Anger over football disaster verdict
BEREAVED families have branded the trial of Hillsborough match commander David Duckenfield a “disgrace” after he was cleared of the gross negligence manslaughter of 95 Liverpool fans who died at the 1989 FA Cup semi-final.
There were gasps as the seven women and three men on the jury at Preston Crown Court in Preston, Lancashire, returned their verdict following a retrial that lasted more than six weeks.
Speaking at a news conference in Liverpool, Margaret Aspinall, whose 18-year-old son James died in the disaster, said: “The families know who is guilty. Our city knows who is guilty. He can walk around now and get on with his life with a not-guilty verdict. “To me that is a disgrace.” Christine Burke, the daughter of Henry Burke, who was killed in the tragedy, stood in the public gallery and tearfully said to judge Sir Peter Openshaw: “With all due respect, my lord, 96 people were found unlawfully killed to a criminal standard.
I would like to know who is responsible for my father’s death because someone is.”
Mary Corrigan, mother of 17-year-old victim Keith McGrath, shouted “stitched up again”.
Inquests in 2016 found the 96 who were fatally injured on April 15, 1989, were unlawfully killed on the basis that Duckenfield, 75, breached his duty of care and was found grossly negligent. Under the law at the time, he was not charged over the 96th victim because he died more than a year and a day after the disaster.