on social media, on an Instagram story viewable only by Vardy’s account in October 2019 after a ‘sting operation’ over several months.

Rooney earned the nickname ‘Wagatha Christie’ for her detective skills, but Vardy has always denied that the leaked stories were down to her.

A preliminary hearing took place on Wednesday at the High Court in London ahead of the start of the trial next month, which comes after Rooney previously lost a bid to add a claim against Vardy’s agent Caroline Watt to the libel case.Rooney’s lawyers had previously claimed that Vardy had leaked information to The Sun either directly or through Watt ‘acting on her instruction or with her knowing approval’.However, Hugh Tomlinson QC, for Vardy, told the court today that Watt could not give oral evidence.In written arguments, Mr Tomlinson said: ‘The claimant served a witness statement of Caroline Watt with the intention of calling Ms Watt to give oral evidence at the trial.‘The claimant’s solicitors were, however, aware that Ms Watt was in a fragile state and had been expressing serious concerns about giving evidence.’He added that a consultant forensic psychiatrist produced a report which concluded Watt is not fit to provide oral evidence at the High Court trial.‘In these circumstances, it is clear that Ms Watt cannot be called to give evidence,’ he concluded.Rooney’s barrister, David Sherborne argued in written statements: ‘The defendant has serious concerns about the lack of any.