Media firms given time to respond to claims over footage of deceased on TV programme

High Court Reporters

A High Court action by members of the family of a man filmed as he lay dead during an ambulance call out to his home, and included in a Virgin TV programme, allegedly without consent, has been adjourned to allow the TV company and producers to respond to the claims.

Bernard Slean suffered from addiction issues and was found on the floor of the apartment he lived in in Ayrfield, Dublin, by ambulance personnel on October 8th 2025.

Two of his sisters are seeking an injunction requiring Virgin Media and film company, Alley Cat Films Ltd, to take the footage off air and off social media.

Slean was already dead by the time the ambulance called to the apartment owned by him and his two sisters, Jennifer McCaffrey and Alison Lynch.

The sisters’s proceedings are against Virgin Media TV and Alley Cat Films, with a registered address in Culdaff, Co Donegal, which was filming for a documentary series called "First Timers on the Frontline" and was later shown on a Virgin channel.

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.

It is claimed that the first time they learned filming had been going on was when Jennings undertakers, who cremated their brother, handed McCaffrey a letter from Alley Cat when she went to collect the ashes.

The letter sought the sisters' "consideration" of the inclusion of the footage in the documentary series.

They did not respond to the letter as they were grieving their brother’s death.

But shortly before the programme was aired last February, another attempt was made by Alley Cat, through Jennings, to talk about it to the deceased's daughter Erica, who "explicitly refused consent".

Their solicitor wrote to Virgin asking it to take down the footage after it was broadcast, but received no reply. A similar letter to Alley Cat received the response that the matter had been passed on to its lawyers.

It is claimed that 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.

The sisters brought proceedings and were given permission last week to serve them at short notice on the defendants.

When the case returned on Tuesday, solicitor Kieran Kelly, for Virgin Television Ltd, and Tom Murphy BL, for Alley Cat, asked for time to put in replying affidavits to the sisters' claims.

Justice Brian Cregan adjourned the matter to a date early next month. He said the material in question was still available to the public and it was therefore an urgent matter.