Richard Judd, creator of the hit show Baby Reindeer, has detailed years of “extremely disturbing” stalking by the woman who sued Netflix over her portrayal in the series.
Gad drew inspiration for the show from his own experience as a stalking victim as an aspiring comedian. In a court filing Monday, Gad stressed that the show, while “emotionally honest” with his own life, was not intended to be a “detailed account” of the events.
Gad said he met the plaintiff, Fiona Harvey, while working at the Hawley Arms pub in 2014. He reported her to police in February 2016, two years after the harassment and after receiving thousands of sexually explicit and disturbing emails and voice messages from her, he wrote.
“The cumulative impact of all of Harvey’s actions has been enormous,” Gad wrote. “Her constant personal interactions at the Hawley Arms have been extremely stressful and upsetting to deal with, her following me around London including near where I live, and her constant and extremely unpleasant communications.”
Harvey's identity is not identified in the show, which begins with the phrase “This is a true story”. She came forward after the show aired in an interview with Piers Morgan, where she claimed that the characterization of “Martha” was “an act of exaggeration”.
Harvey filed a $170 million lawsuit in June, alleging that the show defamed her by portraying Martha as a twice-convicted stalker who was sentenced to five years in prison. In her lawsuit, Harvey said she had never been convicted of a crime.
The lawsuit alleges that several other characteristics also constitute defamation: that Martha sexually assaulted Gad; that Martha decapitated him with a cup and gouged out his eyes; that Martha chased a police officer; and that Martha waited outside Gad's home for up to 16 hours a day.
Netflix is seeking to have the lawsuit dismissed on the grounds that the depiction is substantially real.
Although Gad did not claim that the real Harvey was convicted, he said he went to the police repeatedly. Eventually, Harvey was given an initial warning about harassment. After that, he said, the emails and voicemails stopped.
In the filing, Gad said Harvey memorized his bar routines after their first meeting, and would sometimes come and sit at the bar throughout his work. He said she would sometimes interrupt his conversations with obscene language while he was interacting with other customers, and would act “rudely” and pinch his buttocks.
“The attention was unwanted and I found myself constantly trying to avoid Harvey’s advances and unwanted physical contact while serving tables,” he stated. “I asked Harvey to leave me alone and refrain from making advances on me on several occasions; however, she ignored my requests and, as with her broader behavior, was persistent and relentless.”
At one point in 2015, Harvey was confronted for telling a customer they had sex, which he said was false. At another point, he said he had read that Harvey had harassed a politician and his wife. Harvey became enraged and physically confronted him, coming behind the bar and shoving him in the back of the neck, warning him that his mouth would get him in “trouble.”
“I remember quickly apologizing for fear of being hit, as well as embarrassed by the fact that a number of nearby customers were looking at me,” he wrote.
He added that her subsequent visits to the bar became increasingly intense, and he would often hide to get away from her.
“I was terrified of Harvey and what she might do,” he wrote. “She was unstoppable, and I remember long shifts where I would sit on the porch or in the basement for hours waiting for her to leave.”
He explained that Harvey also sent him thousands of emails, left him hundreds of voice messages, and also sent him handwritten letters.
“These communications often included sexually explicit, violent, offensive content, hate speech, and threats,” he wrote.
At times, she would attack him, calling him “naive, ugly, stupid, and poorly educated.” She would make explicit sexual advances to him, while making xenophobic remarks about “all the annoying foreigners.”
When he first went to the police, he was warned that reporting it might make things worse, so he backed off.
But the situation became more serious over the following months, as she left him hours and hours of disturbing voice messages. He said the harassment affected his sleep, that he would wake up sweating, and that he would avoid parts of London that she frequented.
“I was scared,” he wrote. “I was in a state of panic and paranoia. I was afraid to get on trains and buses for fear of seeing her. I was really worried that she might hurt me or hurt my parents — my parents in particular. In short, her actions had a huge impact on my physical and mental health in particular.”
Eventually, Jad managed to convince the police to issue a harassment warning, which led to a significant reduction in the harassment, although it did not stop completely. He said he then received a handwritten note from her containing a pair of underwear.
“Overall, it was an incredibly stressful and disturbing period, with a sustained period of persistent behavior over several years,” he wrote.
Netflix also provided supportive statements from Craig Seymour, former general manager of the Hawley Arms pub, and Laura Rae, widow of Scottish MP Jamie Rae.
Laura Ray wrote that Harvey had waged a five-year campaign of harassment against her and her family, and that the police had done nothing about it. She eventually obtained a “temporary restraining order,” the equivalent of a restraining order.
