Manchester bombing survivors awarded damages for harassment by conspiracy theorist

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LONDON (Reuters) – Two survivors of a bombing that killed 22 people at the close of an Ariana Grande concert seven years ago were on Friday awarded 45,000 pounds ($58,212) in 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.

Their case bears some similarities to defamation lawsuits brought against U.S. 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 following a further hearing on Friday.

Martin Hibbert told reporters that the case “sends out a clear message to conspiracy theorists that you cannot ignore all acceptable evidence and harass innocent people”.

He said the case showed that there is protection for survivors of mass casualty events in the law as it currently stands, but that he wanted to see a law passed in his daughter’s name which could focus on access to justice for survivors.

Hall read a statement outside court, in which he said: “There was no bomb.”