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Infowars’ Alex Jones ordered to pay parents $4m over Sandy Hook massacre hoax claim
Alex Jones at the Travis County Courthouse during his defamation trial in Austin. Photo: Briana Sanchez/Reuters
A Texas jury has ordered conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to pay more than $4m (€3.9m) in damages to the parents of a six-year-old boy who was killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre.
It marks the first time the Infowars host has been held financially liable for repeatedly claiming the deadliest school shooting in US history was a hoax.
The Austin jury has still to decide how much the Infowars host must pay in punitive damages to Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, whose son Jesse was among the 20 children and six educators who were killed in the 2012 attack in Newtown, Connecticut.
The parents had sought at least $150m in compensation for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
It is likely it will not be the last judgment against Jones over his repeated claims that the attack was staged in the interests of increasing gun controls.
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