Noel Clarke showed images of naked woman to producer on mobile phone, court told

Actor Noel Clarke showed a film producer images of a naked woman on his mobile phone “to show that he could get actresses to do anything that he wanted”, the High Court has heard.

Garry Moore said he was “a bit shocked” when Mr Clarke showed him footage from a sex scene of an unreleased film at a meeting in London in 2014.

Mr Moore gave evidence on Thursday in the latest stage of Mr Clarke’s libel battle against Guardian News and Media (GNM).

He is suing the publisher of the Guardian 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.

Clarke, 49, denies the allegations and claims several people who have made allegations against him are part of a conspiracy to defame him.

GNM is defending its reporting as being both true and in the public interest.

On Thursday, the court heard that Mr Moore had met Mr Clarke in 2014 to discuss the concept for a film, which involved sex scenes.

The court heard that Mr Clarke showed Mr Moore a clip from a different film, which had not been released, including footage of a woman in a sex scene.

In his witness statement, Mr Moore said that it “appeared that Noel may have filmed the scene on his phone during filming or obtained a clip of it”, and that the clip showed “full frontal nudity”.

Mr Moore said: “I believe that what I was shown was images from the actual film.”

He continued: “I was a bit shocked when he had those images on his phone.”

Arthur Lo, for Mr Clarke, asked Mr Moore whether he would agree that Mr Clarke showing the footage “was not gratuitous, he was trying to help you select your cast”.

Mr Moore replied: “I would not totally agree with that statement, no. I don’t think we were talking about casting specific actors at that time.

“I believe he was showing me images of the naked actresses to show that he could get actresses to do anything that he wanted.”

Mr Lo said: “What he was doing was showing you the overall performances of the actresses.”

Mr Moore replied: “No, I would not agree.”

Mr Lo said: “That meeting … played a significant role in helping you narrow down your cast.”

Mr Moore replied: “The script had not even been fully developed at that point.”

Mr Lo later suggested that it was “highly unlikely” that the footage was taken surreptitiously.

In response, Mr Moore said: “From my point of view, I think it could easily have happened.

“I know how crowded film sets could be, so someone could easily be standing there with a mobile phone.”

Mr Moore said that he was “just an amateur film maker” at the time of the meeting, adding in his witness statement that he “didn’t react strongly” to Mr Clarke showing him the footage as he “was trying hard to get into the industry and did not want to say something that would annoy him”.

In his witness statement, Mr Clarke said he had shown Mr Moore clips of the actress from the unreleased film, including one with the actress nude, but that he was “within my right to have access to clips of the movie” due to being its producer.

He added that “none of that footage had been illegitimately obtained” and all featured in the final version.

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