Two survivors of a deadly 2017 suicide attack on an Ariana Grande concert in northern England in 2017 won a harassment claim on Wednesday against a former television producer who claims the attack was a hoax.
Martin Hibbert and his daughter Eve sued Richard Hall for harassment and data protection breaches over his assertions in several videos and a book that the attack at the Manchester Arena, which killed 22 people, was staged.
The pair suffered life-changing injuries in the attack, carried out by an Islamist extremist in May 2017, which also left some 100 others injured.
Martin Hibbert was paralysed from the waist down while his daughter Eve, who was aged 14 at the time, suffered a traumatic brain injury.
Hall has claimed his actions — which have included an incident of filming Eve Hibbert outside her home — were in the public interest and that “millions of people have bought a lie” about the attack.
Described as an independent journalist and broadcaster, the High Court in London noted he had claimed “elements within the state and involving ordinary citizens (including the claimants)” participated in the “deception”.
He has maintained they performed as “crisis actors” and that “no one was injured or died”, the court said.
In a 63-page judgment, judge Karen Steyn ruled Hall had harassed the Hibberts with his “false narrative” but opted not to decide the data protection claim at this stage.
Steyn said Hall had “abused media freedom” to make his claims for “commercial gain… sufficient to enable him to continue his work”.
“Over a period of years, he has repeatedly published false allegations, based on the flimsiest of analytical techniques, and dismissing the obvious, tragic reality to which so many ordinary people have attested,” the judge wrote.
“All of this conduct has a natural tendency to cause serious distress, especially when those targeted are vulnerable.”
She will invite lawyers from both sides to make “further submissions” before deciding on appropriate “relief”, as well as on the data protection claim.
The suicide attack, as concert-goers were leaving the show at the Manchester Arena in northwest England, was carried out by 22-year-old Salman Abedi, who was from Manchester but of Libyan descent.
Inspired by the Islamic State group, he used a homemade shrapnel bomb to target crowds of mostly young people who had been attending the concert by the US pop star, as well as parents who had come to pick up their children.
