A week after Paloma Shemirani was diagnosed with the blood cancer non-Hodgkin lymphoma in December 2023, she FaceTimed her older brother Sebastian.

As Paloma came into view, Sebastian was gripped with fear. Standing over his sister were their parents, Kate and Faramarz Shemirani. ‘I saw Paloma was under their control completely,’ says her sibling.

With chemotherapy, doctors at Maidstone Hospital had given the 23-year-old Cambridge graduate an 80 per cent chance of survival. But her mother Kate, a notorious conspiracy theorist who called Covid a ‘lie’ and has said chemotherapy comes from ‘mustard gas’, persuaded Paloma to treat the disease with a scientifically unproven juice diet instead.

In the months before she got ill, Paloma distanced herself from her mother’s dangerous ideas. But, whether through vulnerability or a sense of duty, she decided to share her diagnosis with her. Within days, says Sebastian (who, like Paloma’s twin brother Gabriel, calls their mother by her real name, Kay), ‘she was as brainwashed as she was at 12 years old’.

Seven months later Paloma was dead.

It would be a week before Gabriel, who had been taking legal action to remove Paloma from their mother’s care, heard about his sister’s death via his lawyer. ‘We still don’t know where Paloma’s ashes are. Kay wants to control Paloma even in death,’ Sebastian tells me.

Kate, 60, who rose to prominence during the pandemic when she accused nurses administering the Covid vaccine of ‘genocide’ and who has 80,000 followers on X, blamed the NHS and medical staff who treated her daughter. Faramarz, divorced from Kate in 2014, took his ex-wife’s side.

Yesterday, however, a fractious inquest at Kent and Medway Coroner’s Court found Kate’s influence contributed ‘more than minimally’ to her daughter’s death. Recording a narrative verdict, coroner Catherine Wood said Kate had breached her duty of care by not guiding Paloma to the correct treatment: ‘Paloma died of a natural disease that was curable but not treated.’

Sebastian and Gabriel believe the coroner should have found Paloma had been unlawfully killed. Speaking outside court an emotional Gabriel, 24, said Paloma was not just failed by Kate but ‘by a state apparatus that shows no care for the people it promises to protect’. Sebastian, meanwhile, says his mother is a ‘monster’ – ‘We’re disappointed but not surprised that she can’t be held legally accountable.’

Paloma Shemirani died seven months after a non-Hodgkin lyphoma diagnosis. Her brothers, Gabriel, left, and Sebastian, right, believe the coroner should have found she was unlawfully killed

Their mother, Kate (real name Kay) is a prominent conspiracy theorist who gained notoriety during the pandemic. Kate is pictured here at a rally in Trafalgar Square with Piers Corbyn

Gabriel and I first spoke before the inquest opened on July 28, after a BBC Panorama investigation presented by Marianna Spring, exposed Paloma’s shocking case. I talked to both him and Sebastian exclusively this week, before and after the inquest findings. They are still understandably angry. Gabriel says he wants to see Kate ‘rot behind bars. My sister was coerced.’

But they soften when they talk about the ‘goofy’ girl who loved literature and fashion and always took the last slice of pizza. Both have been haunted by dreams about Paloma since she died, stuck in limbo and unable to grieve as they fight for justice.

‘I haven’t got time to cry or punch walls,’ says Sebastian.

Growing up in Uckfield, East Sussex, the Shemirani family seemed unremarkable; privileged, even. But ‘everything about our childhood had signs and themes of our parents’ psychology’, says Sebastian. The siblings – there is a younger sister the Daily Mail is not naming – had 12 cats ‘because Kay likes having things to control that can’t answer back’.

Faramarz and Kate, daughter of a postman and bookkeeper, were drawn to conspiracy theories for different reasons, the brothers say; for Faramarz, a quantitative analyst, it happened after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which he was convinced were orchestrated by the American government. Being half Iranian, he was ‘naturally primed’ for conspiracy theories against the West, says Sebastian who, along with Gabriel, was told to read The David Icke Guide To The Global Conspiracy (And How To End It) by the ex-TV presenter, which theorises that the world is controlled by a hidden elite and claims the Royal Family are shape-shifting lizards.

Kate, a former nurse struck off by the Nursing And Midwifery Council for her views in 2021, became a conspiracy theorist after a 2012 breast cancer diagnosis. Although she had surgery for her cancer, she credits Gerson therapy – an unproven, natural ‘cancer cure’ that involves drinking juices and administering coffee enemas to detoxify the liver – for her recovery.

She started to espouse the benefits of alternative cancer therapy, selling £195 consultations and personal programmes, and charging an annual £69.99 membership fee for her services.

The brothers say Kate’s conspiracy theories are fuelled by narcissism ‘to make her feel more important’, says Gabriel and, adds Sebastian, ‘once each of [their parents] had an angle, they created a radicalisation loop’.

As his mother ‘lost her mind’ and spent more money on juices and supplements, their diet grew ‘increasingly bad’, says Sebastian, with meals such as boiled rice, broccoli and ketchup. At 6ft 6in and 10st 3lb, Gabriel was ‘extraordinarily underweight’, but Kate’s attitude towards food was especially ‘toxic’ for Paloma, who at 5ft 5in, weighed just 7st 7lb.

‘She felt threatened by Paloma,’ believes Gabriel. ‘She saw Paloma as her sexual competition.’

Meanwhile tap water was banned on account of fluoride, as was fluoride toothpaste. By the age of ten, he says, he ‘intuitively’ knew something was wrong with his parents. He stopped calling them Mum and Dad ‘around the age of 12. It felt wrong.’

Kate wouldn’t let her children use wifi to study or contact their friends and, Sebastian says, tried to isolate him. ‘If I was going to a friend’s house, she would call the parents ahead and tell them what an unruly kid I was. One by one I lost friends.’

The siblings sought refuge in each other, but even their childhood games had overtones of oppressor and oppressed ‘because we grew up like that’, says Sebastian.

‘Everything about our childhood had signs and themes of our parents’ psychology’, says Sebastian. They had 12 cats ‘because Kay likes having things to control that can’t answer back’

Paloma, who was studying Portugese and Spanish at Cambridge, tried Gerson therapy as a treatment – an alternative, unproven method credited by Kate for her own cancer recovery

Being a twin, says Gabriel, ‘you only relate to yourself as a pair’. He and Paloma would repurpose Shakespearean sonnets as rap lyrics.

At 16, Sebastian won a scholarship to Eton, and, ‘angrier and angrier’ with his parents, slept on friends’ sofas in school holidays. ‘As we got older and started to question her, we fell out of love with our mother one by one,’ he says.

Gabriel stopped loving his mother around the age of 17. ‘I had to mourn the death of a mother I realised I couldn’t emotionally rely on. Then in 2020, as lockdown was announced and studying maths and economics at the London School of Economics, he moved out. Paloma, studying Portuguese and Spanish at Cambridge, was the only sibling left at home in university holidays. ‘Paloma got four people’s worth of abuse,’ says Sebastian. (Kate previously denied coercing Paloma.)

While the brothers ‘rejected everything’ their mother stood for, Paloma tried to stay on good terms. She didn’t question some of her mother’s less controversial theories, and when the pandemic arrived didn’t get the Covid vaccine because, Gabriel believes, she couldn’t afford to incur Kate’s wrath when she needed to stay at home during the holidays.

Their mother saw Covid as an opportunity to grow her platform, the brothers say. When Sebastian saw her holding anti-lockdown rallies in which she referred to the NHS as ‘the new Auschwitz’, he contacted the BBC’s Marianna Spring and warned in an interview in October 2020: ‘It’s only a matter of time before. .. somebody acts on the bad advice she is giving the country.’ After that, Kate ‘sent me a message accusing me of being a traitor,’ he says. ‘She implied I was paid and I’d done it for money or fame.’

By the time Paloma graduated in June 2023, her relationship with her mother was strained. She got a job working for a yacht company and moved to a flat-share in Kent. At the inquest, the coroner added that Paloma had moved out due to ‘emotional and physical abuse’ she suffered at her mother’s home.

That autumn, Paloma started suffering chest pains. After a biopsy at Maidstone Hospital, she was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma on December 22. Her brothers were optimistic that, away from their mother’s influence, she’d have chemotherapy. ‘It’s a curable disease,’ says Sebastian.

Gabriel believes their mother viewed her daughter’s cancer as ‘an opportunity’ to test her alternative medicine methods. If she allowed her daughter to have chemotherapy, Sebastian adds, she’d lose all ‘credibility’.

Gabriel believes his parents pressured Paloma to discharge herself from hospital: ‘I knew time wasn’t on my sister’s side. It was an aggressive cancer. I knew if something wasn’t done immediately I’d be staring at her dying in six or seven months.’

After he and Paloma’s boyfriend, Ander Harris, turned up at the family home in the early hours of Christmas Day to beg Paloma to return to hospital, Kate banned him from coming back and, says Gabriel, told Ander he had to ask Kate’s permission to see his girlfriend. The pair later broke up and Gabriel never saw his sister again.

The inquest heard how, when Paloma collapsed at home on July 19, Kate phoned a friend before an ambulance was called. Paloma died five days later

The brothers say Paloma was told not to use her phone because the 5G radiation was bad for her; and when Gabriel asked Paloma if she’d meet him outside the home, she said: ‘I can’t, Kay says the damp air is bad for my cancer.’

Paloma planned to try Gerson therapy for six weeks and then have a scan to see if it had helped the cancer retreat. But after six weeks, says Gabriel, she was told the radiation from the scan would be bad for her: his mother ramped up ‘control’ as time went on.

Last February, a desperate Gabriel contacted East Sussex Social Services, asking them to assess whether Paloma was being coerced into refusing chemotherapy. He says he faced weeks of delays. ‘They never even bothered to visit my sister.’

Yesterday, a spokesperson for East Sussex County Council told the Daily Mail it carried out a Section 42 Safeguarding Enquiry. ‘We discussed the concerns with Gabriel, ascertained the views and wishes of Paloma and liaised with her GP. The Safeguarding Enquiry was concluded in May 2025 and reasons for the closure were shared with the family’s solicitor.’

In April 2024, Gabriel launched High Court proceedings to remove Paloma from Kate’s care. He wasn’t contending that Paloma had capacity to make a decision regarding her medical treatment, he says, but that she was unable to exercise her capacity because she was being coerced.

On Instagram, Paloma wrote about her ‘road to recovery’ in May with the help of her Gerson practitioner ‘and the loving support of my wonderful mum’. Friends of Paloma, meanwhile, said she had a lump in her armpit, which Kate had told her was a sign the cancer was leaving her body.

The brothers believe the Instagram post had all the hallmarks of their mother’s influence, ‘even down to the hashtags used’, says Gabriel. They also believe Kate wrote a text message Paloma sent to Ander ending their relationship. When asked for comment by the Daily Mail, Kate didn’t respond.

On July 19 Paloma collapsed at home. The inquest heard Kate phoned a friend before an ambulance was called. The court listened to the harrowing 999 call in which Kate can be heard saying ‘she’s dying’, contradicting her later assertion that the paramedics administering drugs on arrival were responsible for Paloma’s death. The first paramedic on the scene told the inquest: ‘The patient’s mother presented a challenge. She kept interrupting while the crew were carrying out care.’

At the inquest, hearing the audio of his sister receiving CPR – ‘as she’s choking on her tumours’ – Gabriel says he disassociated himself, thankful only that the call ‘discredited Kay’s testimony’.

Five days after she collapsed, Paloma died at Royal Sussex County Hospital. When Gabriel found out a week later, ‘it was like being burnt alive’, he says. ‘Not only had my sister died, Kay had hidden it.’

He called Sebastian, who was working in Malaysia at the time. ‘Even the inevitability of knowing what a monster Kay is and how conditioned Paloma was’ could not alleviate the shock, he says. Their mother refused to tell the brothers when or where Paloma’s funeral was.

Kate, who appeared at the inquest via video link, took this victim mentality to court. At one stage coroner Catherine Wood grew so exasperated by Faramarz and Kate’s behaviour, she threatened to find them in contempt of court.

The brothers want the law to be changed to include conspiracy theories as a means of coercive control. ‘There’s not enough recourse to get people like Kay arrested, when she’s done something so obviously morally wrong,’ says Gabriel. He thinks Paloma would be proud of his fight for justice. ‘I yearn to share with her all the life she missed.’

As for the mother they hold responsible for her death? ‘She’s a psychopath,’ claims Sebastian. ‘People say, “I know she’s crazy but she’s your mum.” But ‘my idea of Mum stops at genetics.’

• A new episode of the Marianna In Conspiracyland 2 podcast about Paloma’s story is on BBC Sounds now.
• Additional reporting: Nick Fagge