US conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has been ordered to pay $4.1 million in damages to the parents of a child shot dead in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut. That was decided by a Texas grand jury on Thursday. The radio host had repeatedly claimed that the massacre involving 20 schoolchildren and six teachers who had been shot had been staged by actors.
A victim’s parents subsequently sued the right-wing founder of the Infowars website. They were harassed and threatened with death for years by Jones supporters who believed they were lying about the death of their then six-year-old son.
Jones, who admitted at trial that the massacre was “100 percent real,” faces an even harsher sentence. The parents are demanding $75 million in punitive damages. This is often higher than the actual compensation if the 48-year-old’s behavior is considered particularly offensive.
The deliberations of the twelve-member jury start on Friday.
Source: Krone
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