Fiona Harvey, the real-life inspiration for Baby Reindeer‘s Martha Scott, told Piers Morgan she didn’t send Richard Gadd the 41,000 emails like the Scott character does on the show. One U.K. politician might beg to differ, and this revelation casts Harvey’s version of Gadd’s story further into doubt.
In Baby Reindeer, Gadd says the Scott character â his stalker â sent Donny Dunn, played by Gadd, an email barrage over several years, riddled with typos and spelling errors. And each email was distinctively signed off with “sent from my iPhone.” Gadd claimed that the Scott character was sufficiently disguised that no one could figure out Harvey’s identity. But Gadd either severely underestimated the initiative of armchair detectives, who tracked Harvey through Gadd’s real social media accounts, or Gadd’s efforts to fictionalize Scott were overstated.
In any case, Harvey eventually came forward online to admit that Scott was based on her, but she denied ever stalking Gadd. Harvey recently went on Morgan’s show to tell her side of the story, and when Morgan pressed Harvey on the email matter, she said Gadd made them up.
Keir Starmer’s inbox felt Harvey’s wrath
But reports have now emerged that Fiona Harvey also harassed the U.K. Labour politician Keir Starmer via email over about eight months in 2020. According to The Sun, Harvey lived in London’s Camden area, and Starmer was MP for her neighborhood. Harvey allegedly complained about local politics and the state of the Labour Party in the nearly 300 emails she sent to Starmer’s work address.
Most tellingly, though, the emails â viewed by The Sun â are filled with threats, personal attacks, disparaging remarks, and even disability slurs leveled at Starmer’s wife. She even went after Starmer’s dead relatives, and in one email she allegedly told Starmer that she’d make his life “not worth living.” These emails also conclude with “sent from my iPhone,â and are filled with punctuation, spelling, and grammar errors, just like Martha Scottâs other writings.
One email read,
Keir cut the crap with me you stupid little boy … You get elected leader of. Non party and within two minutes I get an email calling me a racist from the housing ombudsman I’ve already complained about you to the standards commissioner who guess what also does nothing. See from now on il l complain about the slightest little thing”
via Daily Mail
The Sun says Starmer’s was named and the first address in many of Harvey’s emails, but other local politicians were targeted, too. London police have been made aware of the emails, but Starmer and the Labour Party have not yet commented on Harvey’s messages.
Fiona Harvey has hired a lawyer
Fiona Harvey has hired a lawyer, Chris Daw KC, to bring a defamation case against Richard Gadd and Netflix, because she says she was never convicted of any crime, and never went to jail like the Scott character does on Baby Reindeer, leaving Netflix scrambling to prove they performed due diligence when fact-checking the show under U.K. law. There’s no word yet on how the Starmer emails might affect Harvey’s potential case.
