Noel Clarke is an actor, screenwriter, producer and director.
In 2021, the Guardian published allegations that there were strong grounds to believe that he was a serial abuser of women, engaging in unwanted sexual contact, sexual harassment and bullying. A six-week trial of his libel and data protection claim has been listed for 3 March 2025 since June last year. In it, the Guardian raises defences of truth and publication in the public interest under ss.2 and 4 of the Defamation Act 2013.
On 31 December, the Claimant applied to strike out the Guardian’s defences, alleging that the three investigating journalists had perverted the course of justice by deleting some of their pre-publication communications, knowing that litigation was contemplated, and then fabricated replacement correspondence.
Earlier this month the trial judge, Steyn J, dismissed the application finding that nothing that the journalists did had a tendency to pervert the course of justice. There was no evidence of an intention to pervert the course of justice and that where documents were or were considered for deletion it was in accordance with the newspaper’s data minimisation policy, and long before proceedings were commenced.
There was no evidence that any documents were fabricated. The judge observed that this allegation should not have been made and aired publicly without foundation.
In a reasoned judgment Warby LJ has refused permission to appeal this decision as an evaluative decision which was not plainly wrong. An application to adjourn the trial, pending determination of the appeal, was therefore also rejected.
Gavin Millar KC represents the Guardian.