Mother suing Gemma O’Doherty for using late son’s image in anti-vax publication

Diego Gilsenan (18) died by suicide

A Kingscourt woman is suing anti-vax campaigner Gemma O’Doherty for emotional distress after an image of her late son, who died from suicide, was used in an anti-vaccine publication.

Edel Campbell is accusing Ms O’Doherty of trying to “sensationalise the unfortunate death of Diego Gilsenan” with “unfounded conspiracies” after the photo of the teenager appeared in freesheet newspaper The Irish Light last year.

High Court proceedings were lodged this week.

In a statement to media, Ciarán Mulholland, principal solicitor of Dundalk firm Mulholland Law said his client, Edel Campbell, “reluctantly” brought the proceedings, feeling she had “no alternative”.

“For any parent to lose a child to suicide is horrific, however for Ms O’Doherty to sensationalise the unfortunate death of Diego Gilsenan with inflammatory rhetoric, unfounded conspiracies and the unauthorised and misappropriate use of our client’s son’s image is utterly shameful,” said Mr Mulholland.

He contended that “all pleas have been ignored” by Ms O’Doherty and his client’s constitutional rights had been breached.

Previously, Ms Campbell spoke to this newspaper about the pain she and her family have felt after the image of her late son appeared in the anti-vax publication.

Her son Diego Gilsenan (18) was one of 42 people to feature in the magazine ‘The Irish Light’ claiming that they died suddenly and their deaths were related to the COVID-19 vaccine and the effects of lockdown. The editor of the publication is journalist Gemma O’Doherty.

Edel said she feels her family was exploited. “If it was mental health or anything like that, I wouldn’t mind. She took his picture from RIP. Who goes on RIP.ie to get pictures like that?”

Edel says she only found out Diego’s picture had been used after her friend spotted it.

“A family friend saw it by chance. She saw Diego’s picture on the front of it and told me.”

Speaking to this newspaper in December, Edel said: “I can’t describe the pain. She doesn’t know if he got the vaccine.”

The mother insists: “All I want is for my son’s picture to be taken off her social media sites.”

She says the fallout from the incident has had a massive impact on her life. “I haven’t done anything wrong here. I tried to contact her before I went public. I don’t want this drama in my life. I drove 10 miles today to get a loaf of bread because I didn’t want to go into a shop in my hometown because, if someone said it to me, I could break down in the middle of the shop. I didn’t know who this woman was until recently.”

Edel has three other children aged 10, 11, and 13 years and says it’s very upsetting for them.

“It hasn’t just affected me, it affected my children. My daughter came home from school yesterday and I had to tell her what was going on because I was afraid somebody might sent her a Snapchat about it or something. She wanted to listen to the radio coverage of the incident. She cried the whole way through. I had to tell my nine and 10-year-olds because they overheard us talking about it.

The Irish Light were contacted for comment at the time but did not respond.