Sisters seek removal of documentary featuring their brother's dead body

Ann O'Loughlin

The family of a man filmed as he lay dead during an ambulance call out to his apartment is seeking a High Court injunction requiring Virgin Media and a film company to take the footage off air and off social media.

Bernard Slean suffered from addiction issues, and when the ambulance service responded to an emergency call to the apartment owned by him and his two sisters in Ayrfield, Dublin, on October 8th, 2025, he was already dead.

Accompanying the ambulance personnel was a camera crew with Alley Cat Films Ltd, with a registered address in Culdaff, Co Donegal, which was filming for a documentary series called "First Timers on the Frontline" which was later shown on Virgin Media television.

Slean's sisters, Jennifer McCaffrey and Alison Lynch, owned the apartment jointly with their brother and Bernard was living there, Conor Bowman, for the sisters, told the court on Thursday.

The sisters say the footage recorded by Alley Cat pixelated their brother's body as it lay on the apartment floor, but that other scenes identified the property from the outside. Bowman said there was a very distinctive palm tree outside the apartment.

In an affidavit seeking an injunction against Alley Cat and Virgin Media Ireland Ltd, McCaffrey said the first time she became aware there had been a film crew at the property was when she went to Jennings Funeral Home on November 21st, 2025, to collect her brother's ashes following cremation.

She said she was told Alley Cat had contacted Jennings who were asked to pass on a letter to her. She said the letter sought the sisters' "consideration" of the inclusion of the footage in the documentary series and also invited them to a meeting to discuss the matter if they wished.

"I say both myself, my sister and niece the daughter of the deceased were in the depths of grief and despair and did not respond in any way to this letter", Ms McCaffrey said.

Nearly two months later, on January 15th last, Bernard's daughter Erica was phoned by Jennings Funeral Home saying there had been contact again from Alley Cat in relation to broadcasting the footage.

Erica "explicitly refused consent" and communicated that to the film company through Jennings.

On February 26th, McCaffrey said she became aware First Timers on the Frontline was broadcast and it was apparent that the property filmed was that of the sisters and their late brother and that the blurred or pixelated figure lying on the floor was Bernard.

She said the intrusion on the property by the film crew occurred without their consent.

She also became aware the documentary was accessible on the Virgin Media Player and clips of it were continuing to appear on Instagram and Facebook.

Their solicitor wrote to both companies calling on them to undertake to remove the material and not to make it available for broadcast again until the portions relating to the apartment and Bernard were deleted. Virgin Media did not respond while Alley Cat said the matter had been passed to their lawyers.

McCaffrey said despite the request for privacy and to spare the immediate and extended family from further distress, the filmed material obtained by trespass at the property continues to be available on the player and on various social media platforms.

She believed an injunction was necessary because damages can never be an adequate remedy for the continuing trespass on their grief, especially given the circumstances of Bernard's death and the method by which the footage was obtained and used.

It was also used in the face of a direct refusal by Erica to allow them to use it, she said.

She and her sister also feared that the failure to the defendants to engage with them will mean the defendants will continue to intrude on their grief. The programme may also be re-broadcast or sold to other outlets.

The matter has had a catastrophic effect on their ability to process the difficult circumstances of the death of their brother, she said.

Justice Brian Cregan, following the ex parte (one side only represented) application for an injunction by Bowman, said it was a very unfortunate situation. But he did not think a mandatory order on an ex parte basis would be the correct approach.

He said he would grant short service of the proceedings on the defendants and the case could come back next week.