Conspirator Alex Jones forced to pay Sandy Hook shooting victims nearly $1 billion

Right-wing media personality Jones was successfully sued for libel over one of his most despicable suggestions that the 2012 Sandy Hook shootings, in which 20 children died, was staged

The far-right Jones has a decades-long career as a prominent conspiracy theorist and has spread a number of wild ideas (

Image: Reuters)

Conspirator Alex Jones will be forced to pay nearly $1 billion in damages to the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting.

Right-wing Jones, of Austin, Texas, was successfully sued for libel over one of his most despicable suggestions that the 2012 murders were staged.

The massacre saw 20 children and six adults killed, sending shockwaves around the world.

Sick Jones claimed the Sandy Hook mass shooting was a "hoax" and that the parents of the 20 child victims were "crisis actors".

Jones must now pay at least $965m (£870m) for falsely claiming they were actors who faked the tragedy.

The verdict, which came after three weeks of testimony in a state court in Waterbury, Connecticut, was well over $49m (£44.2m) a Texas jury ordered him to pay in a similar case in August.