The publishers of The Guardian did not fabricate evidence in a libel case being brought against them by actor Noel Clarke, a High Court judge has ruled.
The 49-year-old is suing Guardian News and Media (GNM) over a series of articles, including one from April 2021 which said 20 women who knew Mr Clarke in a professional capacity had come forward with allegations of sexual misconduct.
Last month, lawyers for the former Doctor Who star, who denies the allegations, applied to have GNM’s defence to his claim thrown out, claiming that the publisher had deleted some messages and fabricated a thread on Signal – an encrypted messaging app.
But Mrs Justice Steyn rejected these claims and dismissed the application at the end of the hearing at the London court in January.
Giving her reasons on Wednesday, she said the “extremely serious allegation” that evidence had been fabricated had “no foundation”.
In a 19-page judgment, Mrs Justice Steyn said: “It was said that the deletion of some threads of evidence, modifying the story, was ‘an attempt to swindle’ the claimant.
“The approach taken by the claimant’s representatives is unacceptable: deletion is not fabrication, and such a grave allegation should not have been made and publicly aired without foundation.”
The judge added: “I reject the contention that the defendant has perverted or attempted to pervert the course of justice.
“There has been no fabrication of evidence.
“Some documents were deleted prior to the commencement of proceedings, and over a year before a letter before claim giving notice of the intended claims was sent to the defendant.
“But such deletion was not in breach of any rule or duty to preserve document, and in any event it neither had the tendency to pervert, nor was it intended to pervert the course of justice.”
Noel Clarke has ‘vehemently’ denied ‘any sexual misconduct or wrongdoing’ (Lucy North/PA)
She added that “such limited pre-action deletion of documents as has occurred is not such as to preclude a fair trial of the claim”.
A full trial of the claim is expected to be heard in March.
In a statement made when the articles were published, Mr Clarke “vehemently” denied “any sexual misconduct or wrongdoing”.
The libel claim relates to alleged defamation in respect of eight articles published by the GNM, and for breach of data protection legislation.
GNM is defending the claim on the grounds of truth and public interest.