Conspiracy theorist to pay for calling UK bombing fake
Two survivors of a bombing that killed 22 people at the close of an Ariana Grande concert seven years ago have been awarded damages after successfully suing a conspiracy theorist who claimed the attack was staged.
Martin Hibbert was paralysed from the waist down and his daughter Eve, then 14, suffered a catastrophic brain injury in the bombing at Manchester Arena in northern England in 2017.
They sued Richard Hall – a self-styled journalist who claimed without evidence that the attack was orchestrated by British government agencies – for harassment, and on Friday were awarded 45,000 pounds ($A87,743).
Their case bears some similarities to defamation lawsuits brought against US conspiracy theorist Alex Jones by relatives of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting.
Judge Karen Steyn ruled last month that Hall’s conduct in publishing a book and videos about the Manchester Arena bombing and filming Eve Hibbert and her mother outside their house in 2019 amounted to harassment.
The judge awarded Martin and Eve Hibbert a total of 45,000 pounds ($A87,743) following a further hearing on Friday, British media reported.
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