Hillsborough: Police face jail
After 28 years and 2 inquests, families welcome decision to prosecute over the deaths and ‘black ops cover-up’
‘There are no winners in this’
THE policeman in charge of Hillsborough on the day of the stadium disaster will finally be charged with the killing of 95 football fans, prosecutors said yesterday.
Former Chief Superintendent David Duckenfield, who commanded policing of the 1989 FA Cup semi-final, is one of six now facing criminal charges over the tragedy that claimed 96 lives.
Hundreds of relatives of the victims gathered at Warrington’s Parr Hall yesterday to be told that those who had been responsible for ensuring the safety of their loved ones would finally face charges – after two inquests and a 28-year fight for justice.
Duckenfield, 72, faces a life sentence if convicted of manslaughter by gross negligence. Prosecutors said his actions had ‘contributed substantially’ to the deaths, but for legal reasons he cannot be charged over the 96th victim, Tony Bland, who died four years later.
As it was announced that prosecutors had sufficient evidence to charge the men, there was spontaneous applause and some relatives broke down in tears. The CPS’s Sue Hemming said: ‘We will allege that David Duckenfield’s failures to discharge his personal responsibility were extraordinarily bad and contributed substantially to the deaths.’
Barry Devonside, whose only child, 18-yearold Christopher, died in the crush in the ground’s Leppings Lane pens, punched the air when he heard the news.
The 70-year-old said: ‘ We knew that something went terribly wrong at Hillsborough and it was right and proper that we fought for our loved ones. I was frightened, absolutely frightened that we were going to be let down again.
‘It is so very hard to fight for justice over the period of time. We have been smacked in the face on a number of occasions.’ Trevor Hicks, whose daughters Victoria, 15, and 19-year- old Sarah were killed, said: ‘There will be six people facing criminal charges who might not have done if we hadn’t been resilient and all stuck together and fought this long fight.
‘There are no winners in this, it doesn’t bring anybody back. What it does do is send a message about accountability, as we keep saying, that nobody but nobody is above the law; be it the police or anybody else.’
Margaret Aspinall, chairman of the Hillsborough Family Support Group, lost her son James, 18. She said: ‘We can never have peace until we’ve got truth, justice, accountability.’
Also charged was Sir Norman Bettison – later Chief Constable of Merseyside Police – who is accused of lying about his role in the aftermath to further his police career.
His charges of four counts of misconduct in a public office also carry a maximum life sentence.
Oxford- educated Bettison, an inspector in 1989, was allegedly part of a ‘black ops’ unit at South Yorkshire Police that blamed drunken, ticketless Liverpool fans for the trag- edy. The 61-year- old is accused of lying as he applied to be Chief Constable of Merseyside in 1998, when he told the local police authority that he had ‘never attempted to shift blame on to the shoulders of Liverpool supporters’.
Bettison has always denied the allegations and insisted he had nothing to hide.
Former Chief Superintendent Donald Denton, 79, ex-Chief Inspector Alan Foster, 70, and then-force solicitor Peter Metcalf, 67, each face two counts of perverting the course of justice, accused of altering officers’ statements after the tragedy on April 15, 1989.
Graham Mackrell, 67, then- club secretary of Sheffield Wednesday FC – which plays its home matches at Hillsborough stadium – was responsible for ensuring the club’s ground was safe and has been charged with three offences relating to breaches of health and safety.
Prosecutors said they had considered corporate charges against Sheffield Wednesday, the Football Association and the South Yorkshire Metropolitan Ambulance Service but there were difficulties because of the amount of time that had passed and there was not enough evidence of criminal wrongdoing.
Separately, it emerged that for charges to be brought against the police force the then-chief constable would need to have been personally grossly negligent over the disaster.
Duckenfield had been in the job for just three weeks and had never policed a football match at Hillsborough when he was handed the role of match commander for the fixture between Liverpool FC and Nottingham Forest. The cause of the disaster is widely recognised as his deci- sion to open an exit gate and let in 2,000 fans, many of whom went into the Leppings Lane pens – causing those at the front to be crushed.
At the new inquests he admitted telling the ‘terrible lie’ that fans had stormed the gate in order to deflect blame away from himself.
Duckenfield was not charged over Mr Bland’s death because the law in 1989 stated no one could be found guilty of homicide if the death occurred more than a year and a day after the injuries were sustained.
Mr Bland, who suffered severe brain damage, died in 1993 after his parents were granted permission to turn off his life-support machine.
Prosecutors said Duckenfield had yet to be formally charged because, in the failed private prosecution brought by victims’ families in 1999, the judge issued a ‘stay’ – meaning that he could not be prosecuted again. A High Court judge must now grant permission to lift the stay.
The decision to bring charges comes after two inquests into the deaths, with a jury last year ruling that the 96 victims had been unlawfully killed. The original verdicts from 1991 were quashed by the High Court in 2012.
There was no answer at Duckenfield’s home in Bournemouth yesterday and neighbours said he was on holiday in Portugal.
All the defendants except Duckenfield will appear at Warrington Magistrates’ Court on August 9.
Files in relation to the conduct of West Midlands Police officers, who carried out the initial investigation, were still being considered, the CPS said, and more charges could follow.
Barry DevonsiDe did not imagine, of course, that he would wait 28 years to hear that six individuals, including a match commander, will face criminal charges stemming from the disaster that claimed the life of his 18-year-old son.
This breakthrough did not provide a vast amount of solace for him when it finally came, yesterday. stopping under a slate grey sky and in unremitting rain, Mr Devonside wanted to discuss his boy Christopher, who would now be 46, rather than the 95 counts of manslaughter which former chief superintendent David Duckenfield is set to answer.
‘We had a son and i don’t want to make stupid comments but he was a perfect son,’ he said, almost apologetically. ‘He had respect for himself, for his mum and dad and the general public.’
To hear Mr Devonside speak, his voice breaking as he did so, was to be reminded once again of the personal toll the interminable journey towards a Hillsborough end point has taken on those who were bereaved all those years ago.
Christopher was one of ‘the 96’, though to 70- year- old Mr Devonside and his wife Jacqueline he was simply their only child, who had an excellent line in mischief. They have never forgotten his reply when Mr Devonside once insisted he would not let him watch something unsuitable on Tv. ‘one day, Dad, when you’re old and i’m 12, i’ll be able to watch whatever i like,’ Christopher said.
The Devonsides have had to hold on tight to those little recollections because they waved their boy off to sheffield on a saturday morning in april 1989 and he never came home.
Life in the long years since has been measured out in legal hearings, many of which brought disappointments until the past five years have seen a corner turned.
yesterday’s audience with the lawyers was in an unusual place — Warrington’s Parr Hall, where the rolling stones played in 1963. But there was only tension when around 100 people drew up the red seats in front of the stage to hear the Crown Prosecution service explain who would be charged. There were cheers, and no few tears, when the news had sunk in.
‘ i was frightened. absolutely frightened that we were going to be let down again,’ said Mr Devonside. ‘it is so very hard to fight for justice over the period of time that the families have had to fight.’
Those families are accustomed to having legal terminology thrown at them on these occasions and this time was evidently not much different, in that respect.
‘some of what we heard was technical,’ said Trevor Hicks, whose life was changed irredeemably by the loss of his daughters, 19-year-old sarah and 15-year- old vicki. ‘We had a bit of trouble understanding some things but the message is that if you feel something is not right, fight it. if you feel right is on your side, you can win.’
For Lou Brookes, the breakthrough was tempered by the knowledge that her parents had not lived to see the day that those allegedly responsible for the loss of her 26-year- old brother, andrew, will face a criminal court. Their mother Gillian died in 2000 and father George in 2014, 10 days before the start of the re-opened inquests which found that the 96 who died as a result of events at Liverpool’s Fa Cup semi-final with nottingham Forest were unlawfully killed.
‘andrew has been dead longer than he was alive,’ Ms Brookes reflected. ‘it’s another day my parents were not alive to see. We should have had this 20 years ago.’
so many shared that sentiment. Professor Phil scraton is the individual who has perhaps done most to bring the families to this day, with fastidious research which uncovered evidence of the post- Hillsborough statement-tampering process known to south yorkshire Police as ‘review and alteration’. But he, too, was yesterday remembering absent friends, like eddie spearritt, whose desperate attempts to save his son adam on the Leppings Lane terrace were in vain.
Mr spearritt died in 2011 without knowing his efforts in helping to fight for new inquests had come to fruition. ‘eddie was top of my ‘friends and family’ on my phone for five years,’ said Prof scraton. ‘i miss him every single day. and he would have loved to see this day.’
The families declined offers of cover from the elements as they stood and made a brief statement, and the message was that storms are worth confronting if you feel there is a just cause.
‘They say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,’ said Margaret aspinall, who has steadfastly led the Hillsborough Family support Group for decades.
‘There are no winners here but it sends a message that nobody is above the law,’ added Mr Hicks. ‘after Grenfell Tower and others, the message is, “Watch out, families will come after you”. Things have been done and said that should not have happened. Things have not been done that should.’
They all spoke with some trepidation. The lawyers in the concert room had warned them to abide by the legal process and say nothing which might prejudice proceedings which lie ahead,
If it doesn’t feel right, fight. You can win
probably at the Old Bailey. ‘ I’m afraid to say anything,’ said one woman.
It was the CPS who had provided most information, with extraordinarily detailed disclosures about their charging decision.
Their prosecutors will argue in court that Duckenfield displayed ‘a failure to discharge his personal responsibilities’ at Hillsborough which was ‘extraordinarily bad and contributed substantially to each of the deaths’.
Norman Bettison will stand trial on four counts of misconduct in public office for allegedly lying about the extent of his involvement in Hillsborough to further his own career, when applying for the job of Merseyside chief constable in October 1998. Permitting a press release to be issued in his name which ‘untruthfully asserted he had never “besmirched” … Liverpool supporters’, the day after an independent review revealed the South Yorkshire force’s catastrophic failings has added to his own charge sheet.
Scraton cautioned that those 28 long years and the high profile of Hillsborough in the last five of them will make the dispensing of justice difficult now, and that a jury unaffected by the public discussion will be hard to find. ‘It’s very difficult to take historic cases when you’ve got fading memories, people who’ve died along the road and massive publicity,’ he said. ‘But it is always possible to have a fair trial. The CPS would not have taken a case unless they thought it was prosecutable.’
Mr Devonside just feels the families had tried to correct wrongs by acting with ‘ decency’, though he was not the only one reflecting that the road is not fully travelled and that many more court hearings lie ahead before he can lay the past to rest.
‘We are ready to do that,’ he said. ‘But it is very hard to face it.’