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August 9, 2006updated 22 Nov 2022 8:36pm

Trial set over Sun’s Rooney ‘prostitute’ claim

By Press Gazette

A 10-day trial has been scheduled to decide whether or not footballer Wayne Rooney had sex with a middleaged prostitute, as alleged by The Sun.

Patricia Tierney, 50, from Merseyside, is suing over an August 2004 story which pictured her on the front page and dubbed her the "haggard hooker" and "auld slapper".

Tierney is a married mother of seven, and grandmother of 16, who says she has never been a prostitute, but had been a part-time receptionist at a massage parlour for three weeks.

She claims the allegations are false and have destroyed her life.

The trial, at which Rooney could give evidence, is due to take place at the High Court in Manchester from 29 January 2007. In April, Rooney won £100,000 in libel damages from The Sun and the News of the World after false claims he had struck his girlfriend Colleen McLoughlin during a row in a nightclub.

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