LONDON: Two survivors of the 2017 bomb attack at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, on Friday won 45,000 pounds ($58,000) in damages from a former TV producer who claimed the attack was a hoax.

Martin Hibbert and his daughter Eve sued Richard Hall over claims made in videos and a book that they were `crisis actors` employed by the state as part of an elaborate deception.

Hibbert sustained a spinal cord injury in the attack, and his daughter suffered severe brain damage.

Hall argued that he was acting in the public interest by filming Hibbert`s daughter outside her home, but the High Court in London agreed with Hibbert`s claim for harassment.

Judge Karen Steyn called Hall`s behaviour `a negligent, indeed reckless, abuse of media freedom` and on Friday ordered him to pay Hibbert and his daughter 22,500 pounds each in damages.

`The claimants are both vulnerable. The allegations are serious and distressing,` said the judge.

Jonathan Price, lawyer for the claimants, said that Hall `insisted that the terrorist attack in which the claimants were catastrophically injured did not happen and that the claimants were participants or `crisis actors` in a state-orchestrated hoax, who had repeatedly, publicly and egregiously lied to the public for monetary gain.`-AFP