Father and daughter injured in Manchester attack get £45K in damages

Two Manchester Arena bombing survivors were today awarded a total of £45,000 in damages after suing a former TV producer who claims the attack was staged.

Martin Hibbert and his daughter Eve sued Richard Hall for harassment after he alleged it was a state-orchestrated hoax with the pair involved as 'crisis actors'.

The Hibberts suffered life-changing injuries at the concert in May 2017, with Mr Hibbert left with a spinal cord injury and Miss Hibbert facing severe brain damage.

Mr Hall made his claims in several videos and a book, and maintained that his actions - including filming Miss Hibbert outside her home - were in the public interest as a journalist, and that 'millions of people have bought a lie' about the attack.

In a 63-page High Court judgment released on October 23, Mrs Justice Steyn ruled in favour of the Hibberts and described Mr Hall's behaviour as 'a negligent, indeed reckless, abuse of media freedom'.

She added that that the trained engineer was 'blinkered in his belief that the false story he has spun is true'.

Today, at another hearing, the judge said Mr Hibbert and his daughter would each be awarded £22,500 in damages.

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Manchester Arena attack survivors win High Court harassment case against ex-TV producer Richard Hall

Jonathan Price, for the pair, said Mr Hall's behaviour was 'towards the more oppressive end of the spectrum of harassing conduct'.

He continued in written submissions: 'In a series of widely viewed videos, a print publication, as well as during in-person lectures, the defendant insisted that the terrorist attack in which the claimants were catastrophically injured did not happen and that the claimants were participants or 'crisis actors' in a state-orchestrated hoax, who had repeatedly, publicly and egregiously lied to the public for monetary gain.'

Mr Price had said a total of £75,000 for the pair in damages should be awarded, as well as at least 90 per cent of their legal fees.

Paul Oakley, for Mr Hall, said in written submissions that £7,500 each in damages 'would be appropriate', adding there was 'no justification' for aggravated damages.

'There is no allegation of malice and that is really a fundamental point as far as damages are concerned,' he told the court.

'Some of these harassment cases can get pretty nasty, but there was no vindictiveness.'

Mr Oakley later said that a suggested injunction was too wide, describing it as 'a blanket ban' on all of Mr Hall's output, and called the Hibberts' estimated costs as 'jaw dropping'.

The barrister said in written submissions: 'Mr Hall's work was 'not about' the claimants, who featured only minimally in the entirety of his recorded and written output.

'At best, those parts of Mr Hall's works which concern the claimants may be redacted but no more.'

Mr Oakley also said Mr Hall should be awarded costs after a data protection claim from the Hibberts was not continued.

In her judgment released last month, Mrs Justice Steyn added: '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.

'He has published his allegations widely, on a variety of platforms, over a period of years to viewers and readers in this jurisdiction likely numbering well over 100,000.

'He has done so for commercial gain, albeit I accept his evidence that the financial benefit to him has only been sufficient to enable him to continue his work. All of this conduct has a natural tendency to cause serious distress, especially when those targeted are vulnerable.'

Salman Abedi killed 22 people and injured hundreds when he detonated the homemade rucksack-bomb in the crowd of concert-goers at an Ariana Grand gig.

The court was told that the Hibberts were among those standing nearest to him at the time of the blast.

The judge said in her ruling that by the time Mr Hall published his book and some of the videos, the suicide-bomber's brother Hashem Abedi had been convicted, 'yet Mr Hall paid no heed to the facts that demonstrated the jury found proved to the criminal standard'.

Mrs Justice Steyn continued: 'Mr Hall has published and continues to publish his false allegations despite the attack having been the subject of thorough investigations, a criminal trial, and authoritative reports which any reasonable person would recognise command respect.

'Mr Hall's publications are not only false, but they also lack any semblance of balance.'

At a trial in July, the court heard that Mr Hibbert received 22 wounds from shrapnel, and Miss Hibbert suffered a 'catastrophic brain injury' after a bolt from the bomb struck her in the head – leading to her being presumed dead at the scene.

Mrs Justice Steyn said it was clear that Mr Hall's actions, including 'increasingly intrusive and offensive publications' had alarmed and distressed Mr Hibbert and that tracking down Miss Hibbert at her home was an unwarranted interference with the family's right to privacy.

She added: 'Mr Hall knew that Mr Hibbert said his teenage daughter, who he had taken to the concert, had been hit in the head by a bolt propelled by the explosion, and that she had been very severely injured.

'He also knew that her family were shielding her from any media attention.

'From the available information, it should have been readily apparent to any journalist – even if the individual journalist was highly sceptical of the 'official narrative' – that Eve should be treated as a vulnerable young person who had been caught up and severely injured in a traumatic incident.'

Martin Hibbert described last month's ruling as a 'comprehensive victory', adding: 'I am really pleased with not only the overall judgment, but also the many comments of the judge as to how unacceptable Hall's behaviour was.'

He had also said that he was hoping for an injunction, adding: 'I do want this to open the door for change, and to help protect others from what we have been put through in the future.

'I will be discussing this with my legal team at Hudgell Solicitors, with the aim of establishing a new law in Eve's name.'