Alex Jones makes first appearance at Sandy Hook damages trial

FILE – Alex Jones talks to media during a midday break in his trial at the Travis County Courthouse in Austin, Texas, on July 26, 2022. A six-member jury with several Alex Jones (Briana Sanchez/Austin American-Statesman via AP, Pool)

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has made his first appearance at a trial that will determine how much in damages he should pay for telling his audience of millions that the Sandy Hook primary school shooting was a hoax.

Jones arrived at the Connecticut courthouse at about 9.30am, although it is unclear when he might be called to give evidence.

During the first four days of the trial last week and over the weekend, Jones criticised the proceedings from his Infowars studio in Austin, Texas, calling it a “show trial” and “rigged court” aimed at silencing him and putting him out of business while ignoring free speech rights.

Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis (H John Voorhees III/Hearst Connecticut Media/AP)

Articles on his Infowars website labelled it a “kangaroo court”, and mocked the judge and Sandy Hook families’ lawyer.

Jones has already been found liable for damages to the lawsuit’s plaintiffs — an FBI agent who responded to the 2012 shooting and relatives of eight children and adults who were killed at the school in Newtown, Connecticut.

Judge Barbara Bellis found him and Infowars parent company Free Speech Systems liable by default without a trial, as punishment for what she called his repeated failures to turn over documents to the Sandy Hook lawyers.

Jones is not being allowed to present defences arguing he is not liable, including that the First Amendment gave him the right to say the shooting did not happen and to raise questions about it.

A gunman killed 20 first graders and six educators at the school on December 14 2012.

The plaintiffs say Jones’s promotion of the hoax lie on his show led to the families being threatened and harassed by deniers of the shooting.

Sandy Hook families arrive at Waterbury Superior Court (Carol Kaliff/Hearst Connecticut Media/AP)

They say they have endured death threats and in-person harassment, video recording by strangers and abusive comments on social media. Some families moved out of Newtown to avoid the harassment.

They also say that while Jones talked about the shooting, sales of the dietary supplements, clothing, food and other items he sells on his show surged.

A representative for Free Speech Systems told the court last week that she believed Jones and his company had made at least 100 million dollars (£87 million) in revenues since the school shooting.

At a similar trial in Texas last month, a jury awarded nearly 50 million dollars (£26 million) in damages to the parents of one of the children killed in the shooting.

Like the Connecticut case, the Texas judge found Jones and Free Speech Systems liable by default as a penalty for not turning over all documents requested by the plaintiffs.

The Texas trial showed some differences between what Jones says on his show about the legal cases against him versus what he says in court.

Sandy Hook Elementary School (Julia Nikhinson/AP)

Jones, who has said over the past few years that he believes the shooting did happen, also condemned the Texas trial on his show.

Under oath and facing a jury in Austin, he said he realised the hoax lies were irresponsible and hurt people’s feelings, and he was sorry for that.

Jones has painted the trials as a conspiracy by Democrats and the media to put him out of business and silence him. He also has complained he was found “guilty” without trials.

There is no guilt in civil trials like the ones in Connecticut and Texas, and him being found liable for damages without trials was a sanction against him for refusing to obey court orders to turn over evidence to the plaintiffs.