BREAKING NEWS: Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones ordered to pay $1 billion to Sandy Hook families

The conservative conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has been told he must pay $965 million in damages to the families of those killed in the Sandy Hook mass shooting.

A jury in Connecticut made the recommendation to the court on Wednesday, October 12 after Jones was found guilty of falsely claiming the victims and their families were actors in a faked tragedy.

In court were the families of 20 young children and six staff members who were murdered in the shooting in December 2012.

Jones, who piracy theory website Infowars, claimed for years that the massacre was staged as part of a government plot to take away Americans’ guns. During that time he is also said to have hounded the families of those murdered.

Lawyers said that Jones had profited from the claims which drove traffic to the website, and which enabled him to profit from the traffic. Jurors said that he should pay the price for that profiteering and that he should also pay the legal fees of those suing him.

Attorney Chris Mattei said: “Every single one of these families (was) drowning in grief, and Alex Jones put his foot right on top of them.”

Lawyers acting on behalf of Jones claimed that the plaintiffs had shown little evidence of quantifiable losses, however, the jury disagreed. Attorney, Norman Pattis, urged jurors to ignore the political undercurrents in the case saying: “This is not a case about politics.

“It’s about how much to compensate the plaintiffs.”

Although he has since acknowledged that the shooting occurred, Jones has refused to apologise to the families.

Jones has tried to put his companies into liquidation so as to save himself from bankruptcy. Those attempts were stopped after plaintiffs went to court to prove that he was “squirrelling money away.”

It is difficult to see how conspiracy theorist Alex Jones will survive the findings of this court, although it is possible that plaintiffs will see little of the money awarded to them.

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