Noel Clarke has been ordered to pay at least £3m of The Guardian publisher’s legal costs after losing his “far-fetched” libel case over allegations of sexual misconduct reported by the newspaper.
The first article, published in April 2021, said some 20 women who knew the actor and filmmaker in a professional capacity had come forward with allegations including harassment and sexually inappropriate behaviour.
Clarke, best known for his 2006 film Kidulthood and for starring in Doctor Who, sued Guardian News and Media (GNM) over seven articles in total, as well as a podcast, and vehemently denied “any sexual misconduct or wrongdoing”.
Following a trial earlier this year, a High Court judge found the newspaper’s reporting was substantially true, agreeing with the publisher’s defence of its reporting as both true and in the public interest.
At a further hearing on Tuesday, Mrs Justice Steyn said Clarke must pay £3m ahead of a detailed assessment into the total costs to be recovered, which lawyers for the publisher estimated to be more than £6m.
“The claimant maintained a far-fetched and indeed a false case that the articles were not substantially true, by pursuing allegations of dishonesty and bad faith against almost all of the defendant’s truth witnesses,” the judge said.
She said the sum of £3m sought by GNM was “appropriate and no more than what ought to be reasonably ordered in this case”, and “substantially lower than the defendant’s likely level of recovery”.
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