Noel Clarke has claimed the Guardian ‘smashed his life’ and insisted that he is ‘not what they have branded’ him to be as he gave evidence at his High Court libel trial.
The actor is suing Guardian News and Media (GNM) over a series of articles from 2021 and 2022 that featured allegations from women accusing him of sexual misconduct.
Mr Clarke strongly denies the allegations while GNM has vowed to defend its journalism as being both true and in the public interest.
Giving evidence today, the 49-year-old said barristers for the publisher were making accusations ‘for headlines to smash my life, which you have already done’.
He also told the court that one of his accusers, who claimed he assaulted her, was telling ‘flat out lies’ for ‘attention’.
Responding to questions about his alleged misconduct involving another woman, known as ‘Penelope’, the Doctor Who star became emotional, and his voice began to break.
The director denied accusations made by Penelope that he ‘giggled’ after allegedly becoming aroused during the shooting of a sex scene.
‘They have smashed my life for four years with this rubbish, this nonsense. Four years….I did not do this, I would not do this. I have got children. This is not true,’ he told the court.
Noel Clarke (pictured) is suing Guardian News and Media (GNM) over a series of articles from 2021 and 2022 that featured allegations from women accusing him of sexual misconduct
Giving evidence today, the 49-year-old said barristers for the publisher were making accusations ‘for headlines to smash my life, which you have already done’
Clarke made his first TV appearance more than 20 years ago in the Channel 4 series Metrosexuality, and gained fame for his roles as Mickey Smith in Doctor Who and Wyman Norris in Auf Wiedersehen, Pet
He later added: ‘The reason I stand here four years later is I am not what they have branded me.’
Cross-examining Mr Clarke, Gavin Millar KC for GNM, said: ‘You giggled, saying “look what you have done to me”.’
Denying the claim, Mr Clarke replied: ‘Definitely not. We were under immense time pressure…These scenes can be embarrassing, but there was no giggling.’
He added: ‘In terms of me having an erection, that did not happen. There were 20 people in the room. Where are the people who saw it?’
Mr Clarke also stated that the scene was ‘meticulously planned’ with an agreement between parties not to wear modesty patches, and that ‘nobody had any problems with’ it.
He continued that the scene was ‘discussed beforehand with her and was completely agreed before the shooting of the movie’.
He told Mr Millar: ‘You are attacking my art, because of how I choose to direct my films, and it is egregious.’
Mr Millar said allegations made by another woman, known as ‘Sophia’, included claims that he ‘grabbed her hand and put it on your crotch’, and grabbed her ‘by the throat’.
Mr Clarke described the allegations as ‘nonsense’ adding that he and Sophia had discussed continuing to work together after the alleged incident, and that she had ‘completely mixed herself up in her own lies’.
Noel Clarke pictured as DC Martin Young in the ITV Series Viewpoint
Noel Clarke (centre) arrives at the Royal Courts of Justice in London ahead of the start of his libel claim against Guardian News and Media (GNM) on March 5
When asked what he thought her motive was for lying, Mr Clarke replied: ‘I think that Sophia is lying because she wanted attention.’
‘I think she wanted to feel something, and wanted to feel part of something to be believed.’
He added: ‘Unfortunately this particular person is telling flat-out lies.’
Clarke, who is fighting for £70m in damages, also wants to bring a claim over his belief that the allegations were fabricated in a conspiracy against him.
His lawyer Philip Williams told the court in written submissions that the actor ‘has clearly established the falsity of all of the allegations’.
He said his client was ‘barely able to reply to the allegations’ published by the Guardian and was ‘perceived as a criminal by all those who previously trusted and worked with him’.
Mr Millar said in his written submissions that the Guardian ‘did not simply accept what was said to it’ and that ‘much time and resource was devoted to getting to the truth’.
He added there is ‘ample evidence’ that all of the articles were true or substantially true.
The trial before Mrs Justice Steyn is scheduled to last six weeks.
