Two survivors of the 2017 bomb attack at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, won £45,000 ($58,000) in damages on Friday from a former TV producer who claimed the attack was a hoax.
Martin Hibbert and his daughter Eve sued Richard Hall over claims made in videos and a book that they were “crisis actors” employed by the state as part of an elaborate deception.
Martin Hibbert suffered a spinal cord injury and his daughter suffered severe brain damage in the attack.
Richard Hall argued that he was acting in the public interest by filming Martin Hibbert’s daughter outside her home, but the High Court in London agreed with Martin Hibbert’s harassment claim.
Judge Karen Steyn called Richard Hall’s behavior “reckless, indeed reckless, an abuse of media freedom” and on Friday ordered him to pay £22,500 in damages to Martin Hibbert and his daughter.
Richard Hall must also pay 90 per cent of his legal costs, currently estimated at £260,000.
“Both claimants are vulnerable. The allegations are serious and disturbing,” the judge said.
Jonathan Price, the claimants’ lawyer, said that Richard Hall “insisted that the terrorist attack in which the claimants were seriously injured did not occur and that the claimants were participants in a state-organised fraud or ‘crisis actors’ who repeatedly Lied to the public publicly and gravely for monetary gain.”
Martin Hibbert welcomed the verdict, saying: “I want this case to open the door to change, and save others from going through what we have had to go through.
“It proves and highlights … that there are protections within the law, and it sends a message to conspiracy theorists that you can’t ignore all admissible evidence and harass innocent people.”
Islamic extremist Salman Abedi, with the help of his brother Hashem Abedi, killed 22 people and injured 1,017 during a suicide bombing at the end of an American singer’s concert.
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