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| Alex Jones told to pay $965m damages to Sandy Hook victims' families | Alex Jones told to pay $965m damages to Sandy Hook victims' families |
| (32 minutes later) | |
| Alex Jones now acknowledges that the Sandy Hook shooting was "100% real" | |
| Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has been ordered to pay $965m (£869m) in damages after falsely claiming the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting was a hoax. | Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has been ordered to pay $965m (£869m) in damages after falsely claiming the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting was a hoax. |
| The families of eight victims, and an FBI agent who responded to the attack, had sought at least $550m in the defamation trial in Connecticut. | The families of eight victims, and an FBI agent who responded to the attack, had sought at least $550m in the defamation trial in Connecticut. |
| They alleged the right-wing radio host's misinformation led to a decade's worth of harassment and death threats. | They alleged the right-wing radio host's misinformation led to a decade's worth of harassment and death threats. |
| Twenty children and six adults were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School. | Twenty children and six adults were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School. |
| Jones, who founded the conspiracy-laden Infowars website and talk show, argued for years that the massacre was a "staged" government plot to take guns from Americans and that "no one died". | Jones, who founded the conspiracy-laden Infowars website and talk show, argued for years that the massacre was a "staged" government plot to take guns from Americans and that "no one died". |
| He now acknowledges the attack was "100% real", a concession he made in August at a separate defamation trial in Texas. | He now acknowledges the attack was "100% real", a concession he made in August at a separate defamation trial in Texas. |
| As the verdict was read out on Wednesday in Waterbury, Connecticut - some 20 miles (32 km) from the site of the 2012 shooting - many of the families were visibly emotional with some seen in tears. | |
| The three-week trial was marked by emotional testimony from a succession of parents. | |
| Some described receiving a deluge of online hate and others said they had to move homes repeatedly for their own safety. A father, Mark Barden, recounted hearing that people were desecrating his son Daniel's grave by "urinating on it and threatening to dig it up". | |
| Jurors also heard evidence that Jones and his company, Free Speech Systems, made millions of dollars selling nutritional supplements, survival gear and other products on the Infowars catalogue. | |
| BACKGROUND: Sandy Hook: What happened that day | |
| LEGAL CASE: Sandy Hook parents sue for defamation | |
| In closing arguments, plaintiffs' attorney Chris Mattei said: "When every single one of these families were drowning in grief, Alex Jones put his foot right on top of them." | |
| Jones, for his part, slammed the proceedings as a "show trial" run by a "tyrant" judge and argued he was not to blame for the actions of his followers. | |
| "I've already said I'm sorry hundreds of times, and I'm done saying I'm sorry," he said in dramatic testimony late last month that brought some in the courtroom to tears. | |
| His lawyers urged the six-member jury to ignore political undercurrents in the case and award minimal damages. | |
| Lead defence lawyer Norm Pattis also drew a stern rebuke from the judge after he accused the opposing legal team of "inventing anger". | |
| Sandy Hook dad: Trolls said I killed and dismembered my son | |
| Sandy Hook dad: Trolls said I killed and dismembered my son | |
| The trial follows a similar case in Texas in August that saw Jones ordered to pay $49.3m in damages to separate parents of a Sandy Hook victim. | |
| The plaintiffs - who said they had endured harassment and emotional distress because of the Infowars founder's misinformation - had sought $150m. | |
| Jones still faces a third defamation trial over the Sandy Hook shooting that begins in Texas later this year. |