Noel Clarke arrives at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, for a consequential hearing after losing his libel claim against Guardian News & Media.
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PA
Former Doctor Who star Noel Clarke was reportedly arrested today after detectives raided his home.
The 49-year-old was detained after failing in his libel case against the Guardian newspaper.
Clarke sued Guardian News and Media (GNM) over seven articles and a podcast, including an article in April 2021 that said 20 women who knew him professionally had come forward with allegations of misconduct, including harassment and sexually inappropriate behaviour.
The actor, director and producer is best known for his appearance in hit series including Brotherhood, Star Trek Into Darkness and Doctor Who.
Noel Clarke, British actor, film director and script writer sued Guardian News and Media for damages over articles about his alleged behaviour towards several women.
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Alamy
According to the Sun, police raided Clarke’s Kensington home early on Thursday morning.
They reportedly spent five hours at the address, leaving with laptops and documents in hand.
Clarke was reportedly questioned by police while in custody and has since been released.
The Met Police is yet to comment on reports.
One local told The Sun: “A dog unit arrived at 7.30am and parked on the street further down from the address.
“At 9am the officer went in with the dog and there were plain-clothes detectives also at the flat.
“They here for hours before leaving with a plastic box with a laptop and other items in it.”
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These reports come just days after Clarke was ordered to pay at least £3 million of The Guardian publisher’s legal costs after he pursued a “far-fetched” and “false case” against the newspaper’s reporting of allegations of sexual misconduct.
He denies all allegations against him, and his lawyers previously said the newspaper had acted as the “judge, jury and executioner” of his career.
GNM defended its reporting as being both true and in the public interest and in a judgment last month, judge Mrs Justice Steyn agreed.
At a High Court hearing last week, she said Clarke must pay £3 million ahead of a detailed assessment into the total costs to be recovered, estimated to be above £6 million.
She said: “It seems to me that the sum of £3 million sought by the defendant is appropriate and no more than what ought to be reasonably ordered in this case.
“It is substantially lower than the defendant’s likely level of recovery on detailed assessment and so in my judgment, it does allow for a suitably wide margin of error.”
She continued: “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.”