Judge rules that Fiona Harvey can proceed with Baby Reindeer defamation lawsuit in blow for Netflix
Richard Gadd as Donny (L) and Jessica Gunning as Martha (R) in Baby Reindeer. (Netflix)
A judge has ruled that Fiona Harvey, the woman who served as the inspiration for Martha in the Netflix smash hit series Baby Reindeer, can go ahead with her defamation lawsuit against the streaming platform.
Harvey has claimed that the show falsely implied that she sexually assaulted the show’s creator, comedian Richard Gadd, and that she had been convicted for stalking him, as well as arguing that Netflix had defamed her by not disguising her appropriately as the inspiration for Martha – played by Jessica Gunning.
She then filed a lawsuit claiming damages for $170 million, while Netflix tried to have the suit dismissed on the basis that Baby Reindeer‘s depiction is substantially accurate.
However, district judge Gary Klausner disagreed. In his ruling, he pointed to the fact that each episode of Baby Reindeer begins with the line “This is a true story”, which implies that the story is entirely factual but there are differences between what Harvey was accused of in real life and Martha’s actions in the show.
“There is a major difference between stalking and being convicted of stalking in a court of law. Likewise, there are major differences between inappropriate touching and sexual assault, as well as between shoving and gouging another’s eyes.”
“While plaintiff’s purported actions are reprehensible, defendants’ statements are of a worse degree and could produce a different effect in the mind of a viewer,” Klausner said.
Klausner denied Netflix’s motion to dismiss and also dismissed Harvey’s claims for negligence, violation of her publicity rights, and for punitive damages. But, he did allow her to pursue a claim of ‘intentional infliction of emotional distress’.
“It appears that a reasonable viewer could understand the statements about Martha to be about plaintiff,” Klausner wrote in his ruling, as members of the public identified Harvey as being the inspiration for Martha through publicly available social media posts that were referenced word-for-word in the show.
Klausner said that Netflix “should have known that… viewers would discover her identity and harass her based on these false statements and portrayals”.
Gadd was unhappy with the armchair detectives seeking out Harvey, pleading with them to stop.
Gadd said that much of what appeared in Baby Reindeer was real and that Harvey received a “harassment warning” after he reported her to the police but was not criminally prosecuted or sent to jail.
Additionally, he has said that both the Netflix show and the stage play on which the show was based were not intended to be a “beat-for-beat recounting” of what happened as they were fictionalised accounts of reality.
Gadd also had reservations about starting each episode with “this is a true story” but Netflix insisted, according to the Sunday Times.
Judge Klausner said that if Netflix chose to represent the story as fact despite knowing Gadd had taken artistic liberties with it, it could represent “actual malice” on the platform’s part towards Harvey.
Harvey’s suit does not name Gadd as a defendant.
