My night of prosecco and kisses with drink-drive Rooney
Party girl tells how ex-England captain was caught drunk in her Beetle at 2am after his ten-hour bender... while wife Coleen, pregnant child, with their is on fourth holiday
‘Singing along to Oasis’ ‘Downing vodka and prosecco’
WAYNE Rooney was yesterday charged with drink-driving after police found him with a ‘hammered’ nightclub brunette at the wheel of her VW Beetle at 2am.
He and 29-year-old Laura Simpson were off to ‘have some fun’ while his pregnant wife Coleen was in Majorca with their three sons.
The former England captain, who spent the night sobering up in a police cell, met her in a bar during a ten-hour bender in which he danced on tables and belted out Oasis songs.
Last night Miss Simpson said it had ‘been a mad few hours’. She claimed: ‘He kept admiring my boobs in my clingy top and asking what size they were, saying “Are they real?” We had a kiss, a hug and some banter, harmless fun. He’s not a bad-looking lad and we decided to go off somewhere together. We wanted some fun and didn’t want the night to end.
‘He never spoke about his wife Coleen or the fact they were having a new baby, or his football. I’m not a marriage wrecker – it was all playful fun.’
The single mother told MailOnline: ‘I allowed him to drive my car, my black soft top, because I was too drunk to drive. Was I going to spend the night with him? Yes, perhaps, but we hadn’t really discussed it. We just wanted to be away from everyone, all those prying eyes.
‘I was very drunk and Wayne said “Do you want me to drive?” and I said: “Yes, I can’t. I’m too p*****”.’
She told the Sun: ‘We were just driving and then there was just blue flashing lights behind us. Wayne was p***** right off. And really worried about it.’ Rooney, 31, is believed to have been more than three times the drink-drive limit when police tested him. He was driving away from his £6million mansion in Prestbury, Cheshire, and instead heading toward Salford where Miss Simpson lives.
She was on a night out with friends at the Bubble Room, where she spotted Rooney. But she says they did not speak until after her group and his moved to the Symposium bar, two miles away in Wilmslow.
‘There was a big group and the drinks were flowing,’ she said. ‘I ended up talking to Wayne about this and that and we were having a right laugh. He kept admiring my boobs... saying “I’d like to get my hands on them”.
She said Rooney was drinking lagers and vodkas, while she was downing vodka and prosecco, which he bought for her.
She said: ‘I’m a single girl and I’m allowed to have some fun. I was swept away with the moment, but I wasn’t awestruck. I’m not a marriage wrecker it was all playful fun and I’d had loads to drink.
‘We had a kiss, a hug and some banter, harmless fun. When the bar was closing, one of Wayne’s pals came up to me and said: “You know Wayne likes the look of you and wants to go somewhere with you.
‘I said “Yeah OK”. I was told to meet him outside in a waiting taxi which had been called. It was about 1.15am. We arranged for the taxi to drop us at my friend’s house where I had left my car earlier.’
She told MailOnline: ‘The taxi dropped us off, it was a five-minute ride or so and Wayne paid. We didn’t go into the house but decided to drive off into the night, we had no idea where we were going. He’d been drinking but didn’t seem that drunk and took control. Nothing happened in the car, he didn’t make a grab for me. ‘He took the wheel and drove toward the motorway.’ Miss Simpson, a regional sales manager for a property development company, added: ‘I felt safe with Wayne, his driving was OK. ‘We were on the road for ten to 15 minutes and then we thought we saw flashing police lights so Wayne slowed down. He wasn’t speeding, and stopped at the side of the road. think, Thereand Waynewere two looked officers, really I worried. He turned and said to me, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, you’ll be OK, I’m getting out of here”. ‘On reflection, he was foolish for driving my car if he was over the limit. It was silly.’ Rooney was led to a patrol car, and was in it for about 45 minutes. She said: ‘I was just sat there twiddling my thumbs, stuck in my car which I couldn’t drive because I was too drunk. I couldn’t phone anyone, because my phone battery was dead, but one of the officers kept coming over and checking on me and they finally drove me in my car to my friend’s house.’ She added: ‘I felt sorry for Wayne. What a night, we didn’t expect it to end that way.
‘We had just wanted to be away from everyone, all those prying eyes. It’s not every night you meet a famous footballer and it wasn’t that I was star-struck, I just liked talking to him.’
Rooney was taken to Middlewich police station. He was charged with drink-driving and released 11 hours later. He is due to appear before magistrates on September 18, the day after his new club Everton play his old one, Manchester United in the Premier League. If convicted, he faces at least a yearlong driving ban and an unlimited fine or up to six months in jail. Rooney, who slept with prostitutes when his wife was pregnant with their first child, now faces a showdown with Coleen over his tawdry night of hijinks. Mrs Rooney, his childhood sweetheart, was flying back from a holiday in Spain yesterday with sons Kai, seven, Klay, four, and Kit, one.
The striker also faces a run-in with his club, because of ‘lifestyle assurances’ he gave Everton bosses when he switched from Manchester United this summer. Yesterday he looked sheepish as he was driven from the police station by his agent Paul Stretford at about 2.30pm.
He was wearing the same clothes as the day before. His boozy antics started on Thursday afternoon with friends including former Manchester United team-mate Wes Brown and the younger brother of Burnley footballer Phil Bardsley.
They were spotted at 4pm at Italian restaurant Piccolino’s, in Alderley Edge, a few miles from Rooney’s home. The group then moved on to the Bubble Room.
Witnesses described Rooney, who announced his retirement from international football last week, being in high spirits. He was singing along to Oasis hits that were being played by a live band and dancing on tables.
He posed for selfies with fellow revellers, who described him as a ‘visibly drunk’ by the time he left.
‘He literally fell out of the door,’ one local said. ‘People we’re talking about him stumbling as he went out, and he was staggering around in the road outside.
‘The irony is that if he had been on England duty, he would have been with the squad and this would never have happened. He has been a silly boy.’
Another said: ‘ Wayne was with Wes Brown and Phil Bardsley’s younger brother. I left at about 10.30pm and Wayne was just drinking beer.’
A third added: ‘ Wayne and Wes were well p***ed. You could tell they
were both well over the limit.’ Around 1am, the group moved on to late-night cocktail bar Symposium, in Wilmslow, which is owned by Hollyoaks actor Ashley Taylor-Dawson. Shortly before 2am, Rooney and Miss Simpson decided to drive off in her VW Beetle. As she was said to be ‘hammered’, it was decided Rooney should drive.
They made it only a short distance before a police car pulled up alongside and he was breathalysed. Cheshire Police confirmed they had charged Rooney with drink-driving.
He was released on bail to appear at Stockport Magistrates’ Court.
In November he gatecrashed a wedding at the Grove Hotel, in Watford, where the England team were staying following a match against Scotland. In March it was also reported that he blew £500,000 at a casino while Coleen was abroad.
Everton had given players the day off from training yesterday as there are no Premier League matches this weekend. Last night his club declined to comment.
THE idea that Gareth Southgate intended to select Wayne Rooney in his squad for this encounter, only for the former England captain to tell him that, as much as he appreciated the offer, he was retiring from international football was met with a fair amount of scepticism last week.
And understandably so. It smacked of being the one final indulgence of an immensely gifted but often troublesome England footballer.
By last night, however, it was starting to look like something of a masterstroke; the conclusion to a carefully orchestrated campaign, and one for which England’s manager deserves some credit.
Southgate might have denied that the late night drinking session at the England team hotel last November would be Rooney’s last act as an international footballer, but it turns out it was. And when Rooney chose the day of an England match to get himself arrested and charged with drink driving, the decision to quietly ease him out of the England set-up was more than vindicated.
Rooney can still reflect on a fine career but the culture of his sport has changed and increasingly, at the very highest level anyway, there is no place for footballers who seemingly seize every opportunity to have a drink. As Rooney’s powers have waned the game has accelerated with rising levels of athleticism and professionalism, those two recent goals for Everton only disguising the fact that at 31 he is no longer the force he was. The challenge nevertheless remains for Southgate to unearth from this new generation of players the energy and desire Rooney once possessed in an England shirt. Not to mention the raw, clinical talent. Rooney was part of a generation that ultimately fell short of its own high expectations but there were times, at least, when they threatened to succeed. Sure, such moments were isolated. Michael Owen in Munich on this day in 2001. David Beckham against Greece a month later. Rooney at Euro 2004. Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard, although never quite at the same time. John Terry and Rio Ferdinand would often excel at the heart of the England defence. Ashley Cole was simply outstanding against Cristiano Ronaldo. Ditto Owen Hargreaves against Portugal. Even Theo Walcott with his hat-trick in Croatia. But the fact remains they had their moments and that is more than can be said about a group of young players so far unable to perform with anything like the urgency and panache their predecessors could show. Indeed, this England side Southgate inherited all too quickly from Sam Allardyce still seem to be suffering from the malaise of Euro 2016 and that debilitating, confidence-crushing defeat by Iceland.
At club level they appear to suffer no such difficulties. Jordan Henderson captained Liverpool to a thumping 4-0 defeat of Arsenal last week. Harry Kane, while continuing to give August a miss, has been consistently excellent for Tottenham. Other players here in Malta last night have done enough to command huge fees in the most recent transfer window.
But throw them together in an England team and they undergo a bizarre transformation, losing their swagger as well as their momentum, as if someone has flicked a switch behind one ear.
Perhaps a World Cup qualifier in front of 15,000 largely unimpressed fans in Malta just didn’t stir their collective juices in a way a clash at Anfield could. Maybe that is understandable.
But as they stumbled to victory against a side beaten 5-1 by Scotland here only a year ago, Southgate must have been wondering what the hell he does next, however ‘professional’ a job he later claimed his side had done.
He has recruited the ‘world’s greatest striker coach’. He has even brought in a guru from the all-conquering All Blacks. He has preached the importance of uncovering new leaders to replace Rooney. But nine months from the World Cup, the signs of genuine progress are scarce.
Last night many England supporters had decided to return to a Mediterranean bar long before that late flurry of goals made the scoreline more respectable.
Indeed many had mischievously responded to Kane’s first goal by celebrating that ‘ we’ve had a shot’.
There remains a desperate need for improvement to bridge the gap between themselves and France, Germany and Spain. Rising to the standards once set by Rooney and Co would be a start.