‘Poor decisions led to overcrowding’
COURT: Hillsborough match commander David Duckenfield’s lack of leadership and poor decision-making led to overcrowding outside the ground, a policing expert has told a court.
Former Chief Superintendent Duckenfield, 74, is accused of the gross negligence manslaughter of 95 Liverpool supporters.
HILLSBOROUGH MATCH commander David Duckenfield’s lack of leadership and poor decisionmaking led to overcrowding outside the ground on the day of the disaster, a policing expert has told a court.
Former Chief Superintendent Duckenfield, 74, is accused of the gross negligence manslaughter of 95 Liverpool supporters who died in the disaster at the FA Cup semifinal on April 15, 1989.
Yesterday, Douglas Hopkins, who was a match commander at Arsenal’s Highbury ground in the late 1980s and early 1990s, told Preston Crown Court that Duckenfield should have left the stadium’s police control box and gone to the Leppings Lane turnstiles at 2.17pm when Superintendent Roger Marshall asked for the road to be closed to traffic as crowds built up.
The court has heard the former chief superintendent made the decision to open exit gates to the stadium to relieve the crush outside at 2.52pm – following three requests from Mr Marshall.
Asked what led to the overcrowding outside, Mr Hopkins said: “Sadly it’s the lack of leadership shown by Mr Duckenfield and poor decision-making that has led to Superintendent Marshall demanding at 2.47pm that exit gates be opened to save life and limb.”
Mr Hopkins told the court although Duckenfield had only taken on the role of match commander weeks before the fixture, he would have had opportunities to look at the layout of the ground, and the “bottleneck” type arrangement at the Leppings Lane turnstiles, when he attended league games there on April 1 and April 5.
He said: “It could be reasonably expected that he would prepare himself fully for this major event.
“The only suggestion I can come up with, because of the way he conducted himself previously, he gave good briefings, attended lots of meetings, gave a press conference, but when it came to actually running the match I can only suggest he saw himself as the titular head of the operation, anticipating decisions made by officers under his command and just accepting the kudos that comes from being in charge of a high profile event.”
He said Duckenfield made a “fatal mistake” when he allowed fans to enter the ground through the exit gate without informing officers inside.
Mr Hopkins said: “In briefings, Mr Duckenfield emphasised evacuation and safe routes, what in fact he was doing there was evacuating a large number of supporters from what was a difficult and dangerous situation, he evacuated them into another area but was not providing them with safe passage.”
Mr Hopkins, who worked as a crowd control adviser for the FA after retiring from the police, told the court he thought it would have been more appropriate for Brian Mole, the commander who Duckenfield replaced, to have been in charge of the match on the day.
But he said, given Duckenfield’s 29 years of policing service, he should have been capable of taking on the role.
He said: “He should have had the experience and certainly the service to understand what his role was.”
Duckenfield denies unlawfully killing 95 Liverpool fans who died following the crush on the terrace.
Former Sheffield Wednesday club secretary Graham Mackrell, 69, denies breaching a condition of the ground’s safety certificate and failing to discharge a duty under the Health and Safety Act.
The trial continues.
Sadly it’s the lack of leadership shown by Mr Duckenfield. Match policing expert Douglas Hopkins at the trial into the Hillsborough disaster.