US jury award $150 billion to burn victim
Published:Thursday | December 22, 2011 | 12:04 PM
A Texas jury has awarded $150 billion to the family of a boy, who died of skin cancer 12 years after being set on fire and badly burnt.
Robbie Middleton, then aged eight, was alleged to have been sexually assaulted by the same attacker two weeks earlier.
The symbolic sum, which is the largest personal injury award in US history, is being seen as a plea to police to arrest the suspect, who is a convicted sex abuser.
The previous largest award was a $145 billion fine against tobacco companies.
The lawyer for the Middleton family, Craig Sico, said his aim was to pressure prosecutors in Montgomery County, Texas to charge 26-year-old Don Wilburn Collins with murder.
The judgement came from a Fayette County jury in La Grange, Texas.