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Conspiracy theorist 'perfectly entitled' to believe Manchester Arena attack was 'elaborate hoax', lawyer says (news.sky.com)

submitted 3 months ago by Emperor to c/manchester

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A conspiracy theorist being sued by two survivors of the Manchester Arena bombing is "perfectly entitled" to believe the deadly attack was an "elaborate hoax", his lawyer has told a court.

Martin Hibbert and his daughter Eve, then 14, were among the hundreds of people injured when 22-year-old Salman Abedi detonated a homemade bomb at an Ariana Grande concert in May 2017.

Mr Hibbert was paralysed from the waist down, while his daughter suffered a severe brain injury in the attack, which killed 22 people.

They are suing self-styled journalist Richard Hall for alleged harassment and breaches of data protection laws in a civil trial at the High Court in London.

Mr Hall has claimed that the attack was faked by government agencies using "crisis actors" and has published a book and videos claiming the bombing was a "hoax" - as well as "secretly filming" Miss Hibbert and her mother outside their house.

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[–] Emperor 9 points 3 months ago (2 children)

You have the right to believe what you like but rights come with responsibilities and one of those is to not be a dick about what you believe.

[–] BestBouclettes@jlai.lu 5 points 3 months ago

Right to believe, but not free from the consequences of what you would do if you're acting on said beliefs. That's a pretty basic concept lots of people don't understand.

[–] rah 2 points 3 months ago

not be a dick about what you believe

I don't understand what you mean by this.

[–] autotldr@lemmings.world 1 points 3 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

A conspiracy theorist being sued by two survivors of the Manchester Arena bombing is "perfectly entitled" to believe the deadly attack was an "elaborate hoax", his lawyer has told a court.

Martin Hibbert and his daughter Eve, then 14, were among the hundreds of people injured when 22-year-old Salman Abedi detonated a homemade bomb at an Ariana Grande concert in May 2017.

They are suing self-styled journalist Richard Hall for alleged harassment and breaches of data protection laws in a civil trial at the High Court in London.

"Mr Hall says her parents are invoking their daughter's catastrophic disability as part of a huge fraud on the general public," he added.

The barrister said Mr Hibbert had made a "positive choice" to co-operate with the media and while there was one incident of filming, it was from a public highway and the footage was never published.

It bears similarities to defamation lawsuits brought against US conspiracy theorist Alex Jones by relatives of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting, which he claimed was a hoax.

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