Was enough done to protect her identity?

When Netflix unveiled its gritty new drama Baby Reindeer, the first question many of us had was - how long before the real Martha shows up?

- NICOLA METHYEN

For the uninitiated, the show tells the story of Martha, a stalker, who latches on to a struggling stand-up comedian and makes his life a misery.

Given that it was based on the real-life experiences of creator Richard Gadd, it seemed inevitable that amateur internet sleuths would soon be trying to find the woman who inspired the depiction of his fictional stalker.

And if they found her, surely she would relish the attention that being a central character in a major international TV show would bring? Oh no, we were told, that's not going to happen, we've taken steps to protect her anonymity. But last night, a woman who claims to be the basis for Martha gave her side of the story to Piers Morgan's YouTube series, Uncensored.

She told him that almost everything about the series, which starts with the words "this is a true story", was a lie.

Branding Richard as "psychotic" and the "ultimate misogynist", she insisted that virtually every aspect of the series he'd written was "completely untrue" - including that she'd been to prison for stalking. Now viewers will have to decide what they believe.

The woman flatly denies sending thousands of texts and email messages, and claimed the drama had been: "Very, very defamatory to me, very career-damaging"

Claiming she'd received death threats from viewers as far away as the US, she insisted: "I'm not a stalker. I've not been to jail, I've not got injunctions.

This is complete nonsense." And the self-proclaimed real-life Martha who the Mirror has chosen not to name said she was "forced" to reveal her identity in order to defend herself. "On the internet, sleuths tracked me down and hounded me and gave me death threats," she said.