Man falsely accused of being Darrien from Baby Reindeer has launched police investigation

An official police investigation has been launched after a man has been falsely accused of being the real-life Darrien who was featured in Richard Gadd’s Baby Reindeer.

Following Baby Reindeer quickly rising to number one on Netflix, fans of the show have been trying to find out who the real people depicted in the show are, including the true identity of Richard Gadd’s abuser, Darrien. Viewers have gone as far as to wrongly accuse a man called Sean Foley of being Darrien, leading to a bombardment of harassment towards him.

Baby Reindeer creator and star Richard Gadd issued a statement this morning, pleading with fans to stop trying to speculate on the identities of those featured in the show. He wrote: “Hi everyone, 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.”

Via Instagram

Richard has also previously addressed the lengths he went to to ensure people wouldn’t be recognisable, stating that he doesn’t think they “would recognise themselves. What’s been borrowed is an emotional truth, not a fact-by-fact profile of someone.”

And now Sean Foley himself has spoken out about the accusations of being Darrien from Baby Reindeer, which have got so “threatening” he’s involved the police. He wrote on X: “Police have been informed and are investigating all defamatory abusive and threatening posts against me.”

Baby Reindeer is available on Netflix now. For more like this article, and all the latest Netflix news, drops, quizzes and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook. 

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Featured image via Netflix.