Richard Gadd, the creator of the hit show “Baby Reindeer,” has recounted years of “extremely upsetting” stalking at the hands of the woman who sued Netflix over her portrayal in the series.
The show was inspired by Gadd’s experience as a victim of stalking while he was a fledgling comedian. In a court filing on Monday, Gadd reiterated that though the show is “emotionally true” to his own life, it is not meant to be “a beat-for-beat recounting” of events.
Gadd stated that he met the plaintiff, Fiona Harvey, while working at the Hawley Arms pub in 2014. He reported her to the police in February 2016, after two years of harassment and after receiving thousands of disturbing and sexually explicit emails and voicemails from her, he wrote.
“The cumulative effect of all of Harvey’s actions was enormous,” Gadd wrote. “It was exhausting and extremely upsetting to deal with her constant personal interactions in the Hawley Arms, her following me around London including near where I lived and her relentless and deeply unpleasant communications.”
Harvey is not identified in the show, which opens with the line “This is a true story.” She came forward after the show was broadcast in an interview with Piers Morgan, in which she argued that the characterization of “Martha” was “a work of hyperbole.”
Harvey filed a $170 million lawsuit in June, arguing that the show had defamed her by depicting Martha as a twice-convicted stalker who was sentenced to a total of five years in prison. In her suit, Harvey said she has never been convicted of a crime.
The suit claims several other characterizations are also defamatory: that Martha sexually assaulted Gadd’s character; that Martha slashed a glass over his head and gouged his eyes; that Martha stalked a police officer; and that Martha waited outside Gadd’s home for up to 16 hours a day.
Netflix is seeking to have the lawsuit thrown out on the grounds that the depiction is substantially true.
Though Gadd does not claim that the real-life Harvey was convicted, he does state that he repeatedly went to the police. Ultimately, Harvey was issued a First Instance Harassment Warning. After that step, the emails and voice messages stopped, he said.
In the filing, Gadd stated that Harvey memorized his shift patterns at the pub after their first meeting, and would sometimes come and sit at the bar for his entire shift. She would sometimes interject smutty banter while he was interacting with other customers, he said, and would act “handsy” and pinch his buttocks.
“The attention was unwelcome and I found myself constantly trying to dodge Harvey’s advances and unwanted physical contact while serving tables,” he stated. “I did ask Harvey to leave me alone and to refrain from making advances towards me on several occasions; however, she ignored my requests and, as with her wider behavior, she was persistent and relentless.”
At one point in 2015, he confronted Harvey for telling a customer that they had had sex, which was false, he said. At another point, he mentioned that he had read that Harvey had harassed a politician and his wife. Harvey became irate and physically confronted him, coming behind the bar and shoving him in the back of his neck, and warning him that his mouth would get him “into trouble.”
“I remember quickly apologizing out of fear she was going to hit me, as well as embarrassment at the fact a number of customers nearby were looking over,” he wrote.
Her subsequent visits to the pub became increasingly intense, he stated, and he would often hide to keep away from her.
“I was scared of Harvey and what she might be capable of,” he wrote. “Nothing deterred her, and I remember long shifts where I would sit out on the balcony or in the basement for hours waiting for her to leave.”
He stated that Harvey also sent him thousands of emails, left hundreds of voicemails for him, and also sent him handwritten letters.
“These communications often included sexually explicit, violent, and derogatory content, hateful speech, and threats,” he wrote.
In some, she would lash out at him, calling him “naive, ugly, stupid and badly educated.” She made sexually explicit propositions to him, while also making xenophobic remarks about “all the bloody foreigners.”
The first time he went to the police, he was warned that reporting her might escalate things further, so he backed off.
But the situation grew more severe over the following months, as she would leave hours and hours of disturbing voicemails. He said the harassment affected his sleep, that he would wake up in sweats, and that he would avoid parts of London that she frequented.
“I was fearful,” he wrote. “I was panicked and paranoid. I was terrified about getting on tubes and buses for fear of seeing her. I genuinely was worried that she might harm me or my parents — my parents especially. In short, her actions took an extensive toll on my physical and especially my mental well-being.”
Gadd ultimately got the police to issue the harassment warning, which dramatically curtailed the harassment, although it did not halt completely. He said afterward he received a handwritten letter from her with a pair of underwear inside.
“Overall, it was an incredibly stressful and worrying time, with a sustained period of relentless behavior taking place over several years,” he wrote.
Netflix also submitted corroborating declarations from Craig Seymour, the former general manager of the Hawley Arms pub and from Laura Wray, the widow of Jimmy Wray, a Scottish member of Parliament.
Laura Wray wrote that Harvey had conducted a five-year harassment campaign against her and her family, and that the police had done nothing about it. She ultimately got an “interim interdict” order, an equivalent to a restraining order.
From Variety US