Father and daughter injured in Manchester Arena assault win High Court harassment case towards ex-TV producer who claims 2017 bombing was staged

Two Manchester Arena bombing survivors won their High Court harassment case today against a former television producer who believes the attack was 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 the attack was staged.

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

But Mr Hall has claimed his actions – including an incident of 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 at the Ariana Grande concert.

He told the London court in a three-and-a-half-day trial in July: ‘The primary evidence shows there was no bomb in that room that exploded.’

Martin and Eve Hibbert (pictured) suffered life-changing injuries in the Manchester Arena blast

Richard Hall outside the High Court in London during a three-and-a-half-day trial in July

Martin Hibbert makes a statement outside the High Court in London during the trial on July 25 

In a 63-page judgment today, 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’.

Salman Abedi killed 22 people and injured hundreds when he detonated the homemade rucksack-bomb in the crowd of concert-goers, with the court told that the Hibberts were among those standing nearest to him at the time of the blast.

Mr 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 Mr Hibbert’s life ‘in every conceivable way’.

Martin Hibbert is pictured in a wheelchair outside the High Court during the trial on July 22

Salman Abedi killed 22 people and injured hundreds in the Manchester Arena attack in 2017

‘They have both suffered life-changing injuries from which they will never recover,’ the barrister said.

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.

Mr Price added: ‘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.’

Following the judge’s ruling, Mr Hibbert described the decision as a ‘comprehensive victory’.

The Manchester Arena attack victims in May 2017 were (top row, from left) Elaine McIver, 43, Saffie-Rose Roussos, 8, Sorrell Leczkowski, 14, Eilidh MacLeod, 14, (second row, from left) Nell Jones, 14, Olivia Campbell-Hardy, 15, Megan Hurley, 15, Georgina Callander, 18, (third row, from left), Chloe Rutherford, 17, Liam Curry, 19, Courtney Boyle, 19, and Philip Tron, 32, (fourth row, from left) John Atkinson, 26, Martyn Hett, 29, Kelly Brewster, 32, Angelika Klis, 39, (fifth row, from left) Marcin Klis, 42, Michelle Kiss, 45, Alison Howe, 45, and Lisa Lees, 43 (fifth row, from left) Wendy Fawell, 50 and Jane Tweddle, 51 

A minute’s silence at St Ann’s Square in Manchester was held for the victims in May 2017

He said: ‘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. 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.’