Two survivors of the Manchester Arena attack have won their harassment case against a conspiracy theorist who claims the bombing was “staged”.
Former television producer Richard Hall has said he believes the attack at an Ariana Grande concert in 2017 was a “elaborate hoax”, and that no one was “genuinely injured”.
Martin Hibbert and his daughter Eve, who were both severely injured in the explosion, brought legal proceedings against Mr Hall for harassment and data protection, with a civil trial taking place in July.
High Court judge Mrs Justice Steyn ruling today that “the claimants have succeeded on their harassment claim”, adding that she would not decide the data protection claim at this stage.
The legal action related to several videos and a book where he claims the bombing was a “hoax”, as well as “secretly filming” Ms Hibbert and her mother at their house.
Hall had specifically alleged that Mr Hibbert and his daughter had not been at the concert that night at all, and did not suffer their injuries there.
The judge said there was “powerful evidence that Mr Hall’s course of conduct caused Mr Hibbert to suffer alarm, distress and anxiety”.
But Mr Hall had claimed his actions – including an incident of filming Miss Hibbert outside her home – were in the public interest as a self-styled journalist, and that “millions of people have bought a lie” about the attack.
In a statement after today’s ruling, Mr Hibbert said it was “a comprehensive victory”.
“I am really pleased with not only the overall judgment, but also the many comments of the judge as to how unacceptable Hall’s behaviour was,” he said.
“I don’t want to make much more comment until the final terms of the judgment are agreed in terms of settlements and hopefully an injunction being imposed.
“However, I do want this to open the door for change, and to help protect others from what we have been put through in the future. I will be discussing this with my legal team at Hudgell Solicitors, with the aim of establishing a new law in Eve’s name.”
Mr Hibbert suffered a spinal cord injury – leaving him paralysed – and Ms Hibbert, then 14, was left with a “catastrophic” brain injury.
Suicide bomber Salman Abedi killed 22 people and injured hundreds when he detonated a homemade bomb into a crowd leaving the concert on 22 May 2017.
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