In her complaint, plaintiff Fiona Harvey says that “Baby Reindeer” told “brutal lies” about her, and her life story, to more than 50 million viewers around the world. The series details the struggle of an amateur comedian, “Donny Dunn,” who encounters Scott while waiting tables part-time at a London bar. Scott then becomes infatuated with Dunn, aggressively stalking him until she is eventually arrested and convicted.
A federal judge has determined that a woman claiming to be the inspiration for the character of Martha Scott in Netflix’s “Baby Reindeer” series can proceed with her defamation lawsuit against the streaming service.
According to The New York Times, plaintiff Fiona Harvey claims that the release of “Baby Reindeer” has caused her to suffer regular panic attacks. She has also allegedly been abused by strangers, and has since developed an acute fear of going outside.
Online sleuths, notes the Times, quickly identified Harvey as the real-life inspiration for Scott—and began inundating her with angry messages and death threats.
In her complaint, Harvey says that “Baby Reindeer” told “brutal lies” about her, and her life story, to more than 50 million viewers around the world. The series details the struggle of an amateur comedian, “Donny Dunn,” who encounters Scott while waiting tables part-time at a London bar. Scott then becomes infatuated with Dunn, aggressively stalking him until she is eventually arrested and convicted.
“Baby Reindeer” has been marketed as a “true story,” but some of its key events—including Scott’s stalking conviction—did not happen in real life.
“There is a major difference between stalking and being convicted of stalking in a court of law,” Judge Gary Klausner wrote in his ruling.
Klauser observed that there were other obvious disparities between Harvey’s lived experiences and the events depicted in “Baby Reindeer.”
In “Baby Reindeer,” Scott stalks a police officer, sexually assaults Dunn, and violently attacks him outside of a pub. None of these events, Harvey says, ever happened.
“There are major differences between inappropriate touching and sexual assault,” Klausner said, “as well as between shoving and gouging another’s eyes.”
Richard Gadd, the show’s creator—and the apparent inspiration for Dunn’s character—had earlier created a stage play based on his experiences. Gadd’s original play was billed as “based a true story,” rather than being a “true story.” This difference, Klausner said, could be critical to Scott’s claim.
“While the statements were made in a series that largely has the trappings of a black-comedy drama, the very first episode unequivocally states that ‘this is a true story,’ thereby inviting the audience to accept the statements as fact,” Klausner said.
Klausner also rejected Netflix’s argument that the differences between the fictional Scott and real-life Harvey are so broad that ordinary viewers would not have been able to connect the two.
“The court disagrees,” Klausner wrote. “This is not a typical case where a plaintiff happens to be one of hundreds of people that match a fictional character’s broad characteristics. Rather, Martha and Plaintiff have specific similarities that few others could claim to share.”
Sources
Based on a True Story, or a True Story? In ‘Baby Reindeer’ Lawsuit, Words Matter.
Judge allows defamation lawsuit against Netflix over ‘Baby Reindeer’ to proceed
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