Gemma O'Doherty rejects claims she harassed mother of young man who took his own life

Gemma O’Doherty has rejected claims she harassed the mother of a young man who took his own life, saying any attempt to jail her for alleged contempt is “outrageous and unlawful”.

Ms O’Doherty was brought before Mr Justice Conor Dignam at the High Court today following her arrest by gardaí.

Following submissions from her, the judge agreed to adjourn an application to Friday.

The application could see her jailed over an alleged failure to comply with the terms of an injunction obtained by Edel Campbell of Kingscourt, Co Cavan.

The adjournment was granted to allow Ms O’Doherty have her lawyer present in court, as well as to obtain all the relevant legal documents in the case. She was released from garda custody.

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

The injunction was granted as part of proceedings Ms Campbell has brought against Ms O’Doherty.

It relates to an image of her deceased son, Diego Gilsenan, appearing in the Irish Light, which is edited by the defendant.

Ms O’Doherty was ordered to remove Mr Gilsenan’s images from any media platforms under her control, or from publishing any images of herself and her family on any medium.

It is claimed that in a series of video posts by the defendant last year, she made statements disregarding and in breach of the court’s orders.

This led to the application against her over alleged contempt.

Today, Ms O’Doherty told the judge she had never harassed anyone in her life, nor had she ever met Ms Campbell.

She said her good name had been damaged and that she had been defamed by Ms Campbell in a radio interview broadcast by RTÉ.

She described the injunction against her, which was not appealed, as being unlawful and said that she was not prepared to comply with it.

Ms O’Doherty said the plaintiff’s complaints are an attempt to prevent her from doing her job as “an award-winning” investigative reporter who cares about persons whose deaths have been “covered up”.

She told the judge: “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 added that such an action would ”make news all over the world”.

The defendant also claimed the law preventing the third-party funding of legal actions, known as “champerty and maintenance” has been broken by Ms Campbell.

She said a fundraiser, allegedly for legal expenses, had been organised for Ms Campbell that raised over €24,000. She had reported the matter to the gardaí.

Many of the donors to this fundraiser were anonymous, Ms O’Doherty added.

Ms Campbell, she said, said in an interview that the defendant “hated” her. Ms O’ Doherty said she didn’t hate anybody.

It was accepted that she had published “a postage stamp-sized picture” of the plaintiff’s late son, but said it was part of a story investigating the sudden deaths of young people in Ireland.

Ms O’Doherty said that after receiving complaints from Ms Campbell, she decided as an investigative journalist to probe Mr Gilsenan’s death.

She stated her view that the inquest into the death was “shambolic”, and that people including Ms Campbell had questions to answer. The case also raised issues about drug dealing, she said.

The defendant also told the court she believes Ms Campbell is being used by other parties.

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, the defendant had refused to do so, leaving his client with “no option” other than bring the motion alleging contempt.

The matter had been before the court on many previous occasions, and Ms O’Doherty had opted not to attend in person.

Counsel, when rejecting all of Ms O’Doherty’s claims, said it was “news to me” that a garda investigation was in process regarding the fundraiser.

They stated that that given the amount of times Ms Campbell’s legal team have had to appear before the courts in respect of the matter, they were effectively working on a pro-bono (free) basis.

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