‘Extraordinary’ Hillsborough failings killed 96 fans, trial told
Prosecution case in Hillsborough trial
THE “EXTRAORDINARILY bad” failings of Hillsborough match commander David Duckenfield caused the deaths of 96 “wholly innocent” Liverpool fans, his trial has heard.
Former South Yorkshire Police Chief Superintendent Duckenfield failed to declare a major incident or enact emergency measures to free trapped supporters as the disaster unfolded, Preston Crown Court was told yesterday.
The 74-year-old, of Bournemouth, denies the gross negligence manslaughter of 95 of the Liverpool supporters, including 10-year-old Jon-Paul Gilhooley, at the 1989 FA Cup semi-final.
Richard Matthews, prosecuting, said there may have been “an extraordinary series of collective and personal failures” by many – if not all – of those planning and managing the match against Nottingham Forest.
But, he said, Duckenfield had the “ultimate responsibility” as match commander to those who died as a result of “the wholly innocent activity of attending a football match as a spectator”.
Mr Matthews said: “It is the prosecution’s case that David Duckenfield’s failures to discharge this personal responsibility were extraordinarily bad and contributed substantially to the deaths of each of those 96 people who so tragically and unnecessarily lost their lives.”
The retired officer went on trial alongside former Sheffield Wednesday club secretary Graham Mackrell. Mackrell “effectively shrugged off all responsibility” for important aspects of his role as safety officer, Mr Matthews said.
At the very least Mackrell turned a “blind eye” to the conditions of the club’s safety certificate by failing to agree with police the methods of entry into the stadium, the prosecutor added.
Mackrell, 69, denies contravening the stadium’s safety certificate and a health and safety offence. The fans died as a result of the crush in pens at the Leppings Lane end of the Sheffield Wednesday ground on April 15, 1989.
The trial continues.
HILLSBOROUGH MATCH commander David Duckenfield’s “extraordinarily bad” failures “contributed substantially” to the deaths of Liverpool fans who “so tragically and unnecessarily lost their lives” in the disaster, the former police chief ’s manslaughter trial was told.
The ex-South Yorkshire Police Chief Superintendent denies the gross negligence manslaughter of 95 Liverpool fans at the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest on April 15, 1989. Under the law of the time, there can be no prosecution for the death of the 96th victim, Tony Bland, as he died more than a year and a day after being injured.
Richard Matthews, prosecuting, told Preston Crown Court yesterday that Duckenfield’s “criminal responsibility for the death of 95 of those who died” flowed from his “gross failure to discharge his personal responsibility as match commander”.
The prosecutor added: “It is the prosecution’s case that each of those who died did so as a result of participation in the wholly innocent activity of attending a football match as a spectator on April 15, 1989.
“Each died as a consequence of the obvious and serious risk to life posed by crushing from poor management of the expected capacity crowd seeking admission to watch the match – and each died as a result of the extraordinarily
bad failures by David Duckenfield in the care he took to discharge his personal responsibility on that fateful day.”
Duckenfield, 74, of Bournemouth, appeared in court alongside former Sheffield Wednesday club secretary Graham Mackrell, 69, of Stocking Pelham, Hertfordshire, who is charged with contravening a term or condition of the stadium’s safety certificate and failing to discharge a duty under the Health and Safety Act. Both men pleaded not guilty at a previous hearing to the charges.
Relatives of Hillsborough victims sat in the public gallery yesterday as 95 names were read out including the youngest to die, 10-year-old Jon-Paul Gilhooley.
While there may have been “an extraordinary series of collective and personal failures” by many, if not all, of those planning and managing the match, Mr Matthews said, Duckenfield had the “ultimate responsibility” as match commander to secure the safe arrival and entry of fans.
Mr Matthews told the jury that, “almost inevitably” and “reasonably foreseeably”, pressure began to build at the stadium’s Leppings Lane end, where about 24,000 Liverpool supporters were to enter through “limited turnstiles” creating a “bottleneck”.
He said: “An exit gate, known as Gate C, was opened, following requests for David Duckenfield to do something to alleviate the crush just outside the gates.”
But he said that, once in and beyond Gate C, the crowd was “naturally drawn” down the slope of a tunnel and into the confined area of the central pens on the terrace and Duckenfield “gave no thought to the inevitable consequence of the flood of people through Gate C nor did he make any attempt to even monitor what was occurring let alone avert the tragedy”.
Mr Matthews said Sheffield Wednesday breached the condition of its safety certificate by failing to agree with police before the semi-final the method of entry into the stadium. Mackrell, who was the club’s safety officer, is also charged with failing to take reasonable care of the health and safety of others.
The trial continues.
Each died as a result of the extraordinarily bad failures. Prosecutor Richard Matthews at the trial of David Duckenfield.