Jones files for bankruptcy protection over £1.2bn awards after Sandy Hook claims

INFOWARS host Alex Jones has filed for personal bankruptcy protection in Texas as he faces nearly $1.5 billion (£1.2bn) in damages over conspiracy theories he spread about the Sandy Hook school massacre.

Jones filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in court in Houston. His filing lists $1bn (£820m) to $10bn in liabilities (£8.2bn).

The bankruptcy filing comes as Jones faces court orders to pay nearly $1.5bn in damages to relatives of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut for calling the massacre a hoax.

A total of 26 people were killed by a gunman at the school in Newtown, 20 of them children.

In October, a Connecticut jury awarded the families $965m in compensatory damages (£792m), and a judge later tacked on another $473m (£388 m) in punitive damages. Earlier in the year, a Texas jury awarded the parents of a child killed in the shooting $49m (£40m) in damages.

Jones has laughed at the awards on his Infowars show, saying he has less than $2m (£1.6m) to his name and will not be able to pay such high amounts.

The comments contradicted the testimony of a forensic economist at the Texas trial, who said Jones and his company Free Speech Systems have a combined net worth as high as $270m (£221m).

Free Speech Systems is also seeking bankruptcy protection.

In documents filed in Free Speech Systems’ bankruptcy case in Texas, a budget for the company for October 29 to November 25 estimated product sales would total $2.5m (£2m), while operating expenses would be about $740,000 (£607,000).

Jones’s salary was listed at $20,000 (£16,400) every two weeks.