Relief at fan-death trials
FAMILIES and friends of the 95 football fans who died in the Hillsborough disaster 28 years ago were feeling vindicated and relieved yesterday that their long search for justice was finally coming to fruition.
Six people, including the police match commander David Duckenfield and a former chief constable will now be facing criminal trials.
The British Crown Prosecution Service announced that Duckenfield, 72, faces trial for the manslaughter by gross negligence.
Former chief constable Sir Norman Bettison, 61, faces four charges of misconduct in a public office, including two of lying about his role in the response to the disaster to further his career when applying to be Merseyside chief constable in 1998 — a post he held for seven years. However, England’s Football Association (FA) and Sheffield Wednesday — the club that operated Hillsborough — avoided action, despite the withering assessment of its conduct, which emerged in the Hillsborough Independent Panel investigation of 2012.
The CPS concluded that Wednesday could not be prosecuted because the debt-laden club was bought out in 2010 and effectively became a new organisation, which is no longer criminally liable for any offences committed by the old one.
Instead, former Wednesday secretary Graham Mackrell is charged with three offences relating to health and safety, and safety at sports grounds.
Former South Yorkshire police officers Donald Denton and Alan Foster, as well as force solicitor Peter Metcalf, are charged with undertaking acts intended to pervert the course of justice.
The biggest challenge is finding a location to ensure a fair trial and a jury not influenced by the substantial publicity attached to the disaster.
Families of the Hillsborough victims broke into applause as they were told Duckenfield faced charges.
Margaret Aspinall, whose 18-year-old son James died, said: “No one should have to go through what the families have gone through for 28 years to try to get to the truth and to get accountability.
“What has been achieved today will change things for the good of this nation and that’s the legacy of our 96.’’
There will be no manslaughter prosecution over the death of the 96th casualty, Anthony Bland, because he died almost four years later.