From an elaborate social media sting operation to claims of purposefully deleted digital evidence, the Wagatha Christie case had data at its forefront.
Between Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy, the wives of former England footballers Wayne and Jamie, the case gained mass media coverage from the start. But how important was data in this case? And how did potential data spoliation slow down proceedings? This article will analyse the importance of preserving electronically stored information in legal matters.
- Wagatha Christie: An overview from a data perspective
- Data spoliation: What it is and why it played a role in the case
- Wagatha Christie evidence: Which data played a key role?
Wagatha Christie: An overview from a data perspective
The Wagatha Christie case first came to fruition in 2019, following a viral social media post by Coleen Rooney. She claimed Rebekah Vardy had been leaking personal stories from Rooney’s private Instagram account to The Sun newspaper.
Rooney’s claim was based on a sting operation which saw her block all other followers from viewing her Instagram Stories besides one account — Rebekah Vardy’s.
Rooney then claimed via social media that she had posted a ‘series of false stories’ to her account to see if they would make it into the newspaper. ‘And you know what, they did,’ she wrote in her statement.
Following the post, Vardy proceeded with an attempt to sue Rooney for libel, arguing her claims were false.
Vardy’s lawyers also claimed their client had suffered immensely due to Rooney’s allegation and she had been ‘subjected to abuse and threats of a horrific nature.’
The court ruled that Rooney must prove Vardy was responsible for leaking the stories to The Sun, along with convincing the judge that the publication of her allegation was in the public interest.
In February 2022, a series of ‘explosive messages’ were read as the case appeared in the High Court. These messages were sent between Vardy and Caroline Watt, Mrs. Vardy’s then-agent.
However, the court heard that Watt had dropped her phone into the North Sea, losing all of its contents, shortly after Rooney’s lawyers had asked to search the device.
In May, as the trial appeared before the Royal Courts of Justice in London, Rooney’s legal team declared there had been a ‘widespread and significant destruction or loss of evidence.’
On the final day of the trial, Rooney’s barrister, David Sherborne, told the court that Vardy was ‘a highly unreliable witness’. Vardy proceeded to walk out of the courtroom when being accused by Sherborne of lying under oath and deleting evidence.
On 29th July 2022, Vardy lost her High Court libel case against Rooney, bringing the Wagatha Christie saga to an end.
