Lawyer reveals which Baby Reindeer scenes should’ve been cut to protect real-life Martha

A lawyer has revealed the Baby Reindeer scenes that Netflix should have left out to protect the identity of the ‘real-life’ Martha.

Richard Gadd’s Netflix hit show Baby Reindeer is based on the comedian’s traumatic experience of being stalked by a woman named Martha and assaulted by a high-profile comedy agent.

Although names and appearances were altered for the drama series, it didn’t take long for viewers to try to figure out who each character could be based on. A Scottish woman thought to be the ‘real-life Martha’ was later identified online and was invited onto Piers Morgan’s Uncensored YouTube channel.

In response to her controversial interview with the journalist, lawyer Rory Lynch, who specializes in defamation and privacy at Gateley Legal, told Mail Online that Gadd and Netflix could have done more to safeguard the identity of the convicted stalker.

The lawyer suggested that Jessica Gunning, who portrayed Martha, could have protected the woman’s identity by using a different accent. He also said that the casting directors could’ve changed Martha’s gender to make her more difficult to pin down.

Netflix

“Making her different, maybe doing it the other way around and making it a man as the stalker rather than a woman,” Lynch told the news outlet. “Or, you know, just changing it up a bit more as there are obviously so many similarities.”

He continued: “I would just try and make it as different as you can to what actually happened while still getting the story across. Not Scottish, and not a lawyer and not having a bar in London, but perhaps set it in a library in Manchester or something like that.”

The lawyer also raised concerns about potential privacy issues regarding scenes depicting Gadd’s stalker. However, he believed that Gadd’s legal team would have likely been “pretty confident” in legally clearing the show, given that it’s “clearly a drama, not a documentary.”

Back in April, the ‘real-life Martha’ Fiona Harvey revealed that she’s planning to sue both Netflix and Gadd for defamation. On May 21, she promised that her legal battle will be the “highest profile case of the century.”