Barmaid who worked with Baby Reindeer’s Richard Gadd at the Hawley Arms says ‘stalker’ Fiona Harvey was targeted as a joke at the pub – where staff enjoyed ‘misogynistic culture’ fuelled by ‘drug-taking, alcohol and promiscuousness’

A former colleague of Baby Reindeer star Richard Gadd cast doubt on the actor’s claims that he was targeted by a stalker at the famous pub where they worked.

The bar worker claimed Fiona Harvey was among vulnerable women exploited by male staff at the Hawley Arms in Camden, north London.

The woman, now in her early 30s, said she felt “uncomfortable” working in the establishment because of its “misogynistic culture” fueled by “drug use, alcohol and promiscuousness.”

She told MailOnline: ‘Something doesn’t sit right with me about him portraying himself as the innocent party and being stalked. It just doesn’t fit my image of working there.

‘I worked there for the same years as him, with the same employees.

“There was an underlying joke going on. I feel sorry for her. She was clearly vulnerable and clearly lonely.

‘I think she was meant as a joke between the male staff and he made her laugh.

‘It must have given her the impression that he liked her, hence the alleged stalking.

‘I just don’t like it when someone who is vulnerable is taken advantage of.

‘They targeted someone who was vulnerable and thought it was funny. I really feel for her.

‘She’s clearly not doing well. Why would you pursue someone who is clearly not stable?’

The bar worker told how Harvey, 58, was a regular at the pub when she worked there in 2014.

She said: ‘She was a familiar face. She would be there maybe three times a week. She was always alone. She was never with anyone.

“She came in and just bought soda. There were a few people like that who went in there.

‘She usually sat at the table in the corner, quite far away from the bar, near the stairs that led to the upstairs bar.

“I remember her talking to another woman who was a regular, but I don’t remember her having any real friends or anything like that.

“She came in just looking for human interaction.

‘The staff talked about her. The story he has created does not actually reflect the environment in which I worked at all.

‘She was looking for a bit of company because there were people to talk to and I think he was joking about that and now he’s made a lot of money from it and she’s still being made fun of.

“Why would someone with a stable mind attack and encourage someone who is clearly mentally fragile?

“I really think it was all one big joke for their amusement.”

The first episode of the hit Netflix show features Gadd, as character Donny Dunn, first meeting his stalker, when he offers her a cup of tea on the house because she seems upset.

The bar worker said: ‘That certainly didn’t happen. She didn’t drink tea as he said – there was no tea.

‘There was a coffee maker, but I have never served coffee there to anyone and there was no tea at that time.’

Another scene shows one of Gadd/Dunn’s male colleagues at the bar using his phone to send the Fiona/Martha character an obscene message as a joke – which she then interprets as making sexual advances, when in fact she is the target of the joke.

The pub, once a biker haunt on the edge of the trendy Camden Market, was one of Amy Winehouse’s favorite haunts and the late singer was even photographed serving pints behind the bar.

Supermodel Kate Moss and her former partner Pete Doherty were also among the celebrity clientele, along with Liam Gallagher and Bake Off star Noel Fielding.

The former employee said: ‘During the weekend it attracted all the people who went because they thought the Hawley Arms was the ‘it’ place, but during the week it was mainly regular, everyday people – then she would go. .’

The former employee said she earned £6.31 an hour as one of only a few female staff in a team of 10 or 11 people on duty during a busy shift.

At the time, the pub was run by an all-male four-person management team.

She said: ‘It was a very misogynistic place to work.

“There were always jokes made about women and people targeting women and trying to sleep with certain people. That was the culture.

‘I was subjected to it too.

“It made me uncomfortable, but you felt like you just had to put up with it to get your paycheck.

‘There was an alliance between the women who worked there. We kind of looked out for each other because we knew what they were like.

“Even the first week I worked there, I was warned by another woman to stay away from certain people who worked there or certain patrons who drank there because they were womanizers.

‘It was just an accepted culture at the time. It was normalized and to be part of that clique you had to accept things like that.

‘I know I was hired because one of them wanted to sleep with me, because it was an open joke. I was really young and I was really naive and I was a bit of a fool because I got drawn into it.

‘Even intimate details were spread about me and I was ridiculed, which was aggravating; just because I’m a woman, why should I have to put up with that, especially in the workplace’.

‘I’ve heard so many times the male staff make jokes about girls and people they sleep with and people they like.

‘The staff were constantly sleeping with customers and getting numbers. It was pretty sad.

‘There was a lock-in almost every night. People drank until about 3am at table 13, which was known as the banquet table, and customers were invited to those lock-ins, especially women they liked.”

The woman shared how she ultimately decided to quit her job for her own well-being.

She said: ‘It was just a culture of drug use, alcohol and promiscuousness, both among staff and in general.

‘Mentally I felt exhausted, so I left. I didn’t want to be around that culture and those kind of people anymore.

‘For my own well-being, I chose to leave. I didn’t work in a pub again after that, that put me off.’

Sources close to Mr Gadd said Ms Harvey’s stalking and antisocial behavior was well known and her unpleasant behavior towards Gadd was a fact.