Two survivors of the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing have been awarded £45,000 in damages after a UK court ruled against Richard Hall, a former TV producer, who falsely claimed the attack was a hoax.
Martin Hibbert and his daughter Eve, who suffered severe injuries in the blast, were targeted by Hall in videos and a book, where he alleged they were “crisis actors” in a fabricated state plot.
Hibbert, who sustained a spinal injury, welcomed the verdict, saying it highlights legal protections for victims of conspiracy harassment. Judge Karen Steyn labelled Hall’s actions as a reckless abuse of media freedom and ordered him to cover 90 percent of the victims’ legal fees, estimated at £260,000.
The 2017 attack, carried out by suicide bomber Salman Abedi, killed 22 people and injured over a thousand.