Noel Clarke sent naked photos of woman to friend without consent, court hears

Noel Clarke secretly sent a friend "full frontal" naked photographs of a woman whom he had slept with after they had met when she was doing work experience on a film set, the high court has heard.

- Daniel Boffey

Davie Fairbanks, who was the best man at the former Doctor Who star's wedding but later fell out with him, claimed in a witness statement that he had received the photographs of the woman, named as Ivy, without warning.

"Noel took photos of Ivy in the hotel room when they slept together. Shortly afterwards he showed me a photo and sent it to me by email," said Fairbanks, who was appearing as a witness in Guardian News and Media's (GNM's) defence to Clarke's libel claim against the publisher.

"The photo showed her standing up, with full frontal nudity, looking at the camera. He asked me to save the photo and to put it into a new email to send back to him straight away, and to then delete the original email. This was so he could keep the photo but it would look as though I had sent it."

Clarke, aged 49, who is suing the Guardian over publications from 2021-2022 accusing him of sexual misconduct, has denied taking nude images without the consent of Ivy, with whom he had a two-month relationship, adding: "Any photographs taken in an intimate setting were taken with consent and kept privately."

Also appearing as a witness in GNM's defence, Ivy said that he had encouraged her to send him nude photographs but that she had "expressly told him that he should not show them to anyone - I recall including messages to say that he should keep them private when I sent them. I believed that he would respect that."