£67.70 for each life
Families’ fury as Hillsborough safety chief is fined £6,500 for tragedy that left 96 fans dead
campaigning families hit out yesterday after the first defendant to be sentenced over Hillsborough was fined the equivalent of just £67.70 per victim.
graham mackrell, who was safety officer at the ground, left court with a fine of £6,500 for failing to ensure sufficient turnstiles were allocated to Liverpool fans.
Some 96 supporters died in a crush on april 15, 1989, when the Sheffield ground hosted the clash between Liverpool and nottingham Forest.
Louise Brookes, whose brother andrew died in the disaster, said after the case that the fine per victim was less than the cost of her weekly shop.
‘Our 96 are dead and all it’s worth is £67.70 each,’ she said. ‘Shameful. Thirty years to get to this. Our 96 deserve better than this and us families deserve better than this. We are all getting on in age and enough is enough.’
christine Burke, whose father Henry died in the crush, said 69-year-old mackrell – who was secretary and safety officer of Sheffield Wednesday Football club – ought to have been sacked following the tragic Fa cup semi-final.
‘This is a man who has been paid very well and gone on to do other things,’ she said. But at preston crown court yesterday the judge, Sir peter Openshaw, stressed that mackrell’s failure had not caused the fans’ deaths but had ‘set the scene’ for the tragedy.
Despite being convicted of a single health and safety offence over Britain’s worst sporting disaster, mackrell, an accountant and parish council treasurer, continues to earn over £36,000 a year in football administration. He receives a similar sum in pension income.
The court heard there were just seven turnstiles available for the 10,100 Liverpool fans with standing tickets. as crowds built up outside the turnstiles shortly before opened kick- and Liverpool off, exit fans gates poured were onto the terraces at the Leppings Lane end, causing a fatal crush. in 2004 mackrell told The guardian that bereaved families campaigning for justice ‘want a head on a stick but they weren’t ever going to get it’. However, earlier this year he stood trial alongside the match commander, retired chief superintendent was manslaughter. accused David of Duckenfield, Jurors gross negligence failed who to reach a verdict on Duckenfield, who faces a possible retrial. mackrell was found guilty last month of failing to discharge a duty under the Health and Safety at Work act, making him the first person convicted over the Hillsborough disaster. Yesterday he was also ordered to pay £5,000 costs. mackrell answered ‘no comment’ when questioned by police and also chose not to give evidence in his defence.
His barrister, Jason Beer Qc, told the court he had ‘made a mistake’. But he added: ‘He wasn’t part of any cover-up, he wasn’t part of any concealment of facts.’
The judge said: ‘He should have realised there was an obvious risk that so many spectators could not pass through seven turnstiles in time for kick-off.’
But he stressed that mackrell’s failure did not directly cause the
‘He set the scene for the disaster’
fatal crush inside the ground, saying the build-up of fans outside ‘did no more than set the scene’ for the disaster that followed.
The judge said that if mackrell had been sentenced under today’s guidelines he could have faced two years in prison. instead, under the law as it stood in 1989, he faced a fine of up to six times his weekly salary.
mackrell, who lives near Lyme Regis, Dorset, makes £700 a week in his job as an administrator for the League managers association and earns an additional £670 a week from pensions.
He left court without commenting but later released a statement saying he wanted ‘to make clear my sympathy to all those impacted by this appalling tragedy’.