A former colleague of Baby Reindeer star Richard Gadd cast doubt over the actor’s claims he was targeted by a stalker at the celebrity pub where they worked.
The bar worker claimed Fiona Harvey was among vulnerable women exploited by male members of staff at the Hawley Arms in Camden, north London.
The woman, who is now in her early 30’s, said she felt ‘uncomfortable’ working at the establishment because of its ‘misogynistic culture’ which was fuelled by ‘drug-taking, alcohol and promiscuousness’.
She told MailOnline: ‘Something doesn’t sit right with me about him portraying himself as being the innocent party and being stalked. It just doesn’t fit in with my perception of working there.
‘I worked there the same years as he did with the same staff members.
A former colleague of Baby Reindeer star Richard Gadd cast doubt over the actor’s claims he was targeted by a stalker at the celebrity pub where they worked (Pictured: The Hawley Arms)
Richard Gadd based his Baby Reindeer show off his experience at the Hawley Arms
The bar worker claimed Fiona Harvey (pictured) was among vulnerable women exploited by male members of staff at the Hawley Arms
‘There was some underlying joke going on. I feel sorry for her. She was clearly vulnerable and clearly lonely.
‘I think she was targeted as a joke between the male staff members and he led her on for the laughs.
‘She must have got the impression that he fancied her because of this, hence the alleged stalking.
‘I just don’t like the thought of someone vulnerable being taken advantage of.
‘They targeted somebody who was vulnerable and thought it was funny. I really feel for her.
‘She’s clearly not very well. Why would you pursue someone who’s clearly not stable?’
The bar worker told how Harvey, 58, was a regular customer at the pub when she worked there in 2014.
She said: ‘She was a familiar face. She would be in there maybe three times a week. She was always by herself. She was never with anyone.
‘She would come in and just buy soft drinks. There were a few people like that who used to go in there.
‘She would sit at the table usually in the corner, quite far away from the bar near the stairs leading to the upstairs bar.
‘I remember her talking to another woman who was a regular but I don’t remember her having any proper friends or anything like that.
‘She was coming in just looking for human interaction.
‘The staff would talk about her. The story he has portrayed really does not reflect the environment that I worked in at all.
‘She was looking for a bit of companionship because there were people to talk to and I think he played in on that as a joke and now he’s made loads of money out of it and she’s still being the target of ridicule.
‘Why would somebody of stable mind target and encourage somebody who was clearly mentally vulnerable?
‘I really do think it was all one big joke for their entertainment.’
The bar worker told how Harvey, 58, was a regular customer at the pub when she worked there with Gadd (pictured) in 2014
In the first episode of the hit Netflix show Gadd, as the character Donny Dunn, shows the first meeting with his stalker, when he offers her a cup of tea
In the first episode of the hit Netflix show Gadd, as the character Donny Dunn, shows the first meeting with his stalker, when he offers her a cup of tea on the house as she appears upset.
The bar worker said: ‘That certainly didn’t happen. She didn’t drink tea as he said – there wasn’t any tea.
‘There was a coffee machine but I never served anyone coffee in there ever and there was no tea back then.’
Another scene shows one of Gadd/Dunn’s male bar worker colleagues using his phone to send the Fiona/Martha character a lewd message as a joke – which she then construes as him making sexual advances when in fact she is the butt of the joke.
The pub, a one-time biker haunt on the edge of trendy Camden Market, was one of Amy Winehouse’s favourite hang-outs and the late singer was even photographed helping serve pints behind the bar.
Supermodel Kate Moss and her former partner Pete Doherty were also among the famous clientele along with Liam Gallagher and Bake Off star Noel Fielding.
The former worker said: ‘During the weekend it would pull in all the people who would go because they thought the Hawley Arms was the ‘it’ place to be but during the week it would be regular ordinary people mostly- that’s when she would go.’
The former worker said she earned £6.31-an-hour as one of a handful of female members of staff in a team of 10 or 11 on duty during a busy shift.
The pub, a one-time biker haunt on the edge of trendy Camden Market, was one of Amy Winehouse’s favourite hang-outs and the late singer was even photographed helping serve pints behind the bar
Gadd’s ex colleague has accused him of ‘making loads of money’ out of the vulnerable Harvey
The pub was run at the time by a four-strong male only management team.
She said: ‘It was a very misogynistic place to work.
‘There were always jokes about females and people targeting females, trying to sleep with certain people. That was the culture.
‘I was subjected to it as well.
‘It made me feel uncomfortable but you felt like you had to just put up with it in order to get your wages.
‘There was an alliance between the females that worked there. We kind of looked out for one another because we knew what they were like.
‘Even the first week I was working there I was warned by another female to stay away from certain people who worked there or certain regulars who drank in there because they were womanisers.
‘It was just an accepted culture at that time. It was normalised and in order to be part of that clique you had to accept that stuff.
‘I know I was hired because one of them wanted to sleep with me as it was an open running joke. I was very young and I was really naive and I was a bit of a fool for being drawn in.
‘Intimate Details were even spread about me and I was made fun of which was aggravating; just because I am female why should I have to put up with that, especially in the workplace’.
‘I heard the male staff members so many times joking about girls and about people they slept with and people fancying them.
‘The staff were constantly sleeping with customers and getting numbers. It was pretty pathetic.
‘There was a lock-in pretty much every single evening. People were drinking until about 3am at table 13 which was known as the party table and customers would be invited to those lock-ins, especially females they fancied.’
The woman told how in the end she decided to quit her job for her own wellbeing.
She said: ‘It was just a culture of drug taking, alcohol and promiscuousness in terms of the staff and in general.
‘Mentally I felt drained so I left. I didn’t want to be around that culture and that kind of people any more.
‘I chose to leave for my own wellbeing. I didn’t work in a pub again after that – it put me off.’