Alex Jones Fined $4 Million for Claiming Sandy Hook Massacre Was a Hoax

Alex Jones. Image used for representation only. 

(Photo Courtesy: Twitter/@JohnDiesattheEn)

The jury in the city of Austin, Texas, ordered conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to pay $4.1 million damages for falsely claiming that the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting was a hoax.

The parents of one victim of the shooting have sought at least $150 million in the defamation trial against the founder of InfoWars, an American far-right conspiracy theory website.

The petitioners argued that they had to endure intense emotional distress and persistent harassment because of the misinformation propagated by Jones and his website. The jury still needs to determine any punitive damages for the case.

Jones has repeatedly claimed that the shooting was a hoax, which was organised by the United States government with the objective of stripping the American people of gun ownership rights.

He had even gone on to claim that the parents of the 20 children who had died, were "crisis actors."

Testifying on Wednesday, however, Jones acknowledged that the Sandy Hook massacre was "100 percent real" and apologised for having "hurt these people's [the relatives of the victims] feelings."

The mother of Jesse Lewis, said in her testimony to the court, "Jesse was real… I'm a real mom" and that it is "incredible to me that we have to do this."

"That we have to implore you - not just implore you, punish you - to get you to stop lying. It is surreal what is going on in here," she added.

(With inputs from BBC and Reuters.)