A US judge has ruled that Fiona Harvey, the woman accused of stalking Baby Reindeer creator Richard Gadd, can pursue her defamation lawsuit against Netflix, noting that the show was wrongly billed as a “true story” when Netflix “made no effort” to fact check Gadd’s story or disguise Harvey as the inspiration for Martha.
Harvey has alleged the show falsely implied that she sexually assaulted Gadd and gouged his eyes, and that she had been sent to prison for stalking him. After viewers managed to identify her as the inspiration for Martha – against Gadd’s wishes – Harvey filed a US$170m lawsuit, arguing that the show had defamed her by depicting Martha as a convicted stalker as she had not been convicted of a crime.
