GoFundMe set up to assist Kingscourt woman in case

A GoFundMe page has been established to assist a Kingscourt woman who is taking legal proceedings against Gemma O’Doherty over the use of an image of her deceased son.

Edel Campbell launched High Court proceedings against Ms O’Doherty after an image of her son, Diego Gilsenan, was used in a photo montage in The Irish Light, of which Ms O’Doherty is the publisher.

Diego, who died by suicide in 2021, was one of 42 images included in the montage, with the paper claiming the deaths of those pictured were linked to the Covid-19 vaccine and the lockdown.

Ms Campbell recently launched the legal proceedings seeking that Ms O’Doherty cease use of Mr Gilsenan’s image.

A statement issued by Ms Campbell’s solicitor added that previous requests to Ms O’Doherty to “refrain from the exploitation of her son’s image” were unsuccessful as “all pleas have been ignored”.

The GoFundMe page, which was set up on Friday June 2, has a target of €20,000, and had raised over €15,500 at the time of writing, having received 616 donations, with one anonymous donor giving €1,000.

The page states the High Court proceedings were “brought reluctantly by Edel in an attempt to protect her family”.

“Fighting such a case through the High Court is a very costly exercise and this is the reason we are seeking your financial support to enable Edel and her legal team to exhaust every possible avenue to bring Gemma O’Doherty to justice where she has been failed by politicians and gardaí.

“We want to let Edel know she is not alone and she is very much supported in this battle,” the fundraising page states.

In December 2022 Edel spoke to the Celt about the distress that O’Doherty’s claims had caused her.

”I can’t describe the pain. She doesn’t know if he got the vaccine… All I want is for my son’s picture to be taken off her social media sites.”

She said the fallout from the incident had a massive impact on her life and also her three other children who were aged 10, 11, and 13 years at the time.

The Go Fund Me page was organised by Kristopher Shekleton, who says he established the page after talks with Edel and her solicitor.

“I grew up with Edel, I know her a long time. She approached me for advice when O’Doherty first started using images of Diego. When the proceedings were first lodged, Edel believed she could fund it from her own finances, but a specialist senior counsel is very expensive, so we set up the donations page to provide financial assistance for her.”

Kristopher says there have been lots of well wishes to Edel coming through the donations page.

“We have a target of €20,000. Any funds that are raised above our target that are not used in the legal action will be donated to a charity of Edel’s choice.

“We don’t know where the donations are coming from. Most of them are anonymous. We have the comments turned off on the page, but we have been receiving a lot of emails giving us messages of support.”

When contacted for comment The Irish Light tweeted its response: ‘You and your fake news rag are involved in a money-making scam and massive cover-up to destroy free speech in #Ireland. Now publish that!”