Why This Scottish Woman Sued Netflix
Fiona Harvey, a Scottish woman sued Netflix for defamation, negligence, and privacy violation. Harvey alleges that the character Martha, in the hit Netflix drama Baby Reindeer is inspired by her. She argued in a lawsuit that the streaming giant has told “brutal lies” about her to the over 50 million viewers across the globe.
The lawsuit filed in a California court seeks $170 million (Rs 14,18,49,70,000) in damages to Harvey. She claimed that the Baby Reindeer series falsely depicted her as a convicted criminal who spent time in prison for stalking.
As per the court document, Harvey denies that she sexually assaulted the show’s creator. In one of the scenes in the series, Martha was depicted as sexually assaulting the protagonist of the show. The court document claims that, Netflix “told lies, and never stopped, because it was better story than the truth, and better stories made money”.
Baby Reindeer allegedly tells the story of abuse faced by Richard Gadd, comedian, at the hands of a convicted stalker, a woman, he met at a pub where he worked. The series’ end credit showed that the programme is “based on real events: however certain characters, names, incidents, locations, and dialogue have been fictionalized for dramatic purposes”.
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Netflix did not immediately respond to the BBC request for comment. Netflix and Gadd has not confirmed Harvey’s claim that she is Martha.
Speaking to BBC, Harvey said that she is certain that Netflix would lose the case. She said, “I have no doubt about that. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be doing it. We think we are going to win”.
The lawsuit is not taking Gadd’s name as the defendant.
The show does not take neither Harvey’s nor Gadd’s real name. Gadd has previously appealed to fans through social media to refrain from trying to identify Martha, the stalker character he once introduced in one of his stand-up comedy.
In her lawsuit, Harvey alleges that Netflix “did literally nothing” to confirm that Gadd’s story was true before creating the show. The complaint further said that Netflix did nothing to understand the relationship between Gadd and Harvey, and the facts about the assault, the alleged stalking or the said conviction.
Harvey’s Lawyer, Richard Roth told BBC that he has “incontrovertible documentary evidence” proving that his client has never been convicted of a crime. He also added that there is “no doubt” that Harvey’s identity was used for the series’ plot.
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Harvey, who now lives in UK, said that since the release of series in April, she has received several death threats, and the experience has left her “fearful of leaving her home or checking the news”. The lawsuit Harvey filed also claim that she has “become extremely seclude and isolated, in fear of the public, going days without leaving her home”.
During an interview with Pierce Morgan last month, Harvey confirmed that she had known Gadd while he was working at a pub in London. She said that she did not acted like Martha in the series and has not sent Gadd’s character 41,000 emails and leaves 350 hours of voicemail messages in the show. She said it was just a couple of email, and that was all.
Notably, the lawsuit alleges that real comments Harvey made to Gadd, like tweet she sent him in 2014, are used in the show’s dialogue.
