[Source: BBC]
US conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has been ordered to pay $49.3m (£41m) in damages after falsely claiming a 2012 school shooting was a hoax.
A jury in Texas ruled the radio host must pay $45.2m in punitive damages,
in addition to $4.1m in compensatory damages they awarded a day earlier.
The two-week defamation trial was brought by the parents of a child killed in the attack.
Twenty children and six adults were killed at Sandy Hook in Connecticut.
The lawsuit was filed by Scarlett Lewis and Neil Heslin, the separated parents of six-year-old Jesse Lewis, who died in the primary school shooting.
The plaintiffs – who said they had endured harassment and emotional distress because of the Infowars founder’s misinformation – had sought $150m.
The compensatory damages issued on Thursday were meant to cover the actual costs to the family incurred by Jones’ defamation, such as the private security they hired during the trial out of fear of an attack from a Jones supporter.
