Hillsborough ruling helps push homicide up by a quarter

THE 96 victims of the Hillsborough disaster were a major factor behind a 26 per cent increase in the latest homicide rate, the first significant increase since the crimes of Harold Shipman were recorded.

Recorded deaths from murder and manslaughter have been falling since 2009 but rose by more than a quarter, in part because police recorded the 96 Liverpool FC fans killed in the 1989 stadium crush as suspected victims of manslaughter.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics show that in the year to March 2017, 723 deaths from murder or manslaughter were recorded, the highest number since 2008 and an increase of 150 from the previous year.

Last year an inquiry found that the 96 Hillsborough victims had been unlawfully killed. In June the Crown Prosecution Service announced that six people, including Chief Supt David Duckenfield, the match commander on the day, would face charges over the deaths.

Mr Duckenfield will be charged with manslaughter by gross negligence of 95 of the 96 fans, while former South Yorkshire police officers face charges for perverting the course of justice.

Without the inclusion of the Hillsborough victims, the increase would have been nine per cent. In 2003, the number was more than 1,000, with 172 victims of Shipman, the serial killer doctor, included in the total.

The latest figures also show rises in cases of attempted murder (16 per cent) and causing death by dangerous driving (22 per cent).