Psychiatrist says Sandy Hook parents fear for their lives

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The parents of a Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victim live with a complex form of post-traumatic stress disorder and a constant fear that followers of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones will kill them, a psychiatrist testified Monday at Jones' defamation trial.

Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, the parents of 6-year-old Jesse Lewis, have sued Jones and his media company Free Speech Systems over the harassment and threats they and other parents say they've endured for years while Jones and his Infowars website claimed the 2012 attack that killed 20 firstgraders and six school staffers was a hoax or faked.

"The overwhelming cause of their pain is what Jones is doing," said Roy Lubit, a forensic psychiatrist hired by the plaintiffs to review the trauma faced by the parents.

The post-traumatic stress disorder the parents suffer from is not based on a single event, but on constant trauma, and is similar to that endured by soldiers in war zones or child abuse victims, Lubit said.

Heslin and Scarlett Lewis are consumed not just with the memory of their son's horrific death, but the denials and attacks on them and their son's legacy they've endured for years. He noted the security the parents hired to protect them at the two-week trial.

Lubit said Heslin has had guns fired at his home and has been accosted on the street. Scarlett Lewis told Lubit that she installed sophisticated surveillance equipment at her home and sleeps with a gun, a knife and pepper spray at her bedside.

Jones' attorney Andino Reynal tried to attack the credibility of Lubit's testimony and whether he is biased in favor of the parents, who are seeking at least $150 million in the case. He noted that Lubit briefly ran for Congress in Connecticut as a Democrat in 2018.

"You don't like Alex Jones, do you?" Reynal asked.

"I don't like what he does," Lubit answered.