A fundamentalist church which celebrates the deaths of soldiers in Iraq as God’s punishment on America for tolerating homosexuality has been ordered to pay £5.5 million in damages to a bereaved family.
Members of the virulently anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church attend servicemen’s funerals across America, standing on US flags and holding placards with messages such as “God hates fags”, “Pray for more dead kids” and “You’re going to hell”.
But after they picketed the funeral of Marine L/Cpl Matthew Snyder in Maryland last year his father, Albert Snyder, sued the church.
A federal jury in Baltimore decided that the Kansas-based church and three of its leaders had invaded the family’s privacy and inflicted emotional distress.
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