Alex Jones walks into the courtroom in front of Scarlett Lewis and Neil Heslin, the parents of 6-year-old Sandy Hook shooting victim Jesse Lewis, at the Travis County Courthouse in Austin, Texas, U.S. July 28, 2022. Briana Sanchez/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

Aug 2 (Reuters) – The father of a child killed in the Sandy Hook massacre told a jury that he had endured years of “hell” after U.S. conspiracy theorist Alex Jones claimed the shooting was a hoax.

Jones, founder of the Infowars radio show and webcast, is on trial in a Texas court to determine how much he must pay for spreading falsehoods about the killing of 20 children and six staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, on Dec. 14, 2012.

Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, the parents of slain 6-year-old Jesse Lewis, are seeking as much as $150 million from Jones and his company, Free Speech Systems LLC.

“I can’t even describe the past nine-and-a-half years of hell I have had to endure because of the negligence and recklessness of Alex Jones and the propaganda he has peddled for his own profits and success,” Heslin testified on Tuesday.

Heslin described years of harassment and death threats from Jones’ followers, including an incident when a person fired shots at his home while driving past shouting “Infowars” and “Alex Jones” amid what sounded like gunfire.

Heslin, who held his son’s body in his hands after the shooting, said he relives the moment every time he hears Jones’ false claims that the shooting never occurred.

“I can’t even put into words how difficult it is to lose a child in those circumstances,” he said.

Jesse Lewis’s mother, Scarlett, later recounted an incident on Christmas morning when a stranger pulled into her driveway and started taking pictures.

Lewis keeps a gun in her home for fear of her family’s safety, she said.

“I am a single mother and responsible for the safety of both of my boys, and I was not able to keep one of them safe,” she said. “So I am going to keep my surviving son safe.”

A lawyer for Jones said he had already paid a price after being deplatformed in 2018 and losing millions of viewers.

Jones has since acknowledged that the shooting took place. He was expected to take the stand later on Tuesday in his defense, a lawyer for the parents said.

The defamation suit in Austin, Texas, where Infowars is based, is one of several brought by families of victims who say Jones’s followers harassed them as a result of his false claims.

The Sandy Hook gunman, Adam Lanza, 20, used a Remington Bushmaster rifle to carry out the massacre. It ended when Lanza killed himself with the approaching sound of police sirens.

Reporting by Jack Queen; Editing by Noeleen Walder, Howard Goller, Bradley Perrett and Mark Porter

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