Earlier today actor Adam Deacon was found guilty of sending abusive messages to the director Noel Clarke.

The news will come as a blow to fans of both the stars who have watched the pair work together over the years – with Noel taking on a mentoring role to troubled Adam.

So what went wrong between the pair which led to Noel's protégé turning on him?

Noel gives Adam his big break

Adam won his first big break playing Jay in Kidulthood – a film which was written Noel, and which he also starred in.

Today Noel told the court that Adam stood out in auditions and he had 'an affinity for someone from the same background as myself'.

"I consequently gave him a lot of jobs and caused him to get a lot of jobs after that," he said.

Adam and Noel starred in Kidulthood (

Image:

Rex)

Adam's career soars

Adam went on to star in a number of films and soon became a house hold name.

Things were good between the friends – with Adam starring in Kidulthood sequel Adulthood - again written, directed and starring Noel.

Femi Oyeniran, Noel Clarke and Adam Deacon at The MOBO awards 2008 (

Image:

WENN)

Anuvahood - Adam's directing debut

But in 2011 things turned sour when Adam made his directing debut – with the film Anuvahood.

The film netted him a BAFTA Rising Star award but the win was soured as Noel claimed it infringed on the copyrights of his films.

Noel revealed that he had initially helped out with his film, but his protégé then signed a contract cutting him and his team out of the project.

"I supported him with that [contract] as long as he didn't call that film Anuvahood which is what he did," he said.

Downhill

After being cut out of anything to do with the film, Noel and Adam have not spoken. The friendship was officially over.

Noel said in court today: "Since that point we haven't spoken every now and again I would receive a barrage of abuse but essentially nothing massive happened until 2014 when I started getting massive abuse every time I opened my [Twitter] account to see people calling me a bully.

"He released a barrage of abuse in a blog for on Instagram claiming I'd been bullying him for as long as he could remember and claiming I had stopped him getting an agent in the business.

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"None of these things were true in any way, shape or form, but things just continued from there.

"Many of his fans believed the lies and were abusing me via Twitter."

At the time Adam's manager and agent attempted to intervene and stop the abuse.

Unfortunately it didn't let up and Noel was forced to go to the police in 2015.

Adam however was, and still is, insistent that Noel was out to sabotage his career and couldn't bear to see him 'stepping out of his shadow'.

Noel Clarke arriving at court today (

Image:

Central News)

Guilty

Today Adam was found guilty of posting abusive messages on social media about Noel.

The 32-year-old was found to have sent Noel a "barrage" of abusive and threatening messages in which he branded Noel a "bully" and accused him of sabotaging his career in hundreds of "consistent and continuous" posts on Instagram and Twitter.

Finding Adam guilty, District Judge Shenagh Bayne told him: "I am satisfied that all of the messages that you sent out were sent out in the context of an ongoing grievance that you have got with Noel Clarke. And that clearly is a long-standing grievance - it goes back many, many years."

Adam was at Thames Magistrates Court in East London today, (

Image:

Nick Edwards)