Bringing parallels to lawsuits filed by kin of those slain in a mass school massacre in the US, two survivors of a fatal suicide bombing in Britain are suing a conspiracy theorist who believes the assault was manufactured.
In 2017, an Ariana Grande pop performance in Manchester, northern England, left Martin Hibbert paraplegic from the waist down and his 14-year-old daughter Eve with a devastating brain damage.
They are suing Richard D. Hall, a self-described journalist who asserts without proof that the assault was planned by British government organisations, for claimed data protection violations, harassment, and exploitation of personal information.
The case bears similarities to defamation lawsuits brought against U.S. conspiracy theorist Alex Jones by relatives of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting.
Twenty-two people were killed and many more injured when 22-year-old Salman Abedi detonated a homemade bomb as parents arrived to collect children at Manchester Arena in May 2017.
The Hibberts’ lawyer Jonathan Price said that Hall “does not accept any of this – his theory is that it is an elaborate hoax”.
Hall has published a book, published videos and given talks in which he claims the Hibberts were not at the concert. He also filmed Eve Hibbert and her mother outside their house in 2019.
Price said the Hibberts were entitled to damages and an injunction to stop Hall repeating his claims about the attack.
Hall is fighting the lawsuit and argues that an injunction would be a disproportionate interference with his right to free speech.
“However unpleasant Mr Hall’s published views are considered to be, they are protected,” Hall’s lawyer Paul Oakley said in court filings.
Martin Hibbert is due to give evidence at the trial, which is expected to conclude this week.
