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

🤬🤬🤬

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.

@QuentinBunbury

The "trial by media" thing is ridiculous. I don't recall anyone saying that when Jeremy Clarkson was fired by the BBC for hitting the producer. At the sympathetic end it was "JC is provocative and went too far". Don't recall anything about his life being ruined and the assault needing to be proved in court. Framing the situation with Clarke as "innocent until proven guilty" makes it all about him. Turn it on its head. How should employers protect their female staff from harassment at work? What is appropriate action to take when an employer is notified that a male member if staff has been inappropriate with many female employees?

The thing here is that Clarke was the employer in many of the cases.

What it will take for a change to occur is for it to be utterly unacceptable to treat others this way - for men to know that if they do treat others this way, they will never work again. They need to be afraid of what will happen to their own careers, rather than these women being the one with that fear.

This is the seismic change that the industry needs to take, plus those who condone, laugh along, turn a blind eye, enable or ignore this behaviour need to be held to account to, it's cowardly and self serving behaviour and they too should face consequences.

I wonder do the BBC feel that since they weathered the Saville enquiry they are too big to fail and so further scandals don’t matter?

Captain j is being hellish quiet considering he is oft found to be tweeting.

@StillFemale

I wonder do the BBC feel that since they weathered the Saville enquiry they are too big to fail and so further scandals don’t matter?

A good question.

I wonder if it’s more that much of the production activity is now commissioned and then outsourced to smaller production companies. This arms length set-up means the NC-type issues are production company problems, not BBC problems.

Wasn't it Katherine Kelly?
Oh yes, maybe. I tend to mix those two up.

But I thought now the police are looking at some of the accusations?
And some of the allegations did appear to be criminal offences.

But If you are all saying that his actions not criminal then surely what you should be campaigning for is more protection at work and a change in the way these things are reported through the correct channels without fear , in particular in this industry.

Which goes partly back to my point about education and empowerment of younger people at work . So educating boys and girls( at school) about what is acceptable and what is not . If people are reporting things and nothing is being done then things need to change.

*If someone went to the police but he was not actually breaking the law then what should they have done.&

These are questions not accusations.

There's a lot going on. Some of the things NC did were against the law, but the sort of crimes that the police are not investigating, because of lack of resources, or the difficulty in proving them to the point that the CPS will approve a prosecution. So there's an issue. From what I've read in the media, the police have accepted an account as 'third party' meaning it could be used in corroboration in future investigations. So the mantra of 'innocent until found guilty' relating to criminal behaviour rings hollow when women fall at the first hurdle.

But the discussion around police has only arisen because of the cries of 'innocent until proven guilty' and 'let the court deal with him' hasn't it? Some of his activities should see him being prosecuted, but the majority fall into the immoral rather than illegal category.

Second, many of the accusations, while falling short of criminal, are behaviour that should be totally unacceptable in the workplace (and society) and would get many of us fired. The threshold for that is the balance of likelihoods, and anyone who doesn't think it's possible for almost 30 women to be telling similar stories without secret agendas would admit we have reached that.

The fact that he is working in environments where he was not accused years ago is indeed worthy of campaign, and #metoo started the conversation about this in the entertainment industry that hasn't got very far on the ground. I'm not sure though why those posting on this thread should be campaigning for any of this though; it should be industry-driven, an attempt to raise standards. Women already SAY this is unacceptable. Thankfully, in many workplaces, it now is. @SinkGirl and others explain brilliantly what the issues in the media industry are that make it a higher mountain to climb.

I am worn out from the wider society in which I live, the everyday incessant sexism, discrimination, even hatred that women live with. I rise up to say that dismissing these accusations on the grounds of 'innocent until proven guilty' is a false argument, inappropriately applied, and supports the culture of minimising and disbelieving women. Of course we need a better society - I'm not sure why you think those condemning NC don't think that?

@LidlMiddleLover

Sad times for the industry bafta didn’t get a big audience this time maybe its the end of it

Neither did the Golden Globes. I think people have had enough of preachy, hypocritical celebrities.

Great post @Constantcrayfish . People should be able to report things like this to somewhere and be listened to and accusations investigated where possible, without fear of being blacklisted. The industry needs to do a lot better.

At least in an office, there are managers, HR and Unions and an appeals process.

"Noel Clarke: Kidulthood actor Adam Deacon stands by accusers and says star sabotaged his career | Ents & Arts News | Sky News" news.sky.com/story/amp/noel-clarke-kidulthood-actor-adam-deacon-stands-by-accusers-and-says-star-sabotaged-his-career-12296647

Powerful words from Adam Deacon here.

The "people with mental health problems should still be believed" really resonated with me. Clarke is such a piece of shit.

Really hope he gets some peace and his career back on track.

'The end of preachy , hypocritical celebrities '. That would be worth watching !

Second, many of the accusations, while falling short of criminal, are behaviour that should be totally unacceptable in the workplace (and society) and would get many of us fired.

This. In my 41 years I could count on one hand the times I felt I have experienced behaviour that at best could be described as uncomfortable in my career, and even then I am scraping the barrel. Yet in some industries sadly people don't know it could be different or put up with it because they feel powerless or see it as par for the course. So I agree the industry needs to get its act together and there needs to be somewhere people can go to raise this at the time. Just one example where I work everyone has an exit interview which is an opportunity to raise among other things whether they experienced any harassment, bullying etc. so even if they didn't want to raise it at the time it can still be done so. This is taken very seriously.

What does seeking professional help entail? Someone telling him not to be a pervert??

Congrats bonfire

You’ve got the job.

Many years ago I was bullied in the workplace.
It wasn't sexual or anything criminal.
I know of 5 others she did it to, everyone knew, no one did anything and we all left our job.
I'm sure there were many others.

Anyone who says, "Innocent until guilty", is hard of thinking and not someone I'd trust.

As those who know the industry have said NotthatmuchaRoyalist, in this case Noel Clarke was the employer, he held all the cards and all the power which left complainants with nowhere to go, their union(s) seem a total waste of space and part of the problem. The only thing I can suggest is a completely independent, not associated with the industry, watchdog type organisation that regulates the workplace for people within the industry, that people can complain confidentially to and have their complaints recorded, investigated and action taken against the perpetrators. Said watchdog to lay down absolutes regarding behaviour and standards within the workplace and anyone who works in the industry has to sign up to them, I don't know how this can be enforced though as no doubt the unions and those who carry on like NC would fight against it. From what others have said I can't see an in industry overseer being any use whatsoever.

Something has to change though and I wonder if the dwindling interest of the public as shown by the Golden Globes and BAFTA viewing figures may prove to be a catalyst, the industry needs the public to be engaged with it, all these scandals and the hypocritical blatherings of the stars and the excesses of the higher echelons are a major turn off for the public.

See, for me Brillo , those who are in a position to stop, or at least seriously question, horrible behaviour and choose to do nothing are almost as bad.

I will never, ever forget or forgive the managers who let me down. One actually witnessed it. And my bully felt comfortable enough to do it in front of one manager because he knew he was safe to do so.

I am grateful that innocent until proven guilty applied in my case though.

I was accused of dreadful things by that horrible man (lengthy term in prison dreadful) and fought to prove he was being malicious.

But mud sticks.

And in my case it wasn’t fair.

In this one though.....

@IHaveBrilloHair

Many years ago I was bullied in the workplace. It wasn't sexual or anything criminal. I know of 5 others she did it to, everyone knew, no one did anything and we all left our job. I'm sure there were many others.

Anyone who says, "Innocent until guilty", is hard of thinking and not someone I'd trust.

Similar here. Bully boy was in a different department, and in a relatively short space of time, two guys left. One who had just received a decent promotion, suddenly resigned on some vague pretext that he was going to run the family business, or something. It didn't add up. Recession etc, and he was walking away from a very well paid job.

Guy who was promoted into the role, to replace him,, subsequently asked to return to the department he had come from. There were reasons why this made no sense either.

I thought both happenings were strange but failed to notice the common denominator until he was made head of our department. To those he didn't bully, he seemed all sweetness and light but he was a vicious bully to his fingertips.

There were many other casualties apart from the two I mentioned. HR refused to believe that this vicious bully was capable of the behaviour reported to them.
He went onwards and upwards to ever greater success.

I know someone very well paid who works for the Bbc in a top office job who is an unbelievable narcissistic who has not and will not be dealt with.
This has been ongoing for 3 years.
The 2 people close to me that he bullied ended up leaving due to being so frustrated at the cover up.
He is bullying misogynist who the higher ups don’t have the backbone to deal with.
The amount of files that go missing or freedom of information requests that took up to a year to be actioned is disgusting.

It’s rife there. A very toxic place to work.

More allegations today about Clarke:

amp.theguardian.com/culture/2021/may/07/noel-clarke-accused-of-sexual-harassment-on-doctor-who-set

From today’s article:

Contacted by the Guardian, Barrowman admitted to “tomfoolery” that he now understood upset colleagues, but stressed it was never intended or interpreted as sexual in nature.

Getting your cock out at work is not OK John, whatever your intentions were. There will likely have been women on set who have experienced sexual assault who will have found it threatening and many more will have found it creepy and offensive. Urgh. Talk about trivialising awful, criminal behaviour.

@BettyFilous

From today’s article:

Contacted by the Guardian, Barrowman admitted to “tomfoolery” that he now understood upset colleagues, but stressed it was never intended or interpreted as sexual in nature.

Getting your cock out at work is not OK John, whatever your intentions were. There will likely have been women on set who have experienced sexual assault who will have found it threatening and many more will have found it creepy and offensive. Urgh. Talk about trivialising awful, criminal behaviour.

That's not strictly true though - actors get their bits out all the time, for money even.

SmokedDuck, TBF it's all about context. Taking your clothes off as part of a scene is not at all the same as Barrowman's behaviour.
I've a friend who worked with him in at least one theatre thing and can attest to these 'antics'.

Name changed for this.

I worked at the BBC from 2000-2010 in a production role. The culture of sexual harassment was horrendous, but what was worse was the complete failure of management & HR to deal with it, even when it was reported to them.

I had my arse slapped, sexual remarks made and my body commented on a daily basis by male colleagues and ‘talent’. I was repeatedly groped by one colleague, had several men make passes at me, had one colleague call me a slag when I turned down his advances (he got an informal, ‘man to man’ slap on the wrist from our manager when I reported him). There are so many incidences of behaviour that was not OK I’d be here all day listing them, but at the time I was quite young and trying to make a career for myself, and so ‘sucked up’ a lot of this crap.

I and another female member of our team were stalked and harassed by a freelancer after he was let go for unrelated reasons. Senior managers banned him from entering BBC buildings, but no support was put in place for us, I was scoffed at when I mentioned involving the police, and nothing was ever said of it to me again after the brief conversation where I reported it. (A few years later this same guy was in the papers, as he was prosecuted for stalking a celebrity).

One manager of our team had multiple complaints of bullying and harassment made against him by female members of the team. I eventually resigned over his behaviour and complained officially to HR. In the same month, a female colleague resigned for the same reasons and went on record with HR. Nothing was done, and I wish I’d gone for constructive dismissal and a sexual harassment court claim, but I had a young child and was just too exhausted and burnt by the whole thing.

I heard a couple of years later this arsehole manager was sacked for downloading porn at work. Although he set up his own production company and is still doing just fine. I left the industry over that shithead.

The NC stuff doesn’t surprise me a single bit.
The BBC isn’t a good place to work for women.