Noel Clarke’s former colleague felt ‘violated’ after groping, court hears

A woman who worked with actor Noel Clarke for three years has said she felt “heartbroken” and “violated” after he allegedly groped her in an elevator, the High Court has heard.

Gina Powell was part of Clarke’s production company Unstoppable between 2014 and 2017.

She has accused Clarke of groping her in an elevator, exposing himself to her in a car and brushing off her concerns about his sexual behaviour towards other women as well as keeping a hard drive of naked pictures of others and screaming at people on set.

She is one of several women giving evidence at the High Court in London in the actor’s libel claim 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 denies the allegations while GNM is defending its reporting as being both true and in the public interest.

In a witness statement, Ms Powell alleged that Clarke groped her in an elevator after a trip to Los Angeles in 2015, where he told her she has a “Volkswagen vagina”.

Giving evidence in court, she described the incident as “something I had to bear and carry every day”.

She said: “I was so shocked and heartbroken, someone I called my big brother, that he would do that to his little sister, I felt so heartbroken, so violated.

“I remember sitting in that office and thinking that part of me had died that day.

“It was awful. It was one of the worst moments of my life.”

Ms Powell alleged that on the Los Angeles trip Clarke talked about how he liked her in her bikini and got out his penis while driving.

She told the court: “I think he thought I would do something and my reaction was so extreme because I was so uncomfortable, so shocked.

“I was literally hanging on to the door just ready to get out of that car.”

Ms Powell said the Los Angeles trip left her feeling “hoodwinked and devastated” and her relationship with Clarke deteriorated afterwards.

She described “walking on eggshells around him” and having to placate his demand for conversations about sex by agreeing to send him blog posts of porn.

She said she struggled for money and had to take a bar job, which angered Clarke, and that he “manipulated” her with money, such as by choosing when to pay for her lunch.

Philip Williams, for Clarke, suggested to Ms Powell that she has a financial grudge against him.

He said: “You wanted as much negative press for Noel Clarke to put nails in his coffin. You were driven by malice. You were driven, I suggest, by hate.”

Ms Powell replied: “No, I was putting a line in the sand, trying really hard to distance myself and get my life back.”

She continued: “When I heard things swirling around, I think I was one of the last to come on board, I had heard through friends and through actresses Noel was starting to grow up a bit.

“I thought, he has changed. And then I heard the latest stories through these women and he was still doing what he was doing, he did not feel any remorse, that everyone was being fooled still.

“I don’t think he should be around young women in the film industry. I don’t think he should be around young women in any industry.”

In his witness statement, Clarke said Ms Powell often sent him links to porn websites and discussed her “sexual exploits” with him.

He also denied telling Ms Powell she had a “Volkswagen vagina”, saying he did not know what that meant.

About keeping pictures of women, he said: “Any explicit photographs in my possession were provided by the women in question consensually, and were kept privately and in confidence.”

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