Noel Clarke shared nude photos of woman without her consent, court told

Actor Noel Clarke shared nude photos of a woman he had a brief relationship with without her consent, the High Court has heard.

The Dr Who star allegedly sent intimate images he took of the woman to a former friend, and further showed images he had been consensually sent by her to other people he knew.

Giving evidence on Friday, the woman – known only as Ivy – told the court she was “horrified” to discover the private images she sent to Clarke had been shown to others.

The court also heard Ivy had recently seen nude pictures of herself that were not the ones she sent to Clarke.

Clarke, 49, is suing the publisher of the 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.

He denies the allegations, while GNM is defending its reporting as being both true and in the public interest.

In her witness statement, Ivy said that during their short relationship – which took place while he was married – Clarke asked her to send him nude pictures.

She continued: “Trusting him, I consensually sent him a small number of nude photos of myself.

“These would have been selfies taken on my phone. I remember that I 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.”

Ivy said in her statement that many years later it came to her attention through a friend that Clarke had been talking openly about having a sexual relationship with her and that he had shown people the photos.

Philip Williams, for Clarke, suggested to the woman in court that after finding out Clarke had shown people the pictures she continued “as if nothing had happened”.

Ivy replied: “Just because I didn’t vocally fall out with him, it doesn’t mean I didn’t lose respect for him a long time ago.

“I trusted him in a relationship, I trusted him with my personal life, and he disrespected that trust by showing pictures of me to other people without my consent.”

Asked why she continued to keep a friendly tone with Clarke, Ivy replied: “Because if he is showing one person, I don’t know how many people he has shown.

“And someone who has that kind of leverage on me, I am not going to start having a negative relationship with, in case it is used against me.”

Mr Williams asked Ivy if she was aware Clarke denies ever sharing the pictures with anyone.

She said: “They exist out in the world, and I didn’t send them, so someone did.”

She added: “He asked me for nudes, and I was in my home. I don’t know where he was, and it was on a totally different night from the photos that were shown yesterday.

“They are not the same photographs.”

The court also heard evidence from Davie Fairbanks, a former friend and colleague of Clarke’s, who alleges he was asked to book hotel rooms and make arrangements for Clarke to meet up with women.

In his witness statement, Mr Fairbanks said Clarke took photos of Ivy in “the hotel room when they slept together”.

He added: “Shortly afterwards he showed me a photo and sent it to me by email.

“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, who denies the allegations, has said Mr Fairbanks has a “grudge” against him and that the pair have been in dispute over intellectual property rights in the script of one of his projects.

In response to the allegations in relation to Ivy, Clarke said in his witness statement: “If the misconduct alleged relates to taking nude photographs of Ivy without her consent, I deny this was the case.

“Any photographs taken in an intimate setting were taken with consent and kept privately. Ivy also voluntarily sent me explicit photographs on occasion.

“These photographs were not shared with any third party, including Davie Fairbanks.”

The hearing before Mrs Justice Steyn is due to conclude in April, with a decision expected in writing at a later date.