Noel Clarke charged with six sexual offences including voyeurism
Noel Clarke, the British actor and filmmaker who won a BAFTA in 2009, has been charged with six sexual offences including sexual assault and voyeurism, the Crown Prosecution Service confirmed. The charges mark a significant escalation in a legal saga that has followed Clarke for more than three years.
What are the charges?
The CPS authorised charges across six counts, including allegations of sexual assault and voyeurism. Clarke, 48, who is best known for playing Wyman Norris in the ITV crime drama Bulletproof and Mickey Smith in Doctor Who, has consistently denied any wrongdoing since allegations against him were first reported by The Guardian in April 2021. That original investigation involved accounts from 20 women who described a pattern of inappropriate behaviour on and off set.
A CPS spokesperson said: “We have carefully reviewed the evidence and concluded there is sufficient evidence and it is in the public interest to authorise these charges.”
The road to charges
The Metropolitan Police opened a formal investigation shortly after the 2021 Guardian report was published. BAFTA suspended Clarke’s membership within hours of that story breaking, and Sky immediately halted production on Bulletproof. It’s been a slow-moving case since then — nearly four years of investigation before charges were formally brought.
Clarke’s career effectively collapsed overnight in May 2021. That’s not an exaggeration. Within 48 hours of the allegations becoming public, his BAFTA fellowship was suspended, his production deals evaporated, and he disappeared from public life almost entirely.
Clarke’s response and legal position
Clarke’s legal team has maintained throughout that the allegations are false and that their client intends to defend himself vigorously. He didn’t comment publicly when the charges were confirmed, but his lawyers have signalled they will contest every count. But the formal charging decision by the CPS means prosecutors believe the evidence meets the threshold required to bring the case before a court.
He has not yet entered a plea. A court date is expected to be set in the coming weeks.
What happens next
The case will now move through the English court system. Given the nature of the charges, it is likely to be heard in a Crown Court. Sexual offence cases of this kind can take anywhere from several months to well over a year to reach trial, depending on court scheduling and legal proceedings.
And for the dozens of women who spoke to journalists or investigators over the past three years, the formal charges represent something they’ve waited a long time for — though the outcome of any trial remains entirely uncertain.
Still, the charging decision is a reminder that investigations involving public figures, however slowly they grind forward, don’t always quietly disappear. Sometimes they arrive at a courthouse door.
