Duckenfield ‘failures led to deaths of each of the 96 fans’
A FORMER South Yorkshire police officer presided over “extraordinarily bad” failures that led to the deaths of 96 football fans during the Hillsborough disaster 30 years ago, a court heard yesterday.
Jurors were told that David Duckenfield was criminally responsible for 95 of those fatalities because of his “gross failure” as match-day commander for Liverpool’s FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest in 1989.
It was alleged that no one monitored numbers or safety in the build-up to the tragedy, which resulted in fans getting crushed after the former chief superintendent failed in his duty. As the disaster unfolded, he failed to declare a major incident or enact emergency measures to free trapped supporters.
Richard Matthews QC, lead barrister for the Crown, said at Preston Crown Court that there should have been nothing extraordinary about the fixture, a re-run of a match between the same teams the previous season.
Instead, he said, “there was an extraordinary series of collective and personal failures on the part of very many, if not all, of those who were responsible for the planning, organisation and management of the arrival, entry and accommodation of the 50,000 fans at the Hillsborough stadium”.
The Crown described how Mr Duckenfield was the most senior police officer at the match and said he “grossly failed to discharge his personal responsibility for the safety of the deceased”.
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 match.
Under the law at 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 his injuries were caused.
The case, due to last until May, opened after Mr Justice Openshaw told jurors to ignore what they had heard or read about the high-profile case. “What any of you have heard in the past is entirely irrelevant to your task,” he said.
Mr Duckenfield appeared alongside Graham Mackrell, 69, of Stocking Pel- ham, Herts, the former Sheffield Wednesday secretary 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.
Mr Matthews said: “Sadly, there were also many collective and individual failures to intervene effectively once the disaster unfolded, not least through the failure of anyone in a position to do so, Mr Duckenfield included, to declare the situation a ‘major incident’ in good time, to put in place emergency measures to release those trapped and to organise and provide emergency medical attention, particularly attempts at resuscitation.”
He said the prosecution’s case was that Mr 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”. Far too many people were allowed to enter the ground, Mr Matthews added, “into a terribly confined space, in circumstances where no one was charged with monitoring numbers for safety and where those in a position to attempt to alleviate the inevitable crush had been given strict orders to keep access gates on to the pitch closed, only to open them by express command of a senior officer.”