‘Unfair’ to blame top policeman

Hillsborough match commander David Duckenfield is facing “bitterly unfair” blame for the disaster that left 96 football fans dead, his retrial has heard.

Bad planning, stadium design, crowd behaviour, police behaviour, individual mistakes and genuine human error all played a part in the tragedy, Benjamin Myers QC, defending 75-year-old Duckenfield, told the jury as he made an opening speech on behalf of the defence.

The defendant, a chief superintendent with South Yorkshire Police and the match commander with responsibility for policing the game, denies the manslaughter by gross negligence of 95 Liverpool supporters who died in the crush at the FA Cup semifinal between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest on April 15 1989.

Around a dozen relatives of the victims of the disaster sat in the public gallery at Preston Crown Court watching proceedings.

Mr Myers said: “It is blatantly unfair to blame one person when so many other people and so many other factors contributed to this tragedy.”

He told the jury the prosecution were “confusing” the defendant’s responsibility as the match commander and criminal responsibility for what went wrong.

He said Duckenfield was only made match commander 19 days before the game, after being appointed as chief superintendent for “F” Division of South Yorkshire Police where the stadium was situated.

But he had never been match commander at a football game before and was “not the ideal man” for the job but “just got on with it”, as that was how South Yorkshire Police operated, Mr Myers said.

The trial, which began last week, has heard it is the prosecution’s case that Duckenfield’s failures to discharge his responsibilities contributed substantially to the deaths of the fans.

The trial continues.

David Duckenfield.