Were the duo’s hit singles cribbed from a stolen notebook?

Disclosure and several of their collaborators are being sued by an unknown songwriter who claims she wrote the lyrics to four of their chart hits. Katie Farrah Sopher alleges that her notebook of lyrics was stolen in 2009 by her ex-boyfriend Sean Sawyers, who then sold her songs to his music industry contacts.

Sopher is claiming more than £200,000 in damages over four songs – Disclosure’s ‘Latch’ featuring Sam Smith, ‘You And Me’ featuring Eliza Doolittle, and ‘White Noise’ featuring Aluna Francis of Alunageorge, as well as her own group’s hit ‘Attracting Flies’.

All the lyrics were allegedly inspired by Sopher’s five-year relationship with Sawyers, including references in ‘White Noise’ to domestic violence that left her “black and blue”. The songwriter says her ex-boyfriend was “jealous and possessive and… believed she was cheating on him, which made him violent and reluctant to allow [her] to speak to other men,” according to legal documents seen by the Mail on Sunday.

Sawyers has rejected the claims in a defence filed with the High Court. “I am denying all the allegations… There is zero truth to the claims made against me. I never saw the book the claimant mentions… [so] I could not have committed the alleged damages, theft, copyright infringement,” he stated.

Disclosure had a busy one in 2014, producing for Mary J Blige and performing a headline slot at Glastonbury, as well as being followed by Channel 4 for its Superstar DJs series.