A High Court judge has ruled that stories in UK newspaper The Guardian that made allegations of sexual misconduct against Noel Clarke could be defamatory, as the actor’s libel trial against the paper is cleared to continue.
Clarke is suing Guardian News and Media for £10m in damages over eight articles published since April 2021 which reported that Clarke was accused of groping and sexual misconduct between 2004 and 2019 by 20 women. He has strongly denied all allegations.
The judge declared at the preliminary hearing held last week that seven of the articles cited were defamatory towards Clarke and that “each amounts to a statement of fact rather than an expression of opinion”, according to The Press Gazette.
While Guardian News and Media agreed that the articles were defamatory, the paper disagreed on how they would be interpreted by readers. The paper argued that the articles were reporting allegations, rather than implying Clarke was guilty of the alleged offences.
Clarke said in a statement: “I have always disputed the content of the eight Guardian articles and I am satisfied that the High Court has now found that all eight articles issued by the defendant were defamatory in law.
“I look forward to now receiving The Guardian’s defence and progressing my claim for defamation in the High Court next year.”
A Guardian spokesperson said: “We welcome this judgment on meaning. The Guardian’s investigation was deeply reported and researched, and we intend to defend our journalism robustly.”
At a hearing last week, Clarke’s lawyers claimed that the actor had been subject to a “trial by media” as a result of the articles that led to him “being immediately ‘cancelled’ in various ways”.
Clarke was also proposing legal action against Bafta, which suspended his membership and revoked his 2021 contribution to cinema award, but this was dropped in September last year.
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