Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, the parents of six-year-old Jesse Lewis, have sued Alex Jones and his media company over the harassment they and other parents have suffered in the years since their children were killed.
Jones and his website InfoWars have claimed that the 2012 school massacre, in which 20 first-graders and six teachers were killed, was a hoax staged by actors.
Had to take cover
Jones claims that the massacre at Sandy Hook never took place and that it was all a show produced by people who want stricter gun laws in the United States.
That has prompted many of InfoWars’ readers to call and pester the parents of the slain children, who they believe are actors playing fake games.
The parents of killed Noah (6) had to take cover and ended up moving several hundred kilometers from his son’s grave, after first having changed address six times.
In court on Tuesday, Neil Heslin testified about what life has been like since Alex Jones started the conspiracy theories.
– I cannot describe the hell I have been through because of Alex Jones and the propaganda he has advocated for his own gain and success, said Heslin.
Like soldiers in war
He was supported by the psychiatrist Roy Lubit.
– The primary cause of their pain is what Jones is doing, said Lubit during the trial against Jones in Austin, Texas.
The PTSD they suffer from is not due to a specific event, but is a constant trauma, similar to what soldiers suffer from in war or children who are victims of abuse suffer from, he says.
Heslin and Lewis must bear not only the grief of the cruel murder of their son, but also all the attacks over many years on them and their son’s legacy from those who believe in Jones’s conspiracy theory.
Shots and assaults
Lubit indicated that shots had been fired at Heslin’s house, and that he had been attacked in the open street. Lewis says she has installed sophisticated surveillance equipment on her house, and sleeps with a gun, a knife and pepper spray by her bed. They had bodyguards with them during the trial.
– If Alex Jones is spreading lies about Neil being an actor, that means Jesse never existed. It’s crazy. He takes away from them what they know about their son, what they want to hold on to, said Michael Crouch, who has treated the two.
At Monday’s court hearing, an interrogation of a reporter in Infowars was also played, where he said that there was no fact-checking, source control, checking of information through other sources or training in press ethics in InfoWars.
Alex Jones claims the lawsuit is an attack on his free speech, but the parents suing him say his statements are so malicious and patently false that they fall far outside the freedom of speech guaranteed by the First Amendment.
The trial is taking place in Texas because Jones lives there and because his company has its offices there.
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