A US judge has ruled hit streaming series Baby Reindeer has been wrongly billed as a “true story” and will allow a woman who says she has been identified as the real-life Martha to pursue her defamation lawsuit against Netflix.
The Emmy award-winning series follows the life of Donny Dunn, a barman and struggling comedian, who is stalked by a woman called Martha Scott, played by Jessica Gunning, with viewers being told in the opening sequence “this is a true story”.
Created by Richard Gadd – who also stars as Dunn – the series sparked an online frenzy over the real-life identities of some of the characters, with Scottish lawyer Fiona Harvey being named as the “real Martha”.
Earlier this year, Ms Harvey said she had been “forced” to come forward after receiving online death threats from “internet sleuths” – and filed a $170m (£127m) lawsuit claiming the story was inaccurate and had falsely accused her of being a convicted stalker and, due events in the show, of attacking Gadd.
Netflix filed a motion in July in an effort to get the lawsuit thrown out – but in the ruling in a Californian court on Friday, Judge Gary Klausner said “it appears that a reasonable viewer could understand the statements about Martha” to be about the plaintiff, Ms Harvey.
The judge said the show had exaggerated the actions of Ms Harvey in the show with statements of a “worse degree”.
“Each of the factors suggest that the statements would be interpreted as assertions of fact,” the ruling stated.
“While the statements were made in a series that largely has the trappings of a black comedy-drama, the very first episode states unequivocally that ‘this is a true story’.”
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Ms Harvey has previously said she met Gadd when she visited a London pub for a meal, but had never heckled his comedy show, visited his home or contacted his parents.
In an interview with Piers Morgan in May, she said she had sent a handful of emails, tweeted him about 18 times and written him one letter.