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2:58<\/p>\n
What happened during libel trial?<\/p>\n
Following a trial earlier this year, a High Court judge found the newspaper’s reporting was substantially true<\/a>, agreeing with the publisher’s defence of its reporting as both true and in the public interest.<\/p>\n At a hearing to determine costs on Tuesday, Clarke represented himself – saying in written submissions to the court that his legal team had resigned as he was unable to provide funding for the hearing.<\/p>\n Mrs Justice Steyn ruled that he must pay \u00a33m ahead of a further assessment into the total costs to be recovered, which lawyers for the publisher estimate to be more than \u00a36m.<\/p>\n “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.<\/p>\n The sum of \u00a33m sought by GNM was “appropriate and no more than what ought to be reasonably ordered in this case”, she added, and “substantially lower than the defendant’s likely level of recovery”.<\/p>\n Image: Clarke describes proposed costs as ‘excessive’<\/p>\n Clarke, 49, told the court he used AI platform ChatGPT to help prepare his response to GNM’s barrister Gavin Millar KC, who asked the judge to order \u00a33m as an interim payment – which he said was “significantly less” than the “norm” of asking for 75%-80%.<\/p>\n The actor described the proposed costs order as “excessive”, “inflated” and “caused by their own choices”, and asked the court to “consider both the law and the human reality of these proceedings”.<\/p>\n He also requested that the order on costs be held pending an appeal.<\/p>\n “I have not been vexatious and I have not tried to play games with the court,” Clarke said. “I have lost my work, my savings, my legal team, my ability to support my family and much of my health.<\/p>\n “My wife and children live every day under the shadow of uncertainty. We remortgaged our home just to survive. Any costs or interim payments must be proportionate to my means as a single household, not the unlimited resources of a major media conglomerate.<\/p>\n “A crushing order would not just punish me, it would punish my children and wife, and they do not deserve that.”<\/p>\n Read more:![\"Noel](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/skynews-noel-clarke-bafta_5370866.jpg\")
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\n Noel Clarke won BAFTA’s rising star award in 2009. Pic: AP<\/p>\n
The key allegations – and the judge’s response<\/a><\/p>\n