96 liverpool fans ‘unlawfully killed’
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THE 96 Liverpool football fans who were crushed to death in overcrowded sections at Sheffield’s Hillsborough Stadium in 1989 were “unlawfully killed” in a disaster caused by police actions, a jury concluded yesterday.
South Yorkshire Police Chief Constable David Crompton said the force had got it “catastrophically wrong” as he apologized “unreservedly.”
He said the force “unequivocally” accepted the findings of the inquest jury which concluded that the victims had been unlawfully killed following gross negligence by the police.
Football fans were crushed to death after police opened an exit gate, allowing Liverpool supporters to surge into fenced-in pens on a terrace at the Hillsborough stadium in the northern England city.
“I want to make it absolutely clear that we unequivocally accept the verdict of unlawful killing and the wider findings reached by the jury in the Hillsborough inquests,” Crompton said outside the force’s headquarters in Sheffield.
“South Yorkshire Police got the policing of the FA Cup semifinal at Hillsborough catastrophically wrong. The force failed the victims and failed their families. I want to apologize unreservedly to the families and all those affected.”
There are two ongoing criminal investigations into the disaster — focusing on the tragedy itself and allegations of corruption in the aftermath — that are expected to be completed in December or January.
“The Hillsborough disaster changed the way in which major sporting events are policed and very many lessons have been learnt,” said Crompton.
“With improvements in training, communications and technology, it is almost impossible to consider how the same set of circumstances could arise again today.
“We will now take time to carefully reflect on the implications of the verdicts.”
Relatives of the victims chanted “Justice for the 96” and sang the Liverpool club anthem, “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” outside a specially built courtroom after the conclusion of two years of fresh inquests into Britain’s worst sporting disaster.
By the end of the year, police plan to conclude a separate criminal investigation into wrongdoing by authorities at the April 1989 FA Cup semifinal match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at the stadium where second-tier English club Sheffield Wednesday still plays.
The Crown Prosecution Service said it will then “formally consider whether any criminal charges should be brought against any individual or corporate body.”
British Prime Minister David Cameron paid tribute to the courage displayed by victims’ families, tweeting that “long overdue justice” had been provided by the jury.
Families have fought to ensure authorities were held to account after being angered by the verdicts of accidental death at the original inquests. Those verdicts were overturned in 2012 following a far-reaching inquiry into the disaster that examined previously secret documents and exposed wrongdoing and mistakes by police.
“There’s many a time we’ve been climbing up the mountain. We wanted to stop, we wanted to stop,” said Margaret Aspinall, whose 18-year-old son James died at Hillsborough.
“It’s the ordinary people. It’s the fans, the survivors. They were the ones chanting for justice at all the games, they are ones giving you that uplift. You’ve got to carry on.”
Relatives leapt to their feet, cheering and weeping, as the jury gave its answer to the most significant of the 14 questions set by the coroner, reaching the verdict of unlawful killing by a 7-2 majority.
That finding meant the jury was convinced David Duckenfield, then-South Yorkshire Police chief superintendent in charge of policing the game, was in breach of his duty of care to fans and his actions amounted to “gross negligence.”
Duckenfield told the inquests he told a “terrible lie” by saying fans had rushed through gates at the Leppings Lane turnstiles eight minutes before kickoff rather than admitting to authorizing the gates to be opened. The order allowed more than 2,000 fans to flood into a standing-room section behind a goal with the 54,000-capacity stadium already nearly full.
Inside the stadium, five minutes after kickoff, a surge of people pushed hundreds of spectators against a steel mesh fence that soon collapsed. A police officer ran onto the field and asked the referee to halt the game, which was abandoned after six minutes at 3:06pm.
Fans and rescue workers ripped up advertising boards and used them as makeshift stretchers as police and first aid workers treated victims on the field.
“The police delayed calling a major incident so the appropriate emergency response was delayed,” the jury concluded. “There was a lack of coordination, command and control which delayed or prevented appropriate responses.”
The jury found that the construction and layout of the stadium was dangerous and contributed to the disaster. The stadium’s owner, Sheffield Wednesday, should have done more to detect unsafe or unsatisfactory features of the venue that caused or contributed to the disaster.
Even before the funerals were held 27 years ago, families had to start fighting to uphold the reputations of the deceased.
There were immediate attempts to assign blame to Liverpool fans and defend the policing operation. A false narrative that blamed drunken, ticketless Liverpool fans was created by police.
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