Joseph Tully: Criminal Defence Lawyer on the real life Martha suing Netflix

The woman who claims to be the inspiration behind Netflix’s Baby Reindeer is suing them for at least NZ$274m. 

Scottish woman Fiona Harvey first announced she was the inspiration behind Martha, the main character’s stalker, in May. 

Criminal lawyer Joseph Tully told Heather du Plessis-Allan “The defence by Netflix will be that they told the truth.” 

Tully said “We’re going to have a real-life drama play out before our eyes.” 

LISTEN ABOVE. 

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, do you reckon she's got a case?

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Ah? Boy, wow, I do? I mean, it's the defense
by Netflix will be the truth that they told the truth,
and so we're going to have a real life drama
play out before our eyes if the case ever goes
to court.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
But they have to prove that they told the truth, right,
And it seems to me that the allegation that is
the difficult one at the stage is that she was
a twice convicted stalker and that she'd been to jail,
and as far as we know, there's no evidence publicly
that that is.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
True, right, correct, Although there is some evidence that she
had been that she did have some legal trouble before,
but what the extent of it was really hasn't been
really hasn't come to light thus far.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
Do Netflix have a case that they did everything within
their power to keep her identity secret and it was
out of their control that the Internet managed to uncover her.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
I don't think so. As you said, the Internet managed
to uncover her, and it did so quite quickly. So
any defense that they might try to use of well,
we hit her identity that you know, we hit that
as best as we could. We hit it to you know,
the legal professional standard I think will fall flat, because
you know, the proof is in the pudding. The Internet

(01:22):
basically docks her in no time flat.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
Yeah, I mean this is tricky then, isn't it. For
anybody who wants to make some sort of documentary or
some sort of TV series like this and keep somebody anonymous,
They're going to have to go to quite extreme links
to hide the identity in the future, aren't they correct.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
I mean we're seeing the human intelligence come together in
the form of the Internet. I mean Twitter can be
a force for good, you know, if we just set
our minds to it. And I think this is an
example of the power of the Internet and the power
of our collective intelligence being focused on a single point,

(02:01):
a single fact. And yeah, it really is. This is
going to be an extraordinary trial, Like I said, when
it gets to trial, or if it gets to a courtroom.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
Joseph fifty million bucks in a California court Is that plausible?

Speaker 2 (02:19):
It very much is, Yes, very much so. If if
the plaintiff were to prevail, she can prove all the
elements of everything. In other words, if she manages to
prove that that or defeat netflame. Netflix's defense of that. Hey,

(02:39):
this is the truth. She will certainly be owe damages
and I don't think this be on the pale at
all of fifty million dollars.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
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