Martha Scott

Martha Scott
General information
Full name	Martha Scott
Also known as	Sheila
Gender	♀ Female
Age	43
Personal information
Education	First Class Bachelor of Laws, University of Glasgow
Occupation	Lawyer (formerly)
Residence	London, England Scotland (formerly)
Romance(s)	Donny Dunn (victim)
Series/Movie information
Series	Baby Reindeer
Portrayed by	Jessica Gunning

Martha Scott is a character in the British drama comedy series Baby Reindeer, who is portrayed by Jessica Gunning.

Biography

Martha is an insecure and mentally ill woman. After Donny Dunn, a struggling comedian, shows her some kindness, Martha develops an obsession with Donny. For months on end, she harasses and stalked Donny, threatening to ruin both their lives.

Martha is a former lawyer who was previously convicted of stalking her boss and stabbing her boss' mother. She was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison.

Throughout Baby Reindeer

Donny Dunn, a struggling comedian, worked at a pub. Martha Scott, a lonely woman, entered the pub. She was unable to afford a drink, so Donny offered her a drink on the house. Martha began talking about her career as a lawyer, perpetuating herself as a very successful and powerful woman. Martha visited the pub every day and talked to Donny obsessively. They exchanged compliments. Donny's friends and managers, Gino and Greggsy, took notice and joked that Martha was Donny's girlfriend. Later, Donny's email inbox was spammed by incoherent emails from Martha.

One day, Martha arrived at the pub with an expensive hamper and a quilt, hoping to go on a picnic with Donny. Donny suggested getting coffee instead, since they are just friends.

At the café, Martha explained that she found Donny's email address on his website and criticised Donny's comedy videos on YouTube. Martha began asking Donny invasive questions. She grabbed Donny's hand and insisted that he tell her who hurt him. When Donny told her to let go of his hand, Martha suddenly yelled loudly, taking the whole restaurant by surprise. Donny and Martha quickly exited the restaurant, leaving in opposite directions.

Donny decided to follow Martha and discovered that she lived in a small, messy apartment. While Donny was watching Martha from outside her window, Martha sent Donny an email, causing Donny's phone to make a sound. Martha noticed him and Donny ran away.

One night, while talking, Martha blurted out that she loved Donny. Donny went home and googled Martha, discovering that she used to be a lawyer, but was fired after being convicted of stalking. Martha behaved inappropriately around her boss - hanging around outside his house, falsely reporting him to the police for abusing his child and stabbing his mother in the street. Martha received a 4.5 year prison sentence.

Donny accepted Martha's Facebook friend request. She commented on all his photos, with some making rude remarks about Donny's photos of his ex-girlfriend, Keeley. Martha confronted Donny about Keeley. Donny explained that Keeley was just a friend, but Martha responded that men and women cannot just be friends.

Martha continued to show up at Donny's workplace to flirt with him. She was keen to advance their relationship. Donny politely turned Martha down, explaining that due to their age gap, they would not be able to have children. Later, Martha spammed Donny with emails insisting that she was fertile and would have no problems having children. She even suggested naming their future children Eggbert, Keith and Neo.

Unbeknownst to Martha, Donny had been seeing Teri, a woman he had met on a trans dating site. Donny created a fake profile, claiming that he was a construction builder named Tony. Teri and Donny had many dates in a dark pub, to avoid being spotted by someone Donny knew.

On Donny's way home after a date, Donny encountered Martha, who was waiting for him outside. Donny insisted that Martha leave, but she kept following him, and eventually forced herself onto him. Donny froze as Martha groped him.

After being assaulted by Martha, Donny took time off work and blocked Martha on Facebook, in hopes of getting away from Martha.

At Donny's place, Liz introduced Donny to her cooking group. To his surprise, the new member of Liz's cooking group is Martha, who passed herself off as "Sheila", a lawyer. Liz invited "Sheila" to spend the night. While Liz was searching for blankets, Donny confronted Martha and threatened to call the police. Martha was shocked and let Donny drive her home.

Week after week, Martha decided to spend her days and nights sitting on the bus bench outside Liz's house, greeting Donny every time he walked past. On a cold winter day, Donny noticed that she was sitting at the bus stop, seemingly frozen, and began to have some sympathy for her. He drove her home and made her a cup of tea.

Donny took part in a comedy show, where Teri and her many friends showed up, hoping to watch him fail. Donny's show started poorly, however, he cracked a few jokes about a fictional girlfriend, which made the audience laugh. Suddenly, Martha started to sing and she professed her love for him. Donny initially tried calling her a "random stranger", before telling the crowd she was his stalker. Martha angrily denied this and began yelling that Donny poked around her house at night and emailed her asking for sex. Martha was eventually taken out by security guards.

After the show, Teri offered to talk to Martha, since she was a therapist and believed she could help Martha with her mental issues. However, Donny felt that it was a bad idea, and instead, Donny and Teri went into a pub to hide from Martha. Martha found them, and was offended that Donny was having a date with someone else. Martha insulted Teri with slurs and remarks about Teri's background and appearance. When Martha physically attacked Teri, Donny and another man pulled Martha off and Donny yelled at Martha to leave. Teri sat on the ground, injured and hurt.

Donny went to the police station to make a report about Martha Scott. The police officer, Officer Daniels, did not feel that Donny was at risk and none of Martha's emails were threatening. Donny did not tell the police Martha's identity, Martha's criminal history or Teri's assault. He struggled with the idea of reporting Martha, since she was clearly struggling with mental illness.

Shortly after the attack on Teri, the pub managers, Gino and Greggsy, banned Martha from the pub.

Martha attacked Keeley with a Coke outside their house. When Liz learned that the attack was because of Donny's relationship with Martha and that she had been inside her house, she kicked Donny out.

At the police station, Donny finally revealed Martha's identity to Officer Daniels. It turned out that the police were already aware of Martha, as she had previously stalked and threatened a police officer. Officer Daniels referred the case to Detective Joanne Culver, who interviewed Donny.

While on a date with Teri, Donny received a call from his mother, but he didn't pick up. His parents, Elle and Gerry, left Donny a voicemail, completely distraught and believing that Donny had been in a car accident. Martha had gotten in contact with Donny's parents and was now harassing them.

Martha harassed Donny's parents relentlessly, by repeatedly calling and messaging them. Donny decided to take matters into his own hands by coercing Martha into writing him a sexually aggressive email, in hopes of them using the email as evidence to send to the police. However, unbeknownst to Donny, Martha always wore a recording device. Martha sent Donny's voice recordings and email to the police.

Detective Joanne Culver no longer wanted to deal with either Martha or Donny, and simply asked that they stop communicating.

Martha showed up at the pub again. She was previously barred from entry, but as there were no managers on site to stop her, she took a seat and began mocking Donny with another customer, pulling up videos of his problematic and unsuccessful stand-up routines.

This pushed Donny to his limit. He revealed to the customer Martha's criminal past, including her previous arrests and details about past victims. Furious, Martha attacked Donny by smashing a glass on his head, leaving blood streaming down his face as the other customer watched in shock. The bar managers, Gino and Greggsy, begged Donny not to go to the police, as they could lose their jobs due to negligence.

At a comedy competition, Donny had an emotional breakdown and talked on stage about Martha's stalking, Darrien's sexual assault and his failed relationship with Teri. He lamented that he loved Teri, but he loved hating himself more than he loved her. Some of the audience left, disturbed, and the rest sat in uncomfortable silence.

After Donny's emotional breakdown during the comedy competition, a video of his breakdown was posted on YouTube.

One day, Martha called Donny, angry about the way he spoke about her on stage. Martha began spamming his phone with messages. Donny travelled home to spend time with his parents.

Once Donny turned on his phone again, he was once again flooded with Martha's phone calls and voicemails. Donny went to the police station to make another report, but Officer Daniels informed him that there was little he could do about calls from unknown numbers. The officer advised off-the-record that Donny could continue using this phone number, hoping to receive a threatening message that could be used in evidence. Donny spent the next few weeks spending all day obsessively listening to all her voicemails and analysing her emotions. Finally, Martha sent a voicemail threatening that she could stab anyone in the country. She was arrested the next day and charged with 3 counts of stalking and harassment.

At Martha's plea hearing, Martha pled guilty to the charges of stalking and harassing Donald Dunn from 14 August 2015 to 22 March 2017 and stalking and harassing Gerald and Eleanor Dunn from 6 June 2016 to 22 March 2017. Martha was sentenced to 9 months in prison and a 5-year restraining order was issued.

At a pub, Donny listened to one of Martha's voicemails that he had not listened to before. In the voicemail, she explained that she called him "baby reindeer" because when she was young, she had a cuddly fluffy reindeer toy that went with her everywhere. It was the only good thing from her childhood, and she still had it as an adult. Martha felt that Donny resembled her reindeer toy and she explained that Donny meant a lot to her. Donny began to cry.

Appearances

Season One

• Episode 1
• Episode 2
• Episode 3
• Episode 4
• Episode 5
• Episode 6
• Episode 7

Quotes

"You’ve got really manly hands, haven’t you? Oh yeah? Big, deep voice. Chiseled jawline. Should be illegal to have your bone structure too. They should tax you for it. Man tax."

—Martha compliments Donny

"You look like a man!"

—Martha attacks Teri

"So you and your family, you keep your traps shut, yeah? You’re on your final warning. I f*cking mean it this time. Because I’ve got a raging PMT where I could just about stab anyone in England, in Britain. So you’d better watch what you’re saying because maybe one day I will stab someone."

—Martha's threatening voicemail to Donny

"I had this wee cuddly toy when I was young. Went with me everywhere. Earliest memory I have, I think, was Christmastime. This old photo of me, sitting with this paper hat on my head and this baby reindeer beside me. Anyway, this reindeer was this cuddly, fluffy thing. It had big lips, huge eyes, and the cutest wee bum. I still have it to this day. It was the only good thing about my childhood. I’d hug it when they fought. And they fought a lot, you know? Well, you are the spit of that reindeer. The same nose. Same eyes. Same cute wee bum. It means so much to me. You… You mean so much to me."

—Martha's voicemail to Donny

Trivia

• Fiona Harvey, a 58-year-old woman from Fyvie, Aberdeenshire, has been accused on social media of being the real-life Martha Scott. Fiona is a law graduate who met Gadd years ago when he was a bartender at The Hawley Arms in London's Camden. She is considering taking Richard Gadd, Netflix, and others involved to court on the grounds of defamation.
  • Fiona appeared on Piers Morgan Uncensored. The video went viral on YouTube.
• Martha ends all of her emails to Donny with "Sent from my iPhone", even though she doesn't have an iPhone.

Gallery

Martha and Donny

Martha

Martha and Donny in a jar

Donny and Martha at a bus stop

Donny and Martha in a pub

Martha by the pub door

Donny and Martha at the pub

Donny and Martha in a pub

Martha at the pub

Donny and Martha at the pub

Martha in court