Two survivors of a deadly bombing at the close of an Ariana Grande concert seven years ago have been awarded £45,000 ($AU88,000) in damages after successfully suing a conspiracy theorist who claimed the attack was staged.
Martin Hibbert was paralysed from the waist down and his daughter Eve, then 14, suffered a catastrophic brain injury in the bombing, conducted by 22-year-old Salman Abedi in May, 2017.
The Nickelodeon star had been finishing her last song at a Manchester Arena concert when Abedi set off an explosive device which killed 22 people and injured 59 others.
Mr Hibbert and his daughter sued Richard Hall – a self-styled journalist who claimed without evidence that the attack was orchestrated by British government agencies – for harassment.
Their case bears some similarities to defamation lawsuits brought against US conspiracy theorist Alex Jones by relatives of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting.
Judge Karen Steyn ruled last month that Mr Hall’s conduct in publishing a book and videos about the Manchester Arena bombing and filming Eve Hibbert and her mother outside their house in 2019 amounted to harassment.
After a further hearing on Friday, the judge awarded Martin and Eve Hibbert £45,000 ($AU88,000) in damages.
The cases follows a 2021 public inquiry into the bombing which found “serious shortcomings” by venue operators, security staff and police helped the suicide bomber conduct his attack.
Abedi’s younger brother Hashem Abedi was also sentenced to a minimum 55 years in prison for helping to carry out the attack.
ABC/wires
