Austin, Texas | A jury on Thursday (Friday AEST) awarded the parents of a child killed in the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School more than $4 million ($5.7 million) in compensatory damages from the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.

The decision is the first time Mr Jones has been held financially liable for defaming the victims’ parents by spreading lies that they were complicit in a government plot to stage the shooting as a pretext for gun control.