Noel Clarke sexual harassment allegations, suspended by BAFTA

[Cwenthryth]

www.theguardian.com/culture/2021/apr/29/actor-noel-clarke-accused-of-groping-harassment-and-bullying-by-20-women

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Especially galling that BAFTA was seemingly made aware of this before giving him his very recent honour. I watched his acceptance speech and found it really moving in terms of celebrating a working class black man’s success in a historically white industry. Turns out he’s an (alleged) sexual abuser. Fucking great.

I am rather perturbed at the deafening silence surrounding John Barrowman's antics, he was in no end of BBC programmes, one must assume they condone this behaviour.

It’s now been revealed that one of the women involved tried to report him to the police but was told they wouldn’t get involved unless things got worse and he threatened to use naked footage of her against her. This story is reported on the Daily Mail website right next to Sarah Vine bleating on about innocent until proven guilty. Spot the issue, eh?

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9534805/Actress-claims-police-not-investigate-Noel-Clarke-unless-threatened-footage.html

I am always encouraging women to join their union @ShoppingPrecinctPrincess!

I wonder if any of the women who came forward were members of Bectu? It's interesting they haven't put forward a statement.

@RedDogsBeg

I am rather perturbed at the deafening silence surrounding John Barrowman's antics, he was in no end of BBC programmes, one must assume they condone this behaviour.

Exactly. I don’t watch Dr Who so was unaware of all this, but that video has been online for ages and there were people present - surely that got back to the BBC? Even if they don’t care about people being sexually assaulted, surely they care about being found to be liable or complicit in yet another case like this?

You would have thought so Deathgrip but clearly not.

@Stormer thank you for the detailed information, it's much appreciated. I didn't mean to come across as simplifying things, of course not. I'm not part of that industry so I was just wanting some insight, the whole thing sounds insane and disturbing!

@Constantcrayfish

Apparently he showed that alleged video and then I would have thought it would have become a crime so it should have been reported.

The journalist was not saying he was innocent , she said it should be dealt with in a court .

The taking of photographs of an individual without their consent is a civil matter. Taking a photo of a person where they can expect privacy (inside their home or garden) is likely to be a breach of privacy laws. The other issue to consider is what you plan to do with the photograph afterwards. If the picture is of an individual, perhaps as a portrait or character study, and you intend to publish it in any way (on the internet, in a book or at a gallery), it would be appropriate and may avoid unnecessary complications if you ask that person for permission, many media organisations are international and will not accept an identifiable photograph of a person without a signed release. If the photo could be seen as defamatory in some way then you would leave yourself open to civil proceedings..

Trial by social media and mumsnet Not great justice

@PaddingtonsSister

Trial by social media and mumsnet Not great justice

As opposed to what? The 99% of rapes that result in no-one even being charged, I'm guessing.

Someone said upthread - sorry I forget NN. But essentially particularly in this sort of industry everyone is freelance and it's a project by project gig in which people get hired by word of mouth and that kind of thing so if Hannah (made up name) is seen to be 'making a fuss' over a bit of banter I can absolutely see how Hannah would never land another gig again. Given what a difficult industry it is to make a name for yourself in not least a living I can completely understand that many women are living with all manner of trauma because for them the alternative isn't 'justice' it's being completely kicked out from an industry.

To everyone saying "why didn't they report it...why now...why wait, " etc...
I was raped in 2004 by a man who was extremely popular and well-liked at work. I have never reported it. My husband knows and that's it, no one else. Why? Because I feel ashamed, I know I shouldn't but coming out and saying "I was raped" opens us up to scrutiny. It drags victims through the wringer, it puts them in a position where if it ever makes it to court (unlikely) your sex life and behaviour will be scrutinised - your family will hear all of this, it may be published. The chance of a conviction after all that is slim. It's simply not worth it.
However, if a number of other women came forward and made similar reports, would I join them? Most likely I would. Why? Firstly, safety in numbers. The spotlight would be far more directed at him than me as an individual if there were a number of women coming forwards. We would be stepping into the light together, holding one another's hands. The chance of conviction would be higher. I wouldn't feel so judged.
I was an NQT at a school where he was established. I was 24, he was in his late 30s. I simply did not have the strength at the time. And now I try to forget, to not dwell on it and just get on with my life. If more women came forward, it would become bigger than me - I would want to help them to get justice too.

@Chienloup

Thinking about the Barrowman stuff, and why there hasn't been as much fuss -

It may be that he is a creepy perv and fo some reason it is not as easy to pin down, so people don't come forward.

But I would also say that there are men and even women who do things like that who are basically good natured, rather than looking to make people uncomfortable. I would be surprised if people he worked with were universally happy with that behaviour, but there are times that people just let things be because they basically like the person and think they are just a knob, rather than being predatory and abusive. And then some people seem to quite like very off colour humour too - I trained with a girl in the military who would always get her top off when drinking - she really thought it was hilarious. She had issues but was not trying to make people uncomfortable as such.

That being said, I don't know much about Barroman's personality more generally, and without knowing anything about the penis stuff I always thought he seemed rather self-satisfied.

Noel Clarke, 45, (pictured) encouraged drama school students to remove their clothes during improvisation workshops

Clarke's lawyers also denied that the school had ever asked him to stop giving classes, according to The Guardian, adding that the exercise was designed to relax students' anxieties and 'normalise' removing clothes in a safe environment.

Given the claims about naked auditions of young actresses without their consent, this sounds like he has been hiding in plain sight.

Re Barrowman - what he did was sexual harrassment.

Re Clarke- the drama school thing is most disturbing. After that the school should have shown him the door, but they didn't.

I just feels upset by the whole thing. It feels that every generation of men will find new, awful ways of harassing women.

I agree, @SmokedDuck. I'm absolutely not defending JB's behaviour, which was gross. But it may not have been predatory in the way that NC's was.

There are a lot of intangibles about this kind of behaviour that are hard to pick up from media reports. Two people can behave in dodgy ways but one can feel a lot more threatening than the other.
I went to a school where the headmaster was paedophile (later confirmed by a police investigation). I was not a victim, but the kids knew he was dodgy and were scared of him. There was another teacher at the school who made sexually suggestive remarks to girls, but we all just thought he was a knob. No one was scared of him.

[quote Unsure33]@Constantcrayfish

Apparently he showed that alleged video and then I would have thought it would have become a crime so it should have been reported.

The journalist was not saying he was innocent , she said it should be dealt with in a court .[/quote]
But some went to the police and was told to go away. What then? How can women get their voices heard? Most of the individual acts are minor (I mean legally not the emotional impact) so wouldn’t be followed up on. It is only cumulatively (via an exposé) that action will be taken.

Calling Sarah Vine a journalist should be actionable.

Chris Evans (DJ) long had a reputation for taking his dock out in meetings when he was bored and the BBC did nothing. When they are also a major news outlet that silence becomes very problematic

Chris Evans also set up a camera in the women's toilets at his production company.

Not really surprised with CE, how old was Billie P when he got with her? .

That is an excellent post, @Stormer And FWIW and to follow of from your post, I don’t think it’s really enough to ask questions (“How does this happen?!” without putting some thought into it. It’s not hard to see how things like this happen, and asking a question without engaging with it a) pushes the work onto others (as you say) and b) is being seen to be “doing something” without actually doing anything.

There was another teacher at the school who made sexually suggestive remarks to girls, but we all just thought he was a knob. No one was scared of him.

This is how common sexual harassment is, the bar isn't whether it happens or not, it's whether it's sufficiently bad to scare girls and women.