Woman claims to be the real Martha Scott, the stalker in Richard Gadd Netflix drama Baby Reindeer

A woman has identified herself as the inspiration behind Martha Scott, the stalker character central to dark the Netflix drama Baby Reindeer.

Richard Gadd created the black comedy series from his one-man show of his real-life experience of being stalked and sexually assaulted in his twenties.

The plot sees struggling comedian Donny Dunn, a fictionalised version of Gadd (who also plays the lead), being followed and harassed by Martha (played by Jessica Gunning).

In real life, Gadd gave a cup of tea to a lonely woman and this simple action sparked an obsession which resulted in him receiving more than 40,000 emails, 740 tweets, 350 hours of voicemail, 100 pages of letters and 45 Facebook messages over the following five years.

The series has been a hit, being hailed by the Standard as “nail-biting” and “not for the faint-hearted”.

“Stalking on television tends to be very sexed-up,” said Gadd to Netflix’s Tudum site. “It has a mystique. It’s somebody in a dark alleyway. It’s somebody who’s really sexy, who’s very normal, but then they go strange bit by bit. But stalking is a mental illness. I really wanted to show the layers of stalking with a human quality I hadn’t seen on television before.”

The series, spoiler alert, ends with Martha being given a prison sentence and disappearing from the life of the protagonist.

But the woman who claims to be the person Martha was based on has come forward and spoken to the Daily Mail, saying she is the real victim in the events.

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

The unnamed woman has also said that she has received “death threats” from Gadd fans and that the show only amounts to “bullying an older woman on television for fame and fortune”.

Gadd has not responded to her claims and the Mail article.

The comedian has already tried to stop fans from speculating about who real-life equivalents could be and has said that although the plot is based on reality, many elements are dramatised.

He has specifically called out the abuse of Sean Foley, who supporters had wrongly identified as being the inspiration for a producer who takes advantage of Donny.

Gadd said on Instagram: “People I love, have worked with, and admire (including Sean Foley) are unfairly getting caught up in speculation.

“Please don’t speculate on who any of the real-life people could be. That’s not the point of our show.”