Gemma O'Doherty: Why Is Judge Mark Sanfey Actively Covering Up Diego Gilsenan's Death?

Mark Sanfey is facilitating a sinister conspiracy to silence investigative journalism which has exposed a nest of drug dealers targeting young people in Kingscourt, Cavan. Who is he protecting?

Judge Mark Sanfey is actively involved in the murky cover-up of Diego Gilsenan’s death

All of the actors involved in the sordid exploitation of Diego Gilsenan’s death - from his mother’s lawyers Ciaran Mulholland, David Kennedy and Paul Comiskey O’Keeffe to the vulture media - are part of a criminal conspiracy. But the most disturbing player facilitating this GUBUesque charade is High Court Judge Mark Sanfey. His wilful determination to ignore devastating evidence of a cover-up in Gilsenan’s death and engage in naked corruption and contempt of court illustrates an unprecedented low, even for the rotten Irish judiciary. His desperate efforts to silence a journalist in her work which seeks to protect young people from the plague of drugs in Ireland is sinister in the extreme.

The relentless harassment of Gemma O’Doherty by this gang of mendacious fraudsters led by Sanfey has exposed a much deeper pathology at the heart of the Diego Gilsenan case which affects every parent in Ireland. It is about the targeting of young people by malignant drug dealers who have a grip over every town in Ireland and are working hand in hand with rogue Gardai to get them hooked as young as possible.

In his hometown of Kingscourt, which has been ravaged by narcotics and a pandemic of suicides in young people directly related to drug abuse and drug debt, it’s widely rumoured that Gilsenan’s death was connected to the malignant trade. At his funeral in August 2021, the town’s parish priest highlighted the scourge of drug dealing in the small Cavan town. It is unlikely he would have done this if drugs had not been involved.

During the funeral Mass of another young man following a drug-related suicide, Fr Gerry McCormick pointed the finger directly at parents in the congregation and said:

“You as a people know where drugs are freely available in this town. And shame on you for not calling a halt. You know where drugs are sold and the premises they are sold in. And you know the names of the small dealers and indeed the larger ones. And shame on you for not having the courage to report those people and stamp out this drug culture that is permeating our society and absolutely ruining lives.

“And of course there are the people who dabble and offer drugs at house parties. It’s only literally a bit of craic. Well, shame on you too. It’s about €100 for the smallest bit of cocaine that does nothing more than take your children and tear your life apart. Drugs are destroying families. Drugs are devastating our communities.”

In Kingscourt, some of Diego Gilsenan’s family have a long history of drug abuse and dealing and that is why they are being used by unprincipled lawyers to harass Gemma O’Doherty. They are well known to the Gardai. His uncle Garry Gilsenan - the brother of Diego’s mother Edel Campbell - preyed on elderly women, terrorising them and stealing their pensions to feed his heroin addiction.

In one case, the presiding judge described how Gilsenan snatched the bag of a 70-year-old woman.

“When she shouted after him, he approached her in a manner that put her in fear. The lady had to go to a local garage for help. He aggressively and wilfully threatened this lady which is absolutely disgraceful. It is one of the most cowardly and disgraceful muggings I have come across.”

In another incident, Gilsenan stalked an elderly woman who was praying in a church. When she stepped outside, he jumped on her and stole cash from her handbag. Gilsenan eventually died as a result of drugs along with another of Campbell’s brother also believed to be involved in the trade but the carnage left behind in Kingscourt remains to this day.

Because of the family’s notorious associations with drugs, the State has leverage over Edel Campbell. Judge Sanfey is exploiting this in his depraved attempts to take down an honest journalist who is highlighting the many unanswered questions in this case and the chronic rates of suicide, drug abuse and suspicious deaths among our young.

This is the most important journalism a reporter can do. Yet Mark Sanfey has spent more than a year harassing, persecuting and threatening to jail Gemma O’Doherty for her use of a thumb-nailed photograph that was already published widely all over the internet and remains so. He even arranged to have her arrested at her home without any warning and bundled into an unmarked police car to be taken to a secret kangaroo court hearing. The criminality he is involved in is in a league of its own.

Who exactly is he protecting? Why is he trying to silence the truth about Diego Gilsenan’s death and possible drug links? Why is he shielding Edel Campbell who has perjured herself over and over again in his court and whose statements about her son’s death are hugely contradictory, and at times patently absurd?

Mark Sanfey knows Gemma O’Doherty has harassed nobody. He knows that she did not say Diego Gilsenan died as a result of the vaccine but if she had, that would not constitute harassment. He knows that the publication of a photograph - no bigger than a thumb nail - which is all over the internet already - does not constitute harassment in any way, shape or form. He knows Gemma O’Doherty removed the picture over a year ago out of good will, even though she was under no moral, ethical or legal obligation to do so. He knows she is engaged in journalism of the highest standards and public importance.

Judge Sanfey is well aware that the inquest into Diego Gilsenan’s death was a shambles and a horrendous miscarriage of justice. He also knows that the inquest was a public event and that Gemma O’Doherty is perfectly within her rights to publish all details of it and scrutinise its many shortcomings. He knows the inquest is publicly funded and that the public too have a right to know about its many discrepancies. He knows it was carried out in order to assuage public concern about a citizen’s suspicious death. He knows that just one glance at the abysmal inquest report and one can only be left with more questions than answers such are its paucity of detail and glaring contradictions.

Sanfey knows the case cannot be allowed to continue because it is being illegally third-party funded. This is a breach of the laws of maintenance and champerty which represents not only a civil tort but a criminal offence. This law was upheld by the Supreme Court as recently as 2017.

Judge Sanfey knows that Edel Campbell’s story about her son’s death does not add up. He knows that the last person with Diego on the night of his death was the son of a senior guard. He knows that Edel Campbell and her lawyers have made a lot of money persecuting and defaming Gemma O’Doherty.

Mark Sanfey knows what Gemma is being put through by Edel Campbell and her lawyers is the casebook definition of harassment. Being dragged in and out of court every few months for no reason. Being defamed and maligned in the press every few weeks. Being unlawfully arrested and physically assaulted by unidentified detectives who do not even possess a warrant. Being locked in a secret courtroom with no means of communication with the outside world for several hours. Total illegality. The stuff of dystopian nightmares, of Soviet Russia, of vile totalitarian regimes.

Sanfey has broken every rule in the book. He has a long reputation for abusing citizens’ rights illustrated not least in his ongoing abuse of teacher Enoch Burke and his family. But he seems determined to hang his already woeful legacy on the silencing of a journalist because of her work investigating suspicious deaths in young people.

Sanfey is threatening to have Gemma O’Doherty arrested again in July because she refuses to give up her right and duty to investigate State cover-ups of suspicious deaths.

Please attend the High Court on July 4th and watch how your taxes are being spent silencing a journalist as the drug dealers of Kingscourt and every Irish town walk free to target your children and grandchildren, and destroy their lives.

Every single child in Ireland will be targeted by a drug dealer at some point in their lives. The country is awash with drugs because of garda and judicial corruption. Is that the sort of country you want them to grow up in?

If you would prefer to see drug traffickers arrested rather than journalists, please let Sanfey know on July 4th.

You can read about the cover-up of Diego Gilsenan’s death in more detail here: