Netflix bosses are under fire from MPs over claims Baby Reindeer ‘stalker’ was convicted and jailed for stalking the show’s star, after the woman who says she was the basis for the character denied it .
The SNP’s John Nicolson has warned the entertainment giant’s policy chief, Benjamin King, that he could be in contempt of parliament over evidence he presented to the Commons Culture Committee last week about ‘Martha’.
The show claims that Martha targeted protagonist Richard Gadd and was convicted and imprisoned for her actions towards him, having previously served time for harassing another person.
And speaking to MPs last week, King said the show was “a true story of the horrific abuse that writer and star Richard Gadd suffered at the hands of a convicted stalker”.
However, Scottish lawyer Fiona Harvey came forward last week to say she was the inspiration for the character, but she was never convicted or jailed. She says she never received more than a police warning for what she did and is considering legal action.
Nicolson told the BBC it was clear Mr King’s evidence was “disputed”, adding: “The charge made (for a conviction) is very important.” “Journalists cannot find evidence to support Netflix’s claim… I will write to Netflix to ask them to substantiate the claim they made.”
The SNP’s John Nicolson has written to the entertainment giant’s policy chief, Benjamin King, about evidence he presented to the Commons Culture Committee last week about ‘Martha’, which targets protagonist Richard Gadd (below).
The show claims that Martha was convicted and imprisoned for her actions towards him, having previously served time for harassing another person. However, Scottish lawyer Fiona Harvey came forward last week to say she was the inspiration for the character, but she was never convicted or jailed.
The dispute comes as Netflix continues to face questions about its duty of care in hiding the real identities of those portrayed in the comedy.
Following the show’s phenomenal global success, comedian Gadd, who based the Netflix hit on his real life, said he did not want the true identities of his abusers to be revealed, adding that it is “not the point” of the series.
The show sees Gadd’s character Donny Dunn fall victim to a relentless campaign of harassment by Martha, which begins after he waited on her in a London pub while working as a bartender.
Gadd previously made it clear that she changed names and specific story details to protect the identities of those involved, even stating that the real Martha “wouldn’t even recognize herself” on the hit show.
But many viewers have taken to social media to criticize the show’s creators for casting an “identical” actress to play Gadd’s real-life stalker.
And Mrs Harvey told the Daily Record last week: ‘I haven’t been to prison. I don’t know where the four and a half years and nine months come in. None of this happened. It’s a load of rubbish.’
MPs asked Mr King about the streamer’s duty of care in relation to Baby Reindeer and whether he was concerned that the characters could be identified. He claimed that both Netflix and Baby Reindeer producer Clerkenwell Films took “all reasonable precautions to disguise the real identities of the people involved in that story.”
But he also said that “we didn’t want to anonymize it… or make it generic to the point where it was no longer yours.” [Mr Gadd’s] history, because that would undermine the intention behind the program.
He added: “Richard Gadd was very clear that the intention of the show was not to inspire people to try to track down real-life individuals.
‘Ultimately, it’s obviously very difficult to control what viewers do, especially in a world where everything is amplified with social media.
‘Basically, this was Richard’s story and it was about telling Richard’s story in a truthful way. Personally, I wouldn’t feel comfortable in a world where we decided it was best to silence Richard and not allow him to tell his story. “We are monitoring the situation very closely.”
