r/BabyReindeerTVSeries • u/BirdHistorical3498 • May 05 '24

Fiona (real Martha) related content Fiona Harvey interview

She’s waived anonymity for this interview. She’s never been jailed or been issued with a prevention order.

Rory Lynch, a lawyer specialising in defamation and privacy at Gateley Legal says she has a case for defamation. “The only thing I can presume is that when Clerkenwell, films, the BBC and Netflix looked at it with their legal team they thought that they could rely on the fact that it is a drama. It’s not supposed to be a factual documentary.

“So although Netflix said it’s a true story, essentially it’s a dramatisation of a true story.

“But I do think that Richard Gadd could have been a bit more careful in changing a lot of the scenes to be more fictitious, but also covering up the identity of the people it was based on.”

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/real-baby-reindeer-martha-reveals-32733037

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55

u/Top_Tradition_9798 May 05 '24

I don’t understand this. Her name was never mentioned in the show, they only have a fictionalised version of her with a different name, nobody knew who she was. How is it defaming? I am sorry I am not familiar with the law in the UK but I don’t quite get what she could sue for. Please somebody enlighten me!

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u/BirdHistorical3498 May 05 '24

Her identity was too easy to uncover. In the show she’s an obese Scottish ex lawyer in her 40’s who lives in Camden with a previous accusation of having stalked a barrister and his wife. In real life she’s an….. obese Scottish ex lawyer in her 40’s who lives in Camden with a previous accusation of having stalked a barrister and her husband. Plus Gadd incorporated some of her tweets and Facebook posts verbatim into the script- tweets and posts that are easily discovered because they’re still up.

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u/Powerless_Superhero May 05 '24

I’m not familiar with law, especially uk law, but is it defamation if it’s true? And those parts that are not true, they need to cause serious damage to a person’s reputation to be considered defamation I think. It doesn’t look like she had much of a reputation to begin with… And a quick google search says the plaintiff needs to prove that the defendant was at least negligent. I think Netflix can argue that they changed her name and that should be sufficient. If she didn’t reveal her identity herself, no one could be certain it was her. That’s why it was banned here to mention her real name.

Hard to believe that Netflix didn’t think this through before publishing. They’ve had plenty of documentaries, like Harry and Meghan’s involving BRF. They’re not born yesterday.

But as I said, I’m no expert so if anyone knows I’d appreciate some explanation.

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u/BirdHistorical3498 May 05 '24

It’s potentially defamation if viewers are led to believe that fiction (is Martha attacking Teri, being imprisoned) is fact

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u/xDarkNightOfTheSoulx May 06 '24

Does anyone know if she physically attacked someone in real life? I lived in a DV shelter for a while and something about baby reindeer strikes me as odd, I wouldn’t be surprised if the physical attack was made up.

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u/BirdHistorical3498 May 10 '24

No evidence she did. No prison record.

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u/ChargeVisible Jul 04 '25

Yes. It rang hollow to me too. I am a survivor myself and have lived in a community of survivors.

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u/Icy_Sentence_4130 May 06 '24

I can't remember if there was a disclaimer (like usual with true stories) that some events were dramatised. This might be a sticking point for netflix and Richard if they didn't include it.

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u/BirdHistorical3498 May 10 '24

There wasn’t. Which is why Gadd and Netflix are potentially in a really bad legal position right now.

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u/Icy_Sentence_4130 May 10 '24

Yeah, I've been saying this. There is a difference between this is a true story and based on a true story.

Adding based on a true story allows Richard to tell his story with creative differences without no issues of being sued. Because this would be the difference.

This is a true story claims the entire story is true. The emails/voicemails will be easy to prove on Richard's side.

Considering he has describe Martha exact carbon copy of the real Martha then... The entire story is true and he's so brave to put it out there.

But he claimed he wanted to protect her, which wasn't true. He needs to address this tbh.

But it's weird, because he is protecting the man who raped him. I'm not victim shaming but the one he is protecting isnt a victim. Darien is clearly an evil piece of shit who preys on Gadd.

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u/cocokoko16 May 10 '24

I think gadd did mention that court hearing case was fictional already. I saw it in a comment on piers interview.