Filmmaker and actor Noel Clarke has been ordered to pay at least £3M towards the legal costs of The Guardian newspaper.

This comes after he lost his Libel case over allegations of sexual misconduct reported by the newspaper.

At a costs hearing on September 23, where Clarke represented himself he explained his legal team stepped down after he was no longer able to fund the proceedings.

The ruling comes after this trial which begun earlier this year, where High Court judge Mrs Justice Steyn found The Guardians reporting “substantially true”.

Steyn said: “It seems to me that the sum of £3m sought by the defendant is appropriate and no more than what ought to be reasonably ordered in this case.

“It is substantially lower than the defendant’s likely level of recovery on detailed assessment and so in my judgment, it does allow for a suitably wide margin of error.”

She gave Clarke 28 days to make the payment.

The writer & producer of the Kidulthood trilogy argued that the costs order should be stayed pending his decision on whether to appeal; However Steyn said that Clarke had already been granted an extension on the usual time limit for applying for permission to appeal to Tuesday’s hearing and it would not be appropriate to extend it further.

The former Dr Who actor he was unable to pay that cost as he used his life savings & remortgaged his family home for this libel case.

The judge would say that his ability to pay only becomes relevant at the enforcement stage, not when determining the appropriate amount for retribution.