Two survivors of the Manchester Arena bombing have won a high court harassment case against a former television producer who claimed the attack had been staged.
Martin Hibbert and his daughter Eve sued Richard Hall for harassment and data protection over his claims in several videos and a book that “there was no bomb”.
The attack in May 2017 at the end of an Ariana Grande concert left 22 people dead and many more injured. Salman Abedi, who was carrying a rucksack containing a homemade device, also died. His brother Hashem Abedi, who was convicted of helping in the preparations for the attack, was jailed for at least 55 years.
The father and daughter suffered life-changing injuries in the attack. Martin was left with a spinal cord injury and Eve, then 14, with severe brain damage.
Hall had claimed his actions – including an incident of filming Eve Hibbert outside her home – were in the public interest as a journalist, and that “millions of people have bought a lie” about the attack.
During the three-and-a-half-day trial in London in July, he told the court: “The primary evidence shows there was no bomb in that room that exploded.”
In a 63-page judgment on Wednesday, Mrs Justice Steyn said the Hibberts had won their harassment claim, but said she would not decide the data protection claim at this stage.
The judge said there was “powerful evidence that Mr Hall’s course of conduct caused Mr Hibbert to suffer alarm, distress and anxiety”.
The court heard that the Hibberts were among those standing nearest to Abedi when he detonated his device, which was filled with 3,000 nuts and bolts.
Hall has claimed that several of those who died are living abroad or were dead before the attack, telling the court he believed that no one was “genuinely injured” in the bombing.
But Jonathan Price, for the Hibberts, said the bomb had changed Martin Hibbert’s life “in every conceivable way”. “They have both suffered life-changing injuries from which they will never recover,” the barrister said.
The court heard that Martin Hibbert received 22 wounds from shrapnel, and Eve 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.
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“Martin, paralysed, saw Eve lying next to him with a hole in her head and assumed he was watching her die, unable to help,” Price added. “He saw others lying dead or injured around him.”
Martin Hibbert described the judge’s decision as a “comprehensive victory”.
“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 said. “It is a comprehensive victory for us.”
“I don’t want to make much more comment until the final terms of the judgment are agreed in terms of settlements, and hopefully an injunction being imposed. However, 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.”