The mother of a Sandy Hook school shooting victim sleeps with a gun, a knife and pepper spray near her bed due to the harassment campaign unleashed by Infowars founder Alex Jones, a psychiatrist testified at his defamation trial on Monday.
Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, whose six-year-old son Jesse was murdered along with with 19 students and six teachers in the 2012 tragedy, live in constant of fear of being attacked by Jones’ supporters, forensic psychiatrist Roy Lubit told the court, according to the Associated Press.
Mr Heslin had shots fired at his home and been accosted in the street. Ms Lewis was afraid of passing cars and didn’t like turning on the air conditioning, in case it masked the sound of an intruder, Dr Lubit said.
“They are very, very frightened of someone, some follower of Jones trying to kill them,” he said.
The parents are suing Jones for $150m for his false smears that the Sandy Hook school shootings was a hoax. A judge has already ruled that Jones defamed the Connecticut couple.
Both parents suffered post-traumatic stress disorder, said Dr Lubit, who was testifying as an expert witness on their behalf.
The overwhelming grief of losing their son had been amplified by the attacks on them and crazed denials that their son had been killed. They had largely isolated themselves from their former friends and colleagues, he said.
“The overwhelming cause of their pain is what Jones is doing,” Dr Lubit said.
Jones, a sporadic presence at the trial, was not in court on Monday morning. The parents and their older child JT Lewis, who was in middle school at the time of the attacks, may testify during the afternoon.
The company that owns Inforwars, Free Speech Systems, was placed into bankruptcy late last week.
