‘High risk’: Experts say Netflix does little to protect identities of Baby Reindeer’s real-life characters

Legal experts say Netflix could have done more to protect the identity of stalker “Martha” in its hit show Baby Reindeer and have potentially given her real-life counterpart grounds to sue.

The drama-comedy has kept online sleuths busy pursuing the identities of real-life people inspiring characters in the show — an ironic result of the show’s success.

Richard Gadd — who wrote and starred in the seven-episode series — plays failed comedian and barman Donny Dunn, whose act of kindness towards beleaguered Martha Scott, Jessica Gunning, in his London pub leads a twisted study on the human psyche.

So authentic are the characters — and believable the story — that a portion of viewers have attempted to expose the identity of the person inspiring Martha’s character through her text messages and online activity.

Rory Lynch, a lawyer specialising in defamation and privacy, told MailOnline use of real text messages could lead to “jigsaw identification”.

Coupled with Martha’s identifying details, such as her age, Scottish origins and London residence, and Mr Lynch said there may be grounds for the ‘real’ Martha to sue for defamation if she was able to prove the show’s allegations are untrue and have caused “serious harm”.

Gadd has publicly admitted there are elements of his stalker’s character that are not a direct representation of the person who inspired her, yet Mr Lynch suggested there was still danger in such a portrayal.

“I think what Gadd’s done is quite high risk because he’s publicised the fact that this happened to him, and it was traumatic and now he’s taken it to the big screen,” he said.

“You could argue that maybe he should have been a bit more careful about changing facts a bit more.”

Perhaps there could have been a more substantial disparity between what viewers saw on screen, and who was watching Gadd.

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

“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.”

While altering such events would surely have detracted from Gadd’s connection to the narrative, the legal expert claimed refraining from doing so might open the show up to a defamation case.

He added there may also be a privacy issue at play, though the fact the show is “clearly a drama, not a documentary” would have Gadd’s lawyers fairly confident they would not be stepping into unlawful territory.

In an interview with Daily Mail, a woman who claimed to inspire Martha argued Gadd’s script had amounted to “bullying an older woman on television for fame and fortune” and that she had received “death threats and abuse from Richard Gadd supporters”.

“He’s using Baby Reindeer to stalk me now,’ she told the publication. ‘I’m the victim. He’s written a bloody show about me.”

Netflix confirmed that each email received by Gadd’s character in the show was actually received by him — even the ones signed off with “sent from my iPhone” that have tickled viewers.

In a span of four and half years, Gadd revealed more than 41,000 emails, 700 tweets, 106 pages of letters and 350 hours of voicemails were sent to him.

After stans (stalker fans) also attempted to track down the inspiration for abuser Darrien O’Connor — played by Sean Foley — police are now involved to negate the pursuits of conspiracists and trolls.

Legal experts have warned over-bearing sleuths allegations of a guilty crime can be legally actionable if there is no evidence to back them up.