Hillsborough fury 29 years on as charges against ex-police chief are dropped

FURIOUS Hillsborough families shouted ‘it’s a disgrace’ across a packed courtroom as criminal charges were dropped against former police chief Sir Norman Bettison yesterday.

A dozen relatives of those killed watched from the public gallery at Preston Crown Court as the 62-yearold ex-officer was told four counts of misconduct in public office were being withdrawn.

Sir Norman had been accused of making misleading statements about his role following the disaster.

But yesterday his lawyer blasted critics – including Garston and Halewood Labour MP Maria Eagle – who had accused him of being part of a ‘black propaganda’ police unit which worked to deflect blame onto Liverpool fans.

Families of the 96 supporters who died in the 1989 tragedy yesterday vowed to seek a review of the court decision.

Although he was not on duty for the fateful FA Cup semi-final, Sir Norman – then a chief inspector – was Sir Norman had faced charges over claims he lied about his involvement in South Yorkshire Police’s response to the tragedy. He allegedly described his role as ‘peripheral’ and made no mention of it when he applied to be Merseyside Police’s chief constable in 1998.

But after Sir Norman was charged last year, witness Mark Ellaby died and was found to have given contradictory evidence, the court heard yesterday. Mr Ellaby claimed he and Sir Norman chatted over a pint while on a Master of Business Administration course in 1989. He said the officer told how he had been appointed to a team, the role of which was to blame the fans.

But when 15 other students and a lecturer were traced by the then Independent Police Complaints Commission, ‘not a single one’ recalled Sir Norman expressing any ‘inappropriate view’, Mr Bettison’s barrister Paul Greaney QC said.

Another witness, David O’Dowd, former Chief Inspector of Constabulary, originally claimed Sir Norman said he had played only a ‘peripheral’ role in Hillsborough but has since said he could have been mistaken. A third witness, identified only as Mrs J, 85, also contradicted her first testimony. CPS barrister Sarah Whitehouse QC said there was no longer a realistic prospect of conviction.

Speaking outside court, Lou Brookes, whose brother Andrew, 26, was among the Hillsborough victims, said: ‘I’m not shocked... I have no faith and no trust or confidence in the CPS, the IPCC [Independent Police Complaints Commission, now renamed Independent Office for Police Conduct] and Operation Resolve [the criminal investigation into the disaster]. They have not just let the families down, they have let the 96 down. It seems as if they have abandoned us.’

Miss Whitehouse told the court that since Sir Norman – a chief inspector with South Yorkshire Police at the time of the disaster – was charged last year, the ‘state of the evidence has changed’. Mr Greaney, representing the former police chief, said Sir Norman criticised Garston and Halewood Labour MP Maria Eagle. He said: ‘There has never been any suggestion in this failed prosecution that Sir Norman Bettison took part in a cover-up. In 1998 and again in 2012, Maria Eagle MP asserted under cover of Parliamentary Privilege that Sir Norman had been part of a unit that orchestrated a black propaganda campaign to deflect blame for the Hillsborough Disaster on to the fans of Liverpool Football Club. That claim is untrue.’

After the hearing, Sir Norman, who resigned from his most recent job as West Yorkshire Chief Constable in 2012, said: ‘I have been forced to deny, strenuously, that I was guilty of any wrongdoing. Today’s outcome vindicates that position.’ In 2016, verdicts of unlawful killing were reached for each Hillsborough victim after a two-year inquest. Ex-Chief Superintendent David Duckenfield, match commander for South Yorkshire Police, faces trial next year for 95 counts of manslaughter by gross negligence.

Donald Denton, a former South Yorkshire Police Chief Superintendent; ex-Chief Inspector Alan Foster, and the then South Yorkshire police solicitor, Peter Metcalf, also face trial for allegedly perverting the course of justice.

Graham Mackrell, the former secretary of Sheffield Wednesday, owners of the Hillsborough ground, will be tried for allegedly breaching safety legislation.

‘Seems they’ve abandoned us’