Baby Reindeer’s Richard Gadd Reveals ‘Extremely Disturbing’ Harassment in Response to Lawsuit

Richard Gaddcreator of the hit “Little reindeer,” she opened up about years of “extremely disturbing” harassment from a woman who sued Netflix over her role in the show.

The series was inspired by Gadd’s own experience as a victim of bullying when he was a budding comedian. In a court filing Monday, Gadd reiterated that while the series is “emotionally faithful” to his own life, it is not intended to be a “retelling” of the events.

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Gadd said he met the plaintiff, Fiona Harvey, while working at the Hawley Arms pub in 2014. He reported her to police in February 2016 after two years of harassment and after receiving thousands of disturbing and sexually explicit emails and voicemails from her, he wrote.

“The cumulative effect of all of Harvey’s actions was enormous,” Gadd wrote. “It was exhausting and incredibly upsetting to have to deal with her constant personal interactions at the Hawley Arms, her following me around London, including near where I lived, and her relentless and deeply unpleasant communications.”

Harvey is not identified in the series, which begins with the words “This is a true story.” She came forward after the series aired in an interview with Piers Morgan in which she argued that the characterization of “Martha” was “a work of exaggeration.”

Harvey filed a $170 million lawsuit in June, arguing that the show defamed her by portraying Martha as a twice-convicted stalker who was sentenced to a total of five years in prison. In her lawsuit, Harvey said she had never been convicted of a crime.

The lawsuit claims that several other character descriptions are also defamatory: that Martha sexually assaulted Gadd’s character; that Martha slashed his head with a glass and gouged out his eyes; that Martha followed a police officer; and that Martha waited outside Gadd’s house for up to 16 hours a day.

Netflix is seeking to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that the information presented therein is largely true.

While Gadd doesn’t claim the real Harvey was convicted, he says he reported the incident to police multiple times. Ultimately, Harvey received a harassment warning at the first instance. After that, the emails and voicemails stopped, he said.

In the filing, Gadd said Harvey had memorized his shift patterns at the pub after they first met and would sometimes come and sit at the bar throughout his shift. At times, she would make bawdy jokes while he was talking to other customers and would get “hands-on” and pinch his buttocks.

“This attention was unwelcome and I continually tried to avoid Harvey’s advances and unwanted physical contact while waiting tables,” he said. “I asked Harvey several times to leave me alone and refrain from making advances; however, she ignored my requests and, as with her general demeanor, was persistent and unyielding.”

At one point in 2015, he confronted Harvey, who told a customer they had sex, which he said was untrue. At another point, he mentioned reading that Harvey had molested the politician and his wife. Harvey became angry and physically confronted him, going behind the bar and punching him in the neck, warning him that his mouth would “get him in trouble.”

“I remember quickly apologizing because I was afraid he would hit me and also being embarrassed by the fact that many customers standing nearby were looking in my direction,” he wrote.

He claimed that her subsequent visits to the pub became increasingly intense and he would often hide to keep his distance from her.

“I was afraid of Harvey and what she was capable of,” he wrote. “Nothing deterred her, and I remember long shifts where I would sit on the balcony or in the basement for hours waiting for her to come out.”

He testified that Harvey sent him thousands of emails, left him hundreds of voicemails and sent him handwritten letters.

“The content often included sexual, violent and degrading content, hate speech and threats,” he wrote.

In some of them, she attacked him, calling him “naive, ugly, stupid and uneducated.” She made sexual advances on him and made xenophobic remarks about “all bloody foreigners.”

When he first went to the police, he was warned that reporting them could escalate the situation further, so he backed off.

But things became more serious in the months that followed, as she left hours and hours of disturbing voicemails. He said the harassment affected his sleep, that he woke up sweaty and that he avoided parts of London that she visited.

“I was scared,” he wrote. “I was panicked and suspicious. I was afraid to get on the subway and buses because I was afraid to see her. I was really worried that she would hurt me or my parents — especially my parents. In short, her actions took a toll on my physical and especially my mental well-being.”

Gadd eventually got the police to issue a harassment warning, which drastically reduced the harassment, although it didn’t stop entirely. He later said he received a handwritten letter from her with a pair of panties inside.

“Overall, it was an extremely stressful and disturbing time, with a pattern of persistent behaviour that continued for several years,” he wrote.

Netflix also produced supporting statements from Craig Seymour, former general manager of the Hawley Arms pub, and Laura Wray, widow of Jimmy Wray, a Scottish MP.

Laura Wray wrote that Harvey waged a five-year campaign of harassment against her and her family, and that police did nothing about it. She was eventually given a “temporary prohibition order,” the equivalent of a restraining order.

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