Courts

Gemma O’Doherty denies harassing woman after being arrested and brought before High Court

Journalist accused of breaching terms of injunction obtained by mother of young man who died by suicide

Gemma O Doherty (right) at the Four Courts in Dublin on Wednesday. Photograph: Collins Courts
Gemma O Doherty (right) at the Four Courts in Dublin on Wednesday. Photograph: Collins Courts
Aodhan O'Faolain
Wed Apr 10 2024 - 17:11

Gemma O’Doherty has rejected claims that she harassed a woman whose son died by suicide and said any attempt to jail her for alleged contempt is “outrageous and unlawful”.

Ms O’Doherty was brought before the High Court on Wednesday following her arrest by gardaí.

Mr Justice Conor Dignam adjourned to later this week an application that could see Ms O’Doherty jailed over her alleged failure to comply with the terms of an injunction obtained by Edel Campbell.

The adjournment is to allow Ms O’Doherty to have a lawyer in court and to obtain relevant legal documents. She was released from custody following the hearing.

READ MORE

Under the terms of the injunction, which is to remain in place pending the full outcome of the proceedings, Ms O’Doherty is restrained from harassing or intimidating Ms Campbell, from Kingscourt, Co Cavan, and from disclosing any confidential information about the plaintiff and her family.

The injunction was granted as part of proceedings Ms Campbell has brought against Ms O’Doherty over the use of an image of her late son, Diego Gilsenan, in the Irish Light newspaper, which Ms O’Doherty edits.

The court ordered Ms O’Doherty to remove Mr Gilsenan’s image from any media platforms under her control and to not publish any images of Ms Campbell and her family on any medium. It is claimed that in a series of video posts last year Ms O’Doherty made statements in clear disregard and in breach of the court’s orders. This led to the application against Ms O’Doherty over her alleged contempt.

Ms O’Doherty told the judge on Wednesday she has never harassed anyone and has never met Ms Campbell. She alleged she was defamed and her good name was damaged by Ms Campbell in a radio interview broadcast by RTÉ.

She described the injunction, which was not appealed, as being unlawful and said she was not prepared to comply with it. She said the plaintiff’s complaints were an attempt to prevent her from doing her job as an investigative reporter who cares about deaths that have been “covered up”.

Ms O’Doherty told the judge that “if you do jail me, it would be jailing me for being an investigative journalist, I would not like to be in your shoes”.

She claimed a law preventing the third-party funding of legal actions, known as ‘champerty and maintenance’, has been broken by the plaintiff. She claimed a fundraiser, allegedly for legal expenses, was organised for Ms Campbell and raised more than €24,000, some of which came from anonymous donors. She said she had reported the matter to gardaí.

It was accepted that she had published “a postage stamp sized” picture of Mr Gilsenan, but she said it was part of a story investigating the sudden deaths of young people in Ireland.

Ms O’Doherty also said that she had posted online a copy of the coroner’s report on Mr Gilsenen’s death, which she said is a public document and something the court could not direct her to remove.

David Kennedy SC, with Paul Comiskey O’Keeffe BL, instructed by solicitor Ciaran Mulholland, for Ms Campbell, told the court that his client wanted “nothing more” than for Ms O’Doherty to comply with the injunction. However, she had refused to do so, leaving his client with “no option” other than bring the motion alleging contempt.

Counsel said his client was not complaining about the posting of the inquest outcome, but it is their case that the commentary about his client clearly amounted to harassment.

Rejecting all of Ms O’Doherty’s claims, Mr Kennedy said it was “news to me” that a Garda investigation was under way regarding the fundraiser. He said given the amount of times Ms Campbell’s legal team has had to appear before the courts in respect of the matter, they were effectively working on a pro-bono basis.

Ms Campbell has sued Ms O’Doherty over the alleged unauthorised publication of the image of her late son following his death in 2021. She claims Ms O’Doherty has wrongly and unlawfully used the image in an article on media controlled by Ms O’Doherty allegedly linking unexplained deaths to the Covid-19 vaccine.

She secured an injunction restraining Ms O’Doherty from harassing the plaintiff, or from publishing Ms Campbell’s and her late son’s images or any personal confidential material about them. Ms O’Doherty is also restrained from encouraging or inciting others to intimidate the plaintiff. She was also ordered to remove any image of the plaintiff and her late son from any form of media that she owns or operates.

Ms Campbell further claims that the unauthorised and repeated use of her son’s image amounts to harassment and a breach of her constitutional rights. She claims that it has caused her emotional pain, suffering and harm. Ms O’Doherty rejects all of the allegations and says that she removed the image as a gesture of goodwill.