Noel Clarke‘s legal battle with The Guardian kicked off on Thursday at London’s High Court, as the “Doctor Who” actor seeks libel damages from the British newspaper for publishing sexual misconduct allegations against him.
In a bombshell 2021 report from The Guardian, Clarke was accused of groping, harassment and bullying by 20 women. At the time, Clarke denied the claims, but said he would be “seeking professional help to educate myself and change for the better.” Appearing in court on Thursday for a preliminary hearing, Clarke’s lawyer, Adam Speker KC, said his client underwent a “trial by media,” The Evening Standard reports.
“Over a series of days at the end of April 2021 and the beginning of May 2021, Guardian News and Media Limited chose to label [Clarke] as a sexual predator and accuse him of having acted improperly towards a large number of women in a sexual and criminal way over many years,” Speker said, according to The Standard. “This trial by media, conducted by the most read newspaper for people in the film and entertainment industry, led, unsurprisingly, to [Clarke] being ‘canceled’ in various ways.”
Clarke is suing The Guardian for the “devastating” impact he says the series of articles had on his career, including being dropped from the Sky series “Bulletproof” and ITV’s “Viewpoint.” Clarke is also seeking damages over money lost from his production company, and claims his total losses amount to £10 million.
According to The Standard, The Guardian has defended its reporting, saying the “investigation was deeply reported and researched, relying on the testimony of 20 women, all of whom knew Noel Clarke in a professional capacity. We stand by our reporting and will be robustly defending our journalism.” The newspaper’s lawyer, Gavin Millar KC, said in a written argument that the allegations were not presented as fact in the articles, but rather as reasonable ground for speculation.
“The reasonable reader will appreciate that allegations of this nature are difficult to verify,” Millar wrote, according to The Standard. “In this context, no reasonable reader would assume an allegation is true merely because it has been made.”
