Noel Clarke Drops Libel Claims Against BAFTA, Conde Nast But May Continue Legal Action Against Guardian Over Sexual Harassment Article

Noel Clarke has apparently dropped his claims in opposition to BAFTA, Conde Nast and the Guardian writers who reported at the least 20 allegations of harassment and bullying in opposition to the actor and director.

Final Might journalists Sirin Kale and Lucy Osborne printed an extended piece wherein they detailed quite a few allegations in opposition to Clarke. It was printed simply weeks after Clarke collected a BAFTA award for excellent British contribution to cinema.

The autumn-out was swift and vast, with the award and his BAFTA membership suspended, whereas ITV pulled the season finale of primetime drama “Viewpoint,” wherein Clarke was starring on the time.

In April of this yr, precisely 12 months after the article was printed, Clarke filed a declare for defamation on the Excessive Court docket in London. He listed 12 defendants together with BAFTA, the Guardian, Kale and Osbourne in addition to one in all his accusers, Jahannah James, who claimed he had secretly filmed her bare.

In response to the most recent courtroom filings, nonetheless, all of these defendants – bar Guardian Information & Media Ltd – have been deleted from the motion. A supply tells Selection that at the least a kind of defendants was by no means even served.

Given greater than 4 months have now expired since he filed his defamation declare, Clarke is now out of time for service.

In addition to the defendants listed above, the defendants additionally included BAFTA chair Krishnendu Majumdar, then BAFTA CEO Amanda Berry, performing arts union Fairness, who issued a strongly-worded assertion in regards to the seriousness of allegations, Clarke’s “Bulletproof” co-star Christina Chong who tweeted the Guardian story together with a remark saying it was true and that Clarke was a “sexual predator,” his “Kidulthood” co-star Adam Deacon, who stated he stood by Clarke’s accusers, and Conde Nast, which owns GQ Journal. GQ ran an interview with Kale and Osborne following the Guardian story.

BAFTA, Majumdar and Berry have been included as defendants within the defamation motion over a press release they despatched to members following the allegations, wherein they stated that they had solely turn out to be conscious of them after Clarke was introduced as a recipient of the excellent contribution award. “The allegations in opposition to Mr Clarke are extraordinarily severe and the behaviour they allege are opposite to BAFTA’s values and all the pieces it stands for,” the assertion from Majumdar and Berry learn. “However regardless of how abhorrent these allegations are, they can’t be handled with out due course of. BAFTA is an arts charity that’s not able to correctly examine such issues.”

It’s unclear whether or not Clarke intends to proceed together with his declare in opposition to Guardian Information & Media Ltd, which stays the one defendant not but deleted from the motion. It’s doable to use for an order extending the time wherein to serve a declare type on a defendant. The Guardian didn’t reply to Selection by press time. Clarke’s legal professionals declined to remark.

In March, the Metropolitan Police confirmed they might not be investigating the allegations. In latest months Clarke has returned to social media, claiming he intends to write down a script about “all this shit,” which many took to imply his expertise of being accused of sexual harassment and bullying.