No funds for legal costs, former officers told
TWO FORMER South Yorkshire police officers facing prosecution in connection with the Hillsborough disaster have been told they will not receive funding from the local force budget to pay their legal costs.
South Yorkshire police and crime commissioner (PCC) Alan Billings has refused applications for funding from former chief superintendent Donald Denton and former chief inspector Alan Foster because the force cannot currently afford the potential legal bill. Both men are charged with perverting the course of justice in relation to changes made to witness statements.
Dr Billings has also previously decided not to fund the legal costs of David Duckenfield, the former chief superintendent in charge of policing on the day of the tragedy in 1989, which claimed 96 lives.
A statement from the PCC’s office said: “Dr Billings has reached decisions on two financial assistance applications from former South Yorkshire police officers facing the Hillsborough prosecutions.
“The applications have been considered by the commissioner on their merits, and have been refused.”
A fourth former South Yorkshire officer facing prosecution in connection with Hillsborough, Sir Norman Bettison, would have to make any potential application for funding to his last police employer which was West Yorkshire Police, where he was chief constable up until 2012.
A spokesman for the West Yorkshire PCC Mark Burns-Williamson said no application had been received from Bettison, who faces charges of misconduct in public office. Serving and former
police officers are entitled to ask for public funding for legal costs, including when facing criminal charges. The Home Office has issued guidelines on applications for funding which include a reference to PCCs considering the potential impact on resources.
Decision records published on the South Yorkshire PCC’s website for both Denton and Foster say the refusals are based on Dr Billings’ “assessment of prevailing financial circumstances.”
The PCC said both men were able to make further applications in future, should financial circumstances change. In making the previous decision to refuse Duckenfield funding, the PCC referred to the potential financial burden on the force and noted the former officer had received about £7.6m to defend a private prosecution in 2000 and through participation at the Hillsborough Inquests.
The CPS has authorised charges of manslaughter by gross negligence against Duckenfield but first has to remove a stay on proceedings imposed in 2000 after a private prosecution brought by families of those who died.
A hearing is due to be held on the issue at the end of February for which a judge ruled Mr Duckenfield can receive separate public funding through legal aid.
Ninety-six Liverpool fans died after a fatal crush on the terraces at the Leppings Lane end of Sheffield Wednesday’s Hillsborough stadium on April 15, 1989.
Two other people face prosecution – former Sheffield Wednesday secretary Graham Mackrell and Peter Metcalf, a solicitor acting for South Yorkshire Police at the time. Mackrell is accused of two counts of breaching the terms of the stadium’s safety certificate contrary to the Safety of Sports Grounds Act 1975, and failing to take reasonable care under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. Metcalf is accused of perverting the course of justice in relation to statements collected in the aftermath of the disaster.
None of those accused have entered pleas but all have indicated they intend to plead not guilty.