Unlawfully killed
Families of Hillsborough’s 96 victims finally get outcome they wanted after 27 years
Families of the 96 Liverpool fans who died as a result of the Hillsborough disaster accused South Yorkshire Police of “a culture of denial” after an inquest jury ruled their loved ones were unlawfully killed.
After the latest step of the families’ campaign for justice, the chief constable of SYP and the chief executive of Yorkshire Ambulance Service fully accepted the jury’s conclusions and reiterated previous public apologies.
But lawyers for some of the families had previously argued in court that despite their public stance, both organisations sought to minimise their responsibility at the inquests so the jury was unaware of any acceptance of responsibility or fault.
Following yesterday’s conclusion to the longest jury case in British legal history, family members echoed those criticisms.
Stephen Wright, whose brother Graham, 17, died in the tragedy, said: “The evidence over the past two years has been overwhelming, yet South Yorkshire Police and their senior officers have tried to look truth in the eye and deny responsibility and shift blame on to others.”
Leading Hillsborough campaigner Margaret Aspinall, whose 18-year-old son James died in the disaster, said: “Let’s be honest about this - people were against us. We had the media against us, as well as the establishment.
“Everything was against us. The only people that weren’t against us was our own city. That’s why I am so grateful to my city and so proud of my city. “They always believed in us.” Surrounded by a sea of camera crews and reporters outside the court, she added: “I think we have changed a part of history now – I think that’s the legacy the 96 have left.”
The cost of legal representation for eight former South Yorkshire Police officers, including Mr Duckenfield and the current chief constable David Crompton, has been paid by South Yorkshire’s police and crime commissioner and has amounted to £19.4m.
The deaths were ruled accidental at the end of the original 1991 inquests into the deaths at the 1989 FA Cup semi-final at Sheffield Wednesday’s ground.
But those verdicts were quashed following the 2012 Hillsborough Independent Panel report, which concluded that a major cover-up had taken place in an effort by police and others to avoid the blame for what happened.
The jury of six women and three men at the fresh inquests in Warrington concluded that blunders by the police and ambulance service on the day “caused or contributed to” the disaster.
In response, Mr Crompton admitted the force got the policing of the match “catastrophically wrong” and “unequivocally” accepted the conclusions.
Rod Barnes, the current head of Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust, said he was “truly sorry” and admitted lives could have been saved if its response had been different.
Both organisations could face criminal prosecution as well as a number of individuals including overall match commander Mr Duckenfield.
He gave the order at 2.52pm to open exit Gate C in Leppings Lane, allowing around 2,000 fans into the already packed central pens behind the goal.
Operation Resolve, the continuing police inquiry into the events of the day and its leadup, and the probe by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) into the aftermath of the disaster, are due to send their final case files to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) by the end of the year.
Any decision on charges by the CPS is expected to follow within three to six months.
The jurors were told they could only reach the unlawful killing determination if they were sure of four “essential” matters, including whether a
breach of duty by Mr Duckenfield caused the deaths and it amounted to gross negligence. They concluded it was unlawful killing by a 7-2 majority, to the delight of families in the courtroom. The jury also found that: The police and the ambulance service caused or contributed to the loss of lives in the disaster by an error or omission after the terrace crush had begun to develop;
Policing of the match caused or contributed to a dangerous situation developing at the Leppings Lane turnstiles;
Commanding officers caused or contributed to the crush on the terrace, as did those senior officers in the police control box when the order was given to open the exit gates at Leppings Lane;
Features of the design, construction and layout of the stadium considered to be dangerous or defective caused or contributed to the disaster;
Sheffield Wednesday’s then consultant engineers, Eastwood & Partners, should have done more to detect and advise on any unsafe or unsatisfactory features of the stadium.
After the key conclusions, someone in court shouted: “God bless the jury.”
The jurors were given a round of applause as they left the courtroom.
Dozens of relatives of the victims have attended each of the more than 300 days the court has sat since it began on March 31, 2014.
At 4.10pm yesterday the court resumed for its final session, with coroner Sir John Goldring thanking the jury and paying tribute to the families of the 96 – who responded by giving him a round of applause.
Sir John, addressing the jurors, said: “You have devoted over two years of your lives to these inquests. Your commitment and diligence has been remarkable. I suspect I speak for most when I say how hugely impressed we have been.”
To the families, he said: “You could not have done more by your loved ones. You have done your duty by them.”
ACAREER high-flyer, disciplinarian and a worshipful master of his masonic lodge, former Chief Superindent David Duckenfield faithfully followed the “company line” at the 1989 Taylor Inquiry, denying police responsibility for the Hillsborough disaster.
But during evidence at the latest inquests, Mr Duckenfield “now very much older, very much wiser,” for the first time admitted he was simply the wrong man for the job.
The 71-year-old is now at risk of prosecution, for the second time, for his conduct at Hillsborough.
Mr Duckenfield has already been interviewed under caution by detectives from Operation Resolve, the on-going police investigation into the disaster.
After decades of denial Mr Duckenfield told the inquest he has been on a personal journey through bouts of depression, whisky drinking and doctors – his own “Road to Damascus” to face up to the truth.
A private prosecution in 2000 on charges of manslaughter and wilful malfeasance brought by the Hillsborough Family Support Group ended with the jury unable to reach a verdict and a retrial refused.
But at these inquests, amid a catalogue of admissions and repeated apologies, delivered in a gravelly Yorkshire accent, he had come finally to “tell the whole truth”.
That it took him 26 years to do so infuriated the families, some of whom stormed out of court in disgust.
A husband and father, Mr Duckenfield and wife Ann have lived in rural Dorset for the past two decades, settling in a village outside Bournemouth, after leaving his 28-year police career behind. He did not appear to be at the bungalow in Ferndown as the verdicts were delivered.
He was first suspended from duty on August 4, 1989 after the interim Taylor Report and retired on medical grounds two years later, to avoid pending disciplinary hearings.
He left South Yorkshire Police aged 46, reportedly with a £23,000 a year index-linked pension, retiring to the south coast to a life of relative obscurity and golf.
His career had begun aged 16 in 1960, as a cadet, before being appointed a constable on September 2, 1963. He received three commendations in four years and was promoted to sergeant at the age of 25, moving into CID and then on to the regional crime squad.
Mr Duckenfield became a Freemason in 1975, becoming the Worshipful Master of his local lodge.
He also steadily rose up the police ranks, made an inspector in 1974, chief inspector in 1977, superintendent in 1983 and chief superintendent on March 27, 1989 – three weeks before the disaster.
His promotion “out of the blue” to command F Division came in somewhat unusual circumstances.
Chief Supt Bob Mole, his predecessor, was shunted sideways because of some ill-discipline in the division. As Hillsborough was in F division, it became Mr Duckenfield’s responsibility and he was confident he could do the job.
His knowledge of the stadium was “basic” and his experience of football policing severely limited.
The new boss had just 15 working days to familiarise himself with his new role, a “serious mistake” he admitted later.
As police lost control at the turn- stiles, the man at the top “froze”, overcome by the sheer enormity of the situation they had got into.
Within minutes told a “terrible lie” that fans “got in through gates” or “stormed” them – not that he ordered them opened. The lie blaming the fans was on the airways and halfway around the world moments later; the truth would take more than two decades to catch up.
Mr Duckenfield went into denial at the enormity of his blunders, had difficulty sleeping and drank too much.
He said: “I clearly recall leading up to Lord Justice Taylor’s inquiry sitting in an armchair one morning when the sun was coming through the window and I was drinking half tumblers of whisky to find the courage to read the statements and that continued.”
Forced to “bury the bad to survive” he could not even bear to hear the word Hillsborough. With the assistance of doctors he made progress, and said had come to terms with reality as he apologised to the families. Their lawyers told him his words now were “too little, too late”.
Finally facing up to his part in the disaster, “has been the most difficult period of my life,” he said.
BARRY Devonside, who lost his only son Christopher, 18, in the Hillsborough disaster said he had “dreamt” of the moment a jury decided the 96 victims were unlawfully killed.
Mr Devonside, who has attended every day of the inquest, said: “Today we gained the confidence from the jury that what we’ve tried to do for 27 years is to bring justice for those who never went home.”
He added: “I never thought in my wildest dreams that we would get this decision. I always hoped and dreamt that we would get this decision. I’m glad we did. We did our best – we couldn’t do any more.”
He said the conclusions delivered by the jury were “far more than expected”, adding: “I’m so, so pleased.”
Tracey Church, who lost her brother Gary in the disaster, said she was overcome with emotion following the jury’s conclusion.
After holding up a red flag that read “We climbed the hill in our own way”, she said they had campaigned for “years and years” to get justice.
She added: “It’s surreal. (I feel) emotional, shaken, happy, sad – all mixed emotions.”
Gary, who was 19, had travelled from Seaforth to Sheffield.
Ms Church described her brother as “outgoing and hard-working”.
Mr Devonside said the families had been “determined to battle on” over the years despite the many knock-backs.
Married to his wife Jackie for 45 years, he said 27 of those years had been spent focusing on achieving justice for their son Christopher and the other 95 victims.
He said upon hearing the conclusion: “It was absolutely fantastic. You will not believe what we have gone through to achieve justice, having the attitude, the dogma to battle on - the knock-backs that we have had.
“We have never given in and we have done that for 96 people but I also include in that over 700 people who received serious, serious injuries. We have to remember those people.
“It was fantastic to hear those words and I thank the jury for what they have done for the last two years, they were superb.”
He added that the evidence, at times, had been “hard to swallow”.
“It’s been very difficult at times. We obviously think constantly of Christopher. He was a decent human being, but all of those people didn’t deserve to die in the circumstances – in those pens on 15 April 1989.
“It seems a lifetime ago, I know, but we were determined to battle home irrespective of the knockbacks that we have received.
“I can reflect along with my wife Jackie and say I don’t believe we could have done any more.”
Mr Devonside praised the jury. At the press conference, he said: “We want to thank the jury for their remarkable commitment to sitting on the case for more than two years.
“We understand the enormous emotional strain this can must have imposed on each member of the jury.”
Mr Devonside said South Yorkshire Police “failed to heed the les- sons” from “serious crushing incidents” both outside Leppings Lane entrances and terraces.
He referenced one incident in 1981 when 38 football supporters required hospital treatment.
Steve Kelly, whose brother Michael died in the crush, said “the jury have spoken, the 96 were unlawfully killed”.
“We are not surprised by the jury’s conclusion because it seems to us it was entirely inevitable given the weight of evidence of police failings in general ad the range of admissions Mr Duckenfield was driven to make in the course of his evidence.”
Lynsey Barker, daughter of Eric, said cameras recorded “substantial footage of supporters approaching the ground which comprehensively put to the sword the suggestion that Liverpool fans were badly behaved and drunk”.
“As bereaved families we wanted to know what had caused the disaster and who was responsible,” she said.
“If the disaster had truly been caused by a group of out of control drunk fans trying to break into the ground, we would have wanted to be the first to know. “But that was not the case.” Barrister Mark George read a statement on behalf of an unnamed family member who was too upset to deliver it themselves.
He said one of the “worst aspects for the bereaved” and survivors was
that the “supporters have been so vilified in the last 27 years”.
“They have been accused of not only causing the disaster, but impeding the rescue effort by abusing and urinating on emergency services.
“They were accused of stealing from the dead, all of those was untrue - wickedly so,” he read.
“Blaming the supporters was cowardly and dishonest, it caused untold distress to the bereaved families and to survivors - themselves traumatised and damaged by the disaster.”
Pete Weatherby QC who led the team representing the families, said that it had been a long journey for the families who had “striven tirelessly for 27 years to obtain the truth, to obtain justice and to make those responsible for the Hillsborough disaster accountable”.
He added: “That struggle was only necessary because of the gross negligence - as the jury had found, of the senior police officers and attempts to cover up the disaster.”
Anne Burkett, the mother of Peter, 24, who had travelled to the match with friends, said: “If Chief Superintendent Duckenfield had told the truth about what caused the disaster on the day it happened, if the police had truly accepted the conclusions of Lord Taylor’s report a few months after the disaster, we would not be here today. Instead they lied and blamed the fans.”
She said that the story of Hillsborough was one of “human tragedy”.
But she added: “It is also a story of deceit and lies, of institutional defensiveness defeating truth and justice. It is evidence of a culture of denial within South Yorkshire Police.”
Mr Weatherby paid tribute to the dignity and tenacity of the families in their campaign for justice – while not forgetting those who had passed away, which he said served as a “bitter reminder”.
He spoke of campaigner Anne Williams, mother of 15-year-old Kevin, who died before the Hillsborough miscarriage of justice could be righted and said she would have been proud to sit alongside the others.
He spoke of her telling him that upon listening to one senior South Yorkshire police officer talking about Hillsborough, she had said: “You will give up before I do”.
Mr Weatherby added: “The vindication of all the families is a testament to their tenacity and spirit. Truth will prevail. The Hillsborough disaster was entirely avoidable as the jury have found, it was no accident. It was caused by catastrophic human failure. Above all it was a catastrophic policing failure.”
Dorothy Griffiths, the sister of Vincent Fitzsimmons, said Sheffield Wednesday Football Club “also carry a significant burden of responsibility for the disaster”.
She said if the ground was to host big matches it need sufficient entrances “not the seven turnstiles which were to access 10,100 standing supporters at the Leppings Lane end”.
“If the ground was to have enclosures, cages, whatever pens three and four can be properly be described as, then it needed dedicated entrances and systems and monitoring to prevent too many people entering spaces from which there was no effective escape,” she said.