Two survivors of the Manchester Arena terrorist attack in 2017 are suing a conspiracy theorist who claims the attack was staged
Martin Hibbert was paralysed from the waist down and his daughter Eve, then 14, suffered a catastrophic brain injury in the attack after an Ariana Grande pop concert
Richard Hall has claimed that the attack, in which Salman Abedi detonated a homemade rucksack bomb in the crowd of concert-goers, was faked and claimed that the suicide bomber Abedi did not die and and was an intelligence asset.
Hall is being sued for alleged harassment, misuse of private information and breaches of data protection laws.
Hall has published a book, published videos and given talks in which he claims the Hibberts were not at the concert. He also filmed Eve Hibbert and her mother outside their house in 2019.
Hall, however,is fighting the lawsuit and argues that an injunction would be a disproportionate interference with his right to free speech.
Mr Hibbert and Mr Hall both appeared at the court in London for the first day of the trial yesterday.
Jonathan Price, representing the Hibberts, said the pair were some of the closest to Abedi when he detonated the bomb.He added that “Martin, paralysed, saw Eve lying next to him with a hole in her head and assumed he was watching her die, unable to help.
“He saw others lying dead or injured around him.”
He described Hall’s theory is that “it is an elaborate hoax” and he has claimed Mr Hibbert is lying, and that Miss Hibbert was disabled before the bombing.
