Hillsborough police chief attacks Labour MPS
A FORMER police chief accused of pointing the finger at Liverpool football fans for the Hillsborough disaster has blamed “political interference” for the charges brought against him, as the case collapsed.
Lawyers for Sir Norman Bettison, a former South Yorkshire chief inspector, criticised Maria Eagle, a Merseyside Labour MP, for using parliamentary privilege to assert that he was part of a unit that “orchestrated a black propaganda campaign” to deflect blame for the tragedy from the police on to football fans.
Paul Greaney QC alleged that the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) was put under “considerable political pressure” to construct a case around a narrative that was largely fabricated. A source told The Daily Telegraph that the minutes of several meetings between the IPCC senior investigator and the All-party Parliamentary Group on the Hillsborough Disaster before charges were brought suggested that MPS including Ms Eagle, Andy Burnham, who has since become mayor of Greater Manchester, and Steve Rotheram, who is now the
Continued from Page 1 Merseyside mayor, had sought to “direct the course of the investigation”.
“This was parliamentarians saying, ‘these are the questions that need to be asked of Norman Bettison when he’s interviewed’,” the source said. “We are not talking about a one-way process.”
Sir Norman, 62, who went on to become chief constable of Merseyside Police, had been charged with four counts of misconduct in a public office, all relating to alleged lies he told about his role in the aftermath of the 1989 tragedy that led to the deaths of 96 Liverpool supporters.
But the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) announced yesterday that the case had been dropped after one witness died, one had given different accounts with major inconsistencies and another had partly retracted his evidence, meaning the “thread” of the narrative had been lost.
The decision prompted fury from
‘This was parliamentarians saying, “these are the questions that need to be asked of Norman Bettison”’
the families of Hillsborough victims who called for an independent review and said they had “no trust or confidence” in the CPS, the IPCC or Operation Resolve. Steve Kelly, whose brother Michael died in the disaster, said: “I’m absolutely devastated.”
Sir Norman was alleged to have told Mark Ellaby, with whom he attended evening classes, in May 1989 that he had been “tasked with making sure that South Yorkshire Police bore no blame for the Hillsborough disaster and it was all the fault of the drunken Liverpool supporters”. Mr Ellaby has died.
In a joint statement, Ms Eagle, Mr Rotheram, Mr Burnham, Wirral South MP Alison Mcgovern and Halton MP Derek Twigg said: “We are disappointed to hear this news and we fully support the decision of the families to seek a review.”
Justice for the 96 victims of the Hillsborough disaster has been a demand of the relatives ever since the Liverpool fans died almost 30 years ago. But justice works both ways. Equally as important, as the campaigners must surely acknowledge, is to ensure a fair hearing for those accused of wrongdoing connected with the tragedy. The decision yesterday to drop all charges against Sir Norman Bettison, the former chief constable of Merseyside, was greeted with outrage by families who are demanding a review of the ruling. Yet the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) concluded there was insufficient evidence to secure a conviction against Sir Norman, who was not involved in policing the stadium on the fateful day in April 1989.
A worrying aspect of this case is the allegation that “naked political pressure” was brought to bear on the Independent Police Complaints Commission and the CPS to compile a case against Sir Norman on flimsy evidence. He was charged with misconduct in public office for sending out an erroneous press release and for failing to tell the truth about his role in the disaster when applying for the job of Merseyside chief constable.
His lawyer stated in court that the Liverpool Labour MP Maria Eagle had used parliamentary privilege to accuse Sir Norman of heading up a black propaganda unit that sought to deflect blame from South Yorkshire police onto the fans, which he denied. Everyone understands the grief of the relatives of those who died. But however dreadful the circumstances or popular the cause, political interference in the judicial process cannot be countenanced. In the interests of justice, the full facts of what happened need to be disclosed.