• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Richard D Hall: A British Alex Jones?

Once watched a video of him investigating the Berwyn 'UFO Crash' of 1974. It was quite interesting to see the location but then he walked down a forestry track in a plantation and told us the turning circle for logging vehicles was in fact the UFO crash impact crater:

:bs:
 
An update. Rich is getting his arse sued.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-65136825

Manchester Arena bomb survivors have filed landmark legal action against a conspiracy theorist who claims the attack was faked.
Martin and Eve Hibbert, who were left with severe disabilities after the 2017 blast, are suing Richard D Hall for defamation and harassment.
It is the first time such action has been launched in the UK against a conspiracy theorist.
Mr Hall did not respond to the BBC's request for comment.
Click to expand...
 
I'm sure they thought they easily got away with it, hiding behind the anonymity and so-called 'freedom of speech'.
It'll be interesting, though, to watch him either a) try to prove the victims don't exist (if he truly believes in his nonsense) or b) take the Alex Jones route and claim it was all 'a joke', that he didn't mean it at all and was 'for entertainment purposes'.
 
When someone falls that deep in to a rabbit hole you can only suspect that some form of mental illness has taken hold of them, of course they have always walked among us, but in days gone past they walked the streets with a sandwich board, the internet and social media has given them a platform, and this is where social media must start to act, it's not a freedom of speech issue it's damaging society
 
I used to watch him around 10-15 years ago. I think the programme was on every week night on one of the obscure channels. I know he was often talking about NASA, but don't remember a lot of stuff.
I did like Neil Sanders who he had on as a guest a few times though.
 
I used to like Richard D Hall, I found him entertaining. Even had a few dealings and helped him get a venue once. Then he went to the dark side, I wonder if he had a nervous breakdown or something causing him to fall down the rabbit hole?
 
Until today I never made the connection he was the Rich planet bloke, I remember seeing his content many years ago. To be honest he always came across as a bit of a crackpot to me, but the stuff he's producing now is just indefensible, so I hope they make an example of him. We can't let this type of nonsense go mainstream, where it's acceptable to harass survivors in the name of 'free speech' (and let's be honest this is more about making money and notoriety).
 
It must be said that in the U.K. our laws are different from the U.S. so what you can get away with in the U.S. you can't here.
He may've been inspired by the American model of such 'journalism', but didn't consider that we have different laws and the public have a different mind-set.
For a start, we don't see live coverage of a UK bombing and automatically think it's all fake!
 
Stormkhan said:
It must be said that in the U.K. our laws are different from the U.S. so what you can get away with in the U.S. you can't here.
He may've been inspired by the American model of such 'journalism', but didn't consider that we have different laws and the public have a different mind-set.
For a start, we don't see live coverage of a UK bombing and automatically think it's all fake!
Click to expand...
To be fair most people the US don't either, but with a much larger population they are bound to have more whack jobs than the UK just on the percentage alone

To me it's a symptom of the failure to take mental health seriously, it was not so long ago these types of people would have been put away in a secure unit for their safety and get the treatment they needed, but nowadays they just get a platform which of course attracts people who suffer from similar delusions and here we have a cult like movement

We used to laugh at people who claimed to be Napoleon or Cesar, but we now give them the means to carry on
 
Agreed, though t'internet is a factor as it gives them a vast audience to discover like-minded people.
 
More on Richard Hall and other disaster trolls.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Do the conspiracy theorists who push the most shocking narratives circulating online really believe them?

It's a question I'm confronted with once again, after Manchester Arena bomb survivors filed landmark legal action against a conspiracy theorist who claims the attack was faked.

Martin and Eve Hibbert, who were left with severe disabilities after the 2017 blast, are suing Richard D Hall for defamation and harassment after he tracked down Eve and other survivors to see if they were lying about their injuries. It's the first time such action has been launched against a conspiracy theorist in the UK.

His defiant response to the BBC investigation, and an initial letter from Mr Hibbert's legal team, suggests he is yet to change his position. He continues to defend the book he has written claiming the Manchester Arena attack was staged, and to post suggestions the attack was fabricated online. But why?

We can turn to the US for some possible answers. This new case echoes the legal action brought there against conspiracist Alex Jones, one of the world's most famous "disaster trolls."

Mr Jones was ordered to pay nearly $1.5bn [£1.2bn] by a US court to families of the US Sandy Hook school shooting, after falsely claiming the 2012 attack was a hoax. Whether he really believed the theories he pushed was a key question surrounding the trial. In court he admitted that the attack was real.

But then later in live streams looking to raise funds for his conspiracy show Infowars, he doubled down on his theories and suggested the case was just more proof that the "Deep State" was trying to stop him telling the truth. ...............

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-65201949

Listen to the Bonus Episode of Radio 4's Disaster Trolls on BBC Sounds.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/m001dn64
 
Listening to the podcast now ...
I suspect that folks over here - with little moral barriers - saw how much Alex Jones was making in the States and thought "I'll have some of that!" Then, as time progresses, they dig so far into the hole they can't backtrack or stop.
 
Rich has been served with an injunction for harassment and data breaches. He is also asking for money for legal fees of which he has so far got £7688 out of £10, 000 asked for on Go Fund Me*. So he still has plenty of support. :(

The claim is seeking damages and an injunction for harassment and breaches of the UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018.

Note that there is no claim of libel or defamation which has been incorrectly reported across most of mainstream media.

I have until the 1st of June 2023 to submit my defence.
Click to expand...
https://www.richplanet.net/legal.php

* I'm not linking to that.
 
Min Bannister said:
Rich has been served with an injunction for harassment and data breaches. He is also asking for money for legal fees of which he has so far got £7688 out of £10, 000 asked for on Go Fund Me*. So he still has plenty of support. :(


https://www.richplanet.net/legal.php

* I'm not linking to that.
Click to expand...
Crikey, now over £15,000 with some sizeable anonymous donations.

(Disclaimer: do not agree with his views or support him financially)
 
Min Bannister said:
Yes, I noticed £1000 had been donated at one point. And I notice that he keeps bumping up the asking price. When I posted it was £10, 000 but it has now gone up to £20, 000
Click to expand...

To be fair - anyone involved in this kind of legal action is likely to find that initial estimates of cost have a tendency to be on the optimistic side.

Either that, or he's just another grifter exploiting his own base for financial gain.

Of course - it doesn't have to be an either/or.
 
Apparently his court case is going to be on the 29th January.
From his website:-
Richard D. Hall will be appearing at a High Court hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice, Strand, London, WC2A 2LL on Monday 29th January 2024, starting at 2pm, and time allowed is 2 hours and 30 minutes. The hearing will be heard in a court room, although which court room has not yet been decided.

The hearing is for a summary judgment application submitted by the Claimants - who claim they were injured in the Manchester Arena bomb attack.
Click to expand...

https://www.richplanet.net/

Watch this space.
 
Spookdaddy said:
To be fair - anyone involved in this kind of legal action is likely to find that initial estimates of cost have a tendency to be on the optimistic side.

Either that, or he's just another grifter exploiting his own base for financial gain.

Of course - it doesn't have to be an either/or.
Click to expand...
Apparently he represented himself so I am not sure how much money would need to be spent on that? I have heard this is always a bad idea so may have been a poor move on his part. Oh well.

Anyway, the hearing has taken place and the judge will reach a conclusion "at a later date" which is a bit frustrating but hopefully not too much later.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-68135904

There is much more at the link and I am not sure which is the best bit to quote but as we need to wait and see anyway there isn't really any real news, just a report of the trial.

Mr Price told the hearing in London that Abedi's brother Hashem was found guilty of 22 counts of murder.
The barrister said he had "ticked off" the issue of proving those killings "unless the defendant can prove that the 22 people were not murdered in the way described on that day".
Mr Price also said there is a "very detailed" report into Mr Hibbert's medical condition by his spinal injuries consultant.
Mr Hall claimed to have found inconsistencies in Mr Hibbert's accounts of the attack, the court was told.
But Mr Price said: "They do not raise anything beyond a fanciful case that this bombing did not happen."
Click to expand...
 
Min Bannister said:
Apparently he represented himself so I am not sure how much money would need to be spent on that? I have heard this is always a bad idea so may have been a poor move on his part. Oh well...
Click to expand...

I suspect the choice to represent oneself in court almost always presents a perfect manifestation of the Dunning-Kruger effect.
 
To be absolutely fair, it's more common for someone to defend themselves in the context of a civil claim - and possibly not as likely to lead to absolute disaster as it might be in a criminal case.

One positive I get from this is that Mr Hall's apparent popularity does not appear to extend to people forking out the cash he was begging his fans for when this case was announced last year.

Either that, or he's pocketed it.

Which won't do him much good if he loses the case.
 
Stormkhan said:
"I'm so great I know better than any so-called expert!"

Which is a far cry from having to represent oneself because you can't afford a legal expert.
Click to expand...
Maybe I just gave a suspicious mind but I do think in this case we may be tending towards the former. We know he got nearly 20k from Justgiving before the page was shut down and there were other ways to donate so who knows how much he got? So if he subsequently just represented himself then where did the money go? :thought:

Mind you, I have never been sued by anyone so I don't know how much it costs. Maybe he spent the money on a lawyer before running out then ended up on his tod in the courtroom due to being broke. I would be interested to know though!
 
Min Bannister said:
...Mind you, I have never been sued by anyone so I don't know how much it costs. Maybe he spent the money on a lawyer before running out then ended up on his tod in the courtroom due to being broke. I would be interested to know though!
Click to expand...

Or possibly he sacked them when they insisted on telling him things he didn't want to hear, however based on common sense and legal knowhow those things were - another not uncommon habit of the accused egotist.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top