Not only did 20 women come forward, but several of them spoke out under their real names and had their photos included in the articles. That's how much they wanted to hold Noel accountable for his actions. Twenty women don't engage in a conspiracy, make up lies about a person and go to a national newspaper to speak about it; and the national newspaper doesn't print these allegations without doing their due diligence, seeing evidence and running it by their lawyers.
Not one of these women has gained financially from this, and if anything, the ones who spoke out under their real names most likely found it made things harder for them as they probably got harassed and abused for it. Is Noel going to be suing these women for defamation too?
The fact that the Met Police didn't have enough evidence to pursue a criminal investigation means nothing. Very few rape and sexual assault cases make it to trial, with even fewer resulting in a successful prosecution. By their very nature, rape and sexual assault cases are hard to provide evidence for. I was sexually assaulted years ago when I was very young by a powerful man. I finally got enough courage to report it to the police a few years later, but they didn't have enough evidence to go ahead with a case. But I know what happened to me, and that it was a crime.
Furthermore, not all of the allegations are about sexual assault and harassment. Some of them are about bullying, which wouldn't fall under the remit of the police or CPS, but would certainly be enough for an employer, TV channel or a professional organisation like BAFTA to take action.
Noel is hugely arrogant and seems to think he’s playing a game. He posted this tweet a few days ago. Eye contact as not the same as sending women unsolicited photos of your erect penis; sharing sexual images; slapping your employees on their buttocks or groping them; threatening your employee because she won’t film a sex scene with you; holding “naked auditions” and secretly filming them; or threatening an actress after she turned down your propositioning her, and he knows this, the piece of
tit:
You can guarantee that Noel has behaved this way to a lot more than 20 women. I wonder if his suing the Guardian now will make more of them come forward, or anger some of the women who were previously anonymous enough to speak out under their real names. I also believe the Guardian has a lot more allegations against him which they didn't print as they/their lawyers were erring on the side of caution, but perhaps this defamation trial might allow them to emerge.
Bring on the trial, I think it's going to open up a very large can of worms.