The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Hillsborough families’ joy as top cops to face charges Police among six charged
The families of 96 Hillsborough victims broke into applause as they were told match commander David Duckenfield and five others will face criminal charges nearly 30 years after the death of their loved ones.
Mr Duckenfield, 72, along with former chief constable Sir Norman Bettison, 61, two other senior ex-South Yorkshire Police officers, the then force solicitor and the then safety boss of Sheffield Wednesday FC, will all be prosecuted, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) announced yesterday.
Match commander Duckenfield, a former South Yorkshire Police chief superintendent and officer in charge on the day, faces 95 counts of manslaughter by gross negligence, while Bettison, a chief inspector at the time of the disaster, faces four offences of misconduct in a public office over alleged lies in accounts of his involvement in the 1989 disaster.
In a statement, Bettison said: “I will vigorously defend my innocence as I have been doing for nearly five years.”
The Football Association, South Yorkshire Ambulance Service and Sheffield Wednesday FC and its architects and safety consultants will not be prosecuted, the CPS said.
Ninety-six Liverpool fans were crushed to death in pens at the Leppings Lane end of Hillsborough Stadium on April 15, 1989, as their FA Cup semifinal match against Nottingham Forest began.
After decades of campaigning by relatives, an inquest jury last year ruled the victims had been unlawfully killed in a tragedy caused by police blunders, paving the way for prosecutions.
Relatives of the 96 were yesterday told the six individuals will be charged by lawyers at a meeting in Warrington following a legal fight spanning three decades.
Barry Devonside, whose son Christopher, 18, was among those killed, pumped his fist as he emerged from the meeting.
He said: “Everybody applauded when it was announced that the most senior police officer on that particular day will have charges presented to him.”
Along with Duckenfield and Bettison, the four others charged are:
Former chief superintendent Donald Denton and former detective chief inspector Alan Foster, both ex-South Yorkshire Police, are charged with intent to pervert the course of justice relating to material changes made to witness statements.
Graham Mackrell, Sheffield Wednesday’s safety officer at the time, is charged with two offences involving the stadium safety certificate and a health and safety offence.
Peter Metcalf, the solicitor acting for South Yorkshire Police after the disaster, is charged with doing acts with intent to pervert the course of justice relating to changes made to witness statements.