Noel Clarke 'precisely the man' depicted by Guardian, court hears as libel trial ends

Noel Clarke has been shown to be "precisely the man" depicted in the Guardian's articles accusing him of sexual misconduct, vindicating its journalism, the high court heard yesterday.

- Haroon Siddique

In closing submissions in the former Doctor Who actor's libel claim against Guardian News and Media (GNM), Gavin Millar KC said Clarke had been forced to come up with an "elaborate conspiracy theory" to try to rebut the "overwhelming evidence" against him.

"(The claimant) had long pinned his hopes on (the defendant's) witnesses not attending trial," said Millar in written submissions.

"If they did, then (Clarke) had a problem: to explain how it was that (i) 28 individuals had been willing to file witness statements verified by statements of truth attesting to his misconduct, (ii) very many more had given evidence as sources in the course of its journalistic investigation, and (iii) (The Guardian), a respected and trusted source of news reporting, could have come to publish the articles in issue if their accounts were untrue.

"So (Clarke) needed to frame a conspiracy of malevolent liars who were able and willing not only to deceive the Guardian and now this court, and including people who recruited the Guardian to its ends, persuading it to publish their lies and - in the process - deceive its editor-in-chief, Ms [Katharine] Viner, into believing that it was in the public interest to publish them. This was a wholly unevidenced and inherently implausible case."

At yesterday's conclusion of the trial, which began on 7 March, Millar said that allegations made by Clarke about the motives of the Guardian's witnesses and its journalists had been shown to be a "complete nonsense".

The conspiracy theory, he said, was "a case born of necessary invention".

Millar said Clarke had "a very clear motive to lie".

Representing Clarke, Philip Williams said that his client was the victim of an industry attempting to correct itself post the #MeToo movement. He highlighted the Benny Hill and Little Britain series and Carry On films as productions that would now be considered "inappropriate".