No new charges over Hillsborough police ‘cover-up’

THREE FORMER South Yorkshire Police will not face charges into allegations of a “cover-up” by the force following the Hillsborough disaster – despite “some indication” that two of them may have committed a criminal offence.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission – now renamed the Independent Office for Police Conduct – investigated allegations that the three senior officers participated in a strategy to minimise South Yorkshire Police culpability for the disaster by wrongly blaming Liverpool fans.

It was alleged that officers sought to deliberately mislead the Lord Justice Taylor inquiry, the original inquest proceedings and a third hearing about the circumstances in which 96 Liverpool fans died at the 1989 FA Cup semi-final in Sheffield.

However, the IOPC said it was not referring the cases on to the Crown Prosecution Service – in part because doing so may delay the trials of six other individuals, including match commander David Duckenfield, who have already been charged with offences relating to the disaster.

A statement from the IOPC said: “Although there was some indication that two of the three former officers may have committed a criminal offence, it was not deemed appropriate to refer their cases because the CPS had already rejected the possibility of bringing criminal charges based on substantial evidence that was reviewed in 2016.”

The CPS has also announced that it will not be charging two former senior West Midlands Police (WMP) officers in relation to the investigation conducted by that force into the causes of the disaster.

They were alleged to have failed to investigate the causes of the disaster properly, either deliberately or through negligence.