Rooney said Vardy was ‘the villain’

Co leen Rooney “pointed the finger” at Rebekah Vardy as “the villain” who allegedly leaked stories about her private life to the media, the High Court has heard.

Mrs Rooney, 34, was dubbed “Wagatha Christie” on social media for her apparent sleuthing work, having “posted a series of false stories to see if they made their way into The Sun” as part of a “sting operation”.

The wife of former England star Wayne Rooney claimed last October that fellow footballer’s wife Mrs Vardy, 38, shared the fake stories she had posted on her persona l Instagram account.

Mrs Rooney said she planted three stories about her travelling to Mexico to “see what this gender selection is all about”, returning to TV and the basement flooding in her new house.

She wrote on Instagram and Twitter: “For a few years now someone who I trusted to follow me on my persona l Instagram account has been consistently informing The Sun newspaper of my private posts and stories.

“I have saved and screenshot ted all the original stories which clearly show just one person has viewed them.

“It’s... Rebekah Vardy’s account.”

Mrs Vardy, who is married to Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy, denies the accusations and is suing Mrs Roone y for damages for libel.

Mrs Vardy’s barrister Hugh Tomlinson QC said: “The fact that both women are married to professional footballers has led to this action being trivialised in some media coverage as ‘Wag wars’, but the impact on Mrs Vardy was not trivial.”

He told the court Mrs Rooney’s posts were an “untrue and unjustified defamatory attack” which was “published and republished to millions of people”.

Mr Tomlinson said Mrs Rooney’s post featured “a build-up to the ‘ big reveal’ of the identity of the person responsible”, adding: “The descr ipt ion o f the defendant’s detective work makes it clear that the claimant is being said to be responsible for the leaking of the three specific stories.

“The person is Rebekah Vardy, the finger is being pointed at her, as the villain, the person, the someone, the one person.”

Neither Mrs Vardy nor Mrs Rooney attended the hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice in London.

COURT BATTLE: Coleen Rooney, left, is being sued for

libel by Rebekah Vardy.