Hillsborough disaster

Hillsborough disaster

The Leppings Lane end inside Hillsborough Stadium during the disaster (goalposts centre)
Date 15 April 1989
Location Hillsborough Stadium
Sheffield, England
Coordinates 53°24′42″N 1°30′06″W / 53.41154°N 1.50154°W / 53.41154; -1.50154Coordinates: 53°24′42″N 1°30′06″W / 53.41154°N 1.50154°W / 53.41154; -1.50154
Deaths 96 (94 on 15 April)
Non-fatal injuries 766
Inquiries Taylor Report (1990)
Hillsborough Independent Panel (2012)
Coroner Stefan Popper (1st inquest)
Sir John Goldring (2nd inquest)

The Hillsborough disaster was a human crush that caused the deaths of 96 people and injured 766 others at a football match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at Hillsborough Stadium, Sheffield, England, on 15 April 1989. The match was the 1988–89 FA Cup semi-final, with Hillsborough, home ground of Sheffield Wednesday, selected as a neutral venue. The crush occurred in pens in the Leppings Lane stand, allocated to Liverpool fans. Steel fencing between the spectators and the playing field prevented victims from escaping the overcrowded western stand. At the time, such fencing was commonly used in English football stadiums to prevent friendly and hostile pitch invasions. The interim report in the 1989–90 official inquiry into the disaster by Lord Taylor said that "the main reason for the disaster was the failure of police control" by South Yorkshire Police.[1] In 2016, a new inquiry returned a verdict that the victims were unlawfully killed as a result of many reasons including poor police management, stadium design and maintenance and inadequate response by emergency services.[2]

Entry to the Leppings Lane stand was possible only via one of seven turnstiles, a restriction that led to dangerous overcrowding outside the ground before kick-off. In an attempt to ease pressure outside the ground, South Yorkshire Police chief superintendent David Duckenfield, the senior police officer responsible for policing the match, ordered an exit gate to be opened. The opened exit gate led to a tunnel marked "Standing", which led directly to the two already overcrowded enclosures. In previous years the tunnel had been closed off by police when the two central pens were full; however, on this occasion the tunnel was unmanned. The findings of the final report resulted in the elimination of standing terraces at all major football stadiums in England, Wales and Scotland. It remains the worst stadium-related disaster in the history of English sport, and one of the world's worst football disasters.[3]

On the 20th anniversary of the disaster, government minister Andy Burnham called for the police, ambulance and all other public agencies to release documents that had not been made available to Lord Justice Taylor in 1989.[4] This led to the formation of the Hillsborough Independent Panel, which in September 2012 concluded that Liverpool fans were not responsible for the deaths, and that attempts had been made by the authorities to conceal what happened.[5][6] The report revealed "multiple failures" by other emergency services and public bodies that contributed to the death toll. This led to a new inquest which, on 26 April 2016, returned a verdict that the supporters were unlawfully killed due to grossly negligent failures by police and ambulance services to fulfil their duty of care to the supporters. The inquest also found that the design of the stadium contributed to the crush, and that supporters were not to blame for the dangerous conditions.[2] The verdict was followed by calls for action regarding the police cover-up identified by the Hillsborough Independent Panel.[7][8] The South Yorkshire Police chief constable David Crompton was suspended[9] and a lawsuit against two police forces was launched by relatives of some of the deceased.[10]

Before the disaster

The West Stand of Sheffield Wednesday's Hillsborough Stadium, where the disaster unfolded

The venue

Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, the home of Sheffield Wednesday, was selected by the Football Association (FA) as a neutral venue to host the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest football clubs. Kick-off was scheduled for 3:00 pm on 15 April, and fans were advised to take up positions 15 minutes beforehand.

At the time of the disaster, most English football stadiums had high steel fencing between the spectators and the playing field in response to both friendly and hostile pitch invasions. Hooliganism had affected the sport for some years, and was particularly virulent in England.[11] From 1974, when these security standards were put in place, crushes occurred in several English stadiums.[12]

A report by Eastwood & Partners for a safety certificate for the stadium in 1978 concluded that although it failed to meet the recommendations of the Green Guide, a guide to safety at sports grounds, the consequences were minor. It emphasised the general situation at Hillsborough was satisfactory compared with most grounds.[5]:67

Risks associated with confining fans in pens were highlighted by the Committee of Inquiry into Crowd Safety at Sports Grounds (the Popplewell inquiry) after the Bradford City stadium fire in May 1985. It made recommendations on the safety of crowds penned within fences,[13] including that "all exit gates should be manned at all times ... and capable of being opened immediately from the inside by anyone in an emergency".[14]

Previous incidents

Hillsborough hosted five FA Cup semi-finals in the 1980s. A crush occurred at the Leppings Lane end of the ground during the 1981 semi-final between Tottenham Hotspur and Wolverhampton Wanderers after hundreds more spectators were permitted to enter the terrace than could safely be accommodated, resulting in 38 injuries, including broken arms, legs and ribs.[15] Police believed there had been a real chance of fatalities had swift action not been taken, and recommended the club reduce its capacity. In a post-match briefing to discuss the incident, Sheffield Wednesday chairman Bert McGee remarked: "Bollocks—no one would have been killed".[16][17] The incident nonetheless prompted Sheffield Wednesday to alter the layout at the Leppings Lane end, dividing the terrace into three separate pens to restrict sideways movement.[5] The terrace was divided into five pens when the club was promoted to the First Division in 1984, and a crush barrier near the access tunnel was removed in 1986 to improve the flow of fans entering and exiting the central enclosure. Its capacity remained unaltered and the safety certificate was not updated.[5] After the crush in 1981, Hillsborough was not chosen to host an FA Cup semi-final for six years until 1987.[5]

Serious overcrowding was observed at the 1987 quarter-final between Sheffield Wednesday and Coventry City[18] and again during the semi-final between Coventry City and Leeds United at Hillsborough.[19] A Leeds fan described disorganisation at the turnstiles and no steward or police direction inside the stadium, resulting in the crowd in one enclosure becoming so compressed he was at times unable to raise and clap his hands.[18] Other accounts told of fans having to be pulled to safety from above.[5]

Liverpool and Nottingham Forest met in the semi-final at Hillsborough in 1988, and fans reported crushing at the Leppings Lane end. Liverpool lodged a complaint before the match in 1989. One supporter wrote to the Football Association and Minister for Sport complaining, "The whole area was packed solid to the point where it was impossible to move and where I, and others around me, felt considerable concern for personal safety".[20] After changes to the ground's layout in 1981, its safety certificate became invalid and was not renewed. At the time of the disaster, the ground had no safety certificate.[21]

The disaster

Leppings Lane was the sole access point for Liverpool supporters. The approach has been described as a "bottleneck" in which attendees had to fill two sides of the stadium.[22]

Build-up

As is common at domestic matches in England, opposing supporters were segregated. Nottingham Forest supporters were allocated the South Stands and Spion Kop[lower-alpha 1] on the east end, with a combined capacity of 29,800, reached by 60 turnstiles spaced along two sides of the ground. Liverpool supporters were allocated the North and West ends (Leppings Lane), holding 24,256 fans, reached by 23 turnstiles from a narrow concourse. Ten turnstiles (numbered 1 to 10) provided access to 9,700 seats in the North Stand; a further 6 turnstiles (numbered 11 to 16) provided access to 4,456 seats in the upper tier of the West Stand. Finally, 7 turnstiles (lettered A to G) provided access to 10,100 standing places in the lower tier of the West Stand. Although Liverpool had more supporters, Nottingham Forest was allocated the larger area, to avoid the approach routes of rival fans crossing. As a result of the stadium layout and segregation policy, turnstiles that would normally have been used to enter the North Stand from the east were off-limits and all Liverpool supporters had to converge on a single entrance at Leppings Lane. On match day, radio and television advised fans without tickets not to attend.[23]

Three chartered trains transported Liverpool supporters to Sheffield for a match fixture[lower-alpha 2] in 1988, but only one such train ran in 1989. The 350 passengers arrived on the grounds about 2:20 pm.[24] Many supporters wished to enjoy the day and were in no hurry to enter the stadium too early. Some supporters were delayed by roadworks while crossing the Pennines on the M62 motorway which resulted in minor traffic congestion. Between 2:30 pm and 2:40 pm, there was a build-up of supporters outside the turnstiles facing Leppings Lane, eager to enter the stadium before the game began.[25]

A bottleneck developed with more fans arriving than could be safely filtered through the turnstiles before 3:00 pm. People presenting tickets at the wrong turnstiles and those who had been refused entry could not leave because of the crowd behind them but remained as an obstruction. Fans outside could hear cheering as the teams came on the pitch ten minutes before the match started, and as the match kicked off, but could not gain entrance. A police constable radioed control requesting that the game be delayed, as it had been two years before, to ensure the safe passage of supporters into the ground. The request was received but declined.[26]

With an estimated 5,000 fans trying to enter through the turnstiles and increasing safety concerns, the police, to avoid fatalities outside the ground, opened a large exit gate (Gate C) that ordinarily permitted the free flow of supporters departing the stadium. Two further gates (A and B) were subsequently opened to relieve pressure. After an initial rush, thousands of supporters entered the stadium "steadily at a fast walk".[27]

The scene outside the ground as the disaster began

The crush

When the gates were opened, thousands of fans entered a narrow tunnel leading to the rear of the terrace into two overcrowded central pens (pens 3 and 4), creating pressure at the front. Hundreds of people were pressed against one another and the fencing by the weight of the crowd behind them. People entering were unaware of the problems at the fence; police or stewards usually stood at the entrance to the tunnel and, when the central pens reached capacity, directed fans to the side pens, but on this occasion, for reasons not fully explained, did not.[28] A BBC TV news report conjectured that if police had positioned two police horses correctly, they would have acted as breakwaters directing many fans into side pens, but on this occasion, it was not done.

For some time, problems at the front of the pen went unnoticed, except by those affected, as attention was absorbed by the match. At 3:06 pm the referee, Ray Lewis, on the advice of the police, stopped the match after fans climbed the fence in an effort to escape the crush and went onto the track. By this time, a small gate in the fence had been forced open and some fans escaped via this route, as others continued to climb over the fencing. The police attempted to stop fans from spilling onto the pitch. Other fans were pulled to safety by fans in the West Stand above the Leppings Lane terrace. The intensity of the crush broke the crush barriers on the terraces. Holes in the perimeter fencing were made by fans desperately attempting to rescue others.[28]

Those trapped were packed so tightly in the pens that many victims died of compressive asphyxia while standing. The crowd in the Leppings Lane Stand overspilled onto the pitch, where many injured and traumatised fans congregated who had climbed to safety. Police, stewards and members of the St John Ambulance service were overwhelmed. Many uninjured fans assisted the injured; several attempted CPR and others tore down advertising hoardings to use as stretchers.[28] Chief Superintendent John Nesbit of South Yorkshire Police later briefed Michael Shersby MP that leaving the rescue to the fans was a deliberate strategy, and is quoted as saying "We let the fans help so that they would not take out their frustration on the police" at a Police Federation conference.[29]

Liverpool fans desperately try to climb the fence onto the safety of the pitch while being stopped by the police.

As events unfolded, some police officers were still deployed making a cordon three-quarters of the way down the pitch to prevent Liverpool supporters reaching the opposing supporters. Some fans tried to break through the cordon to ferry injured fans to waiting ambulances but were forcibly turned back. A total of 44 ambulances arrived, but police prevented all but one from entering the stadium.[30]

Only 14 of the 96 fatally injured people arrived at a hospital.[28]

BBC television cameras were at the ground to record the game for Match of the Day. As the disaster unfolded, the events were relayed live to the Saturday sports show, Grandstand. In Ireland, RTÉ also showed the disaster unfolding, as it was covering the match live through its programme Sports Stadium.[31]

Reactions

Condolences flooded in from across the world, led by the Queen. Other messages came from Pope John Paul II, US President George H. W. Bush, and the chief executive of Juventus (fans of Liverpool and Juventus were involved in the Heysel Stadium disaster) amongst many others.[32]

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Home Secretary Douglas Hurd visited Hillsborough the day after the disaster and met survivors.[33] Anfield Stadium was opened on the Sunday to allow fans to pay tribute to the dead. Thousands of fans visited and the stadium filled with flowers, scarves and other tributes.[32] In the following days more than 200,000 people visited the "shrine" inside the stadium.[34] The following Sunday, a link of football scarves spanning the 1.6 kilometres (0.99 mi) distance across Stanley Park from Goodison Park to Anfield was created, with the final scarf in position at 3:06 pm.[35] Elsewhere on the same day, a silence–opened with an air-raid siren at three o'clock–was held in central Nottingham with the colours of Forest, Liverpool and Wednesday adorning Nottingham Council House.[35]

At Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, a requiem mass attended by 3,000 people was held by the Catholic Archbishop of Liverpool, Derek Worlock. The first lesson was read by Liverpool goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar. Liverpool players Ronnie Whelan, Steve Nicol and former manager Joe Fagan carried the communion bread and wine.[36] David Sheppard, the Anglican Bishop of Liverpool, on holiday on the Scottish island of Barra on the day of the disaster, was airlifted by RAF helicopter to attend.

The FA chief executive Graham Kelly, who had attended the match, said the FA would conduct an inquiry into what had happened. Speaking after the disaster, Kelly backed all-seater stadiums, saying "We must move fans away from the ritual of standing on terraces".[33] Standing on terraces and the use of perimeter fencing around the pitch, the use of CCTV, the timing of football matches and policing of sporting events were factors for a subsequent inquiry to consider.[37]

UEFA President Jacques Georges caused controversy by describing the Liverpool supporters as "beasts",[38] wrongly suggesting that hooliganism was the cause of the disaster, which had occurred less than four years after the Heysel Stadium disaster. His remarks led to Liverpool F.C. calling for his resignation, but he apologised on discovering hooliganism was not the cause.[38]

At the 1989 FA Cup Final between Liverpool and local rivals Everton, held just five weeks after the Hillsborough disaster, the players from both participating teams wore black armbands as a gesture of respect to the victims,[39] with a minute's silence also observed.

During the final match of the 1988–89 English Football League season, contested on 26 May 1989 between Liverpool and second-place Arsenal, the Arsenal players presented flowers to fans in different parts of Anfield in memory of those who had died in the Hillsborough disaster.[40][41]

Disaster appeal fund

A disaster appeal fund was set up with donations of £500,000 from the Government, £100,000 from Liverpool F.C. and £25,000 each from the cities of Liverpool, Sheffield and Nottingham.[33] Liverpool donated the share of the money they would have received for the game.[32] Within days donations had passed £1 million,[34] swelled by donations from individuals, schools and businesses.[42] Other fund raising activities included a Factory Records benefit concert and several fundraising football matches. Bradford City and Lincoln City, the teams involved in the Bradford City stadium fire, met for the first time since the 1985 disaster in a game which raised £25,000. When the appeal closed the following year, it had raised over £12 million.[43] Much of the money went to victims and relatives of those involved in the disaster and provided funds for a college course to improve the hospital phase of emergency care.[44]

In May 1989, a charity version of the Gerry and the Pacemakers song "Ferry Cross the Mersey" was released in aid of those affected. The song featured Liverpool musicians Paul McCartney, Gerry Marsden (of the Pacemakers), Holly Johnson, and the Christians, and was produced by Stock Aitken Waterman. It entered the UK Singles Chart at number 1 on 20 May, remaining at the top for a total of three weeks.[45] Although Gerry and the Pacemakers' earlier hit "You'll Never Walk Alone" had stronger ties to Liverpool FC, it was not used because it had recently been rerecorded for the Bradford City stadium fire appeal.[46][47]

Effect on survivors

By the disaster's 10th anniversary in 1999, at least three people who survived were known to have committed suicide as a result of the emotional problems brought on by the disaster. Another survivor had spent eight years in psychiatric care. Numerous cases of alcoholism and drug abuse were also attributed to lingering effects from the disaster, and it contributed to the collapse of a number of marriages involving people who had witnessed the events.[48]

The Memorial to the fatalities of the Hillsborough disaster at Hillsborough Stadium

Victims

A total of 96 people died as a result of the disaster. On the day 94 people, aged from 10 to 67 years old, died as a result of their injuries, either at the stadium, in the ambulances, or shortly after arrival at hospital.[49] A total of 766 people were reported to have suffered injuries, although less than half required hospital treatment. The less seriously injured survivors who did not live in the Sheffield area were advised to seek treatment for their injuries at hospitals nearer to their homes.[50] On 19 April, the death toll reached 95 when 14-year-old Lee Nicol died in hospital after his life support machine was switched off.[51][52] The death toll reached 96 in March 1993, when artificial feeding and hydration were withdrawn from 22-year-old Tony Bland after nearly four years, during which time he had remained in a persistent vegetative state showing no sign of improvement. This followed a legal challenge in the High Court by his family to have his treatment withdrawn, a landmark challenge which succeeded in November 1992.

Andrew Devine, aged 22 at the time of the disaster, suffered similar injuries to Tony Bland and was also diagnosed as being in a persistent vegetative state. In March 1997—just before the eighth anniversary of the disaster—it was reported he had emerged from the condition and was able to communicate using a touch-sensitive pad, and he had been showing signs of awareness of his surroundings for up to three years before. He is still alive as of 2015.[53]

Two sisters, three pairs of brothers, and a father and son were among those who died,[49] as were two men about to become fathers for the first time: 25-year-old Steven Brown of Wrexham[54] and 30-year-old Peter Thompson of Widnes.[55] Jon-Paul Gilhooley, aged 10, was the youngest person to die. His cousin, Steven Gerrard, then aged 10, went on to become Liverpool F.C.'s captain. Gerrard has said the disaster inspired him to lead the team he supported as a boy and become a top professional football player.[56] The oldest person to die at Hillsborough was 67-year-old Gerard Baron, an older brother of the late Liverpool player Kevin Baron (1926–1971), who had been on the losing side in the 1950 FA Cup Final.

Stephen Whittle is considered by some to be the 97th victim of Hillsborough, as due to work commitments he had sold his ticket to a friend (who he and his family chose not to identify), with the resulting guilt believed to be the main reason for his suicide in February 2011.[57]

The majority of victims that lost their lives were from Liverpool (37) and Greater Merseyside (20). A further 20 were from counties adjacent to Merseyside. An additional 3 victims came from Sheffield with 2 more living in counties adjacent to South Yorkshire. The remaining 14 victims lived in other parts of England.

Ages

Of those who died, 78 were aged 30 or younger. 38 of the victims were children or teenagers, and all but three of them were aged under 50.[58]

Age range Total Males Females
10–19 38362
20–29 40364
30–39 12111
40–49 33-
50–59 11-
60–69 22-
Totals 96897

The Taylor Inquiry

Main article: Taylor Report

After the disaster, Lord Justice Taylor was appointed to conduct an inquiry into the events. The Taylor Inquiry sat for a total of 31 days and published two reports: an interim report which laid out the events of the day and immediate conclusions,[59] and the final report which outlined general recommendations on football ground safety. This became known as the Taylor Report.

Lord Justice Taylor concluded that "policing on 15 April broke down" and "although there were other causes, the main reason for the disaster was the failure of police control."[60] Attention was focused on the decision to open the secondary gates; moreover, the kick-off should have been delayed, as had been done at other venues and matches.

Sheffield Wednesday was criticised for the inadequate number of turnstiles at the Leppings Lane end and the poor quality of the crush barriers on the terraces, "respects in which failure by the Club contributed to this disaster."[61]

Police control

Taylor found there was "no provision" for controlling the entry of spectators into the turnstile area. Questioned why more action had not been taken to screen individuals and improve the flow of supporters approaching the stadium from the west "where the turnstile area was so small and awkwardly laid out", senior police officers responded that policy and practice had been no different from in the past, and they had no reason to anticipate problems as earlier events had proceeded without major incident. In fact, Taylor noted only two occasions when the entry at Leppings Lane had been the sole access to the north and west sides of the ground, at the 1987 and 1988 semi-finals, with evidence of congestion at both, but owing to good fortune and circumstance police policy "was not put to the same test and strain as a year later".

The senior police officers said it had never happened before so there was no reason to foresee it. In fact, the only two previous occasions when the Leppings Lane terraces had been used to fill the whole of the north and west sides of the ground were at the two semi-finals, in 1987 and 1988. In 1987, the match was on a Sunday scheduled for 12 noon, and kick-off was postponed for a quarter of an hour because of late arrivals.[62]
The need to open gate C was due to dangerous congestion at the turnstiles. That occurred because, as both Club and police should have realised, the turnstile area could not easily cope with the large numbers demanded of it unless they arrived steadily over a lengthy period. The Operational Order and police tactics on the day failed to provide for controlling a concentrated arrival of large numbers should that occur in a short period. That it might so occur was foreseeable and it did.[63]

As a result of the inadequate number of turnstiles, it has been estimated that it would have taken until 3:40 pm to get all ticket holders into the Leppings Lane end had an exit gate not been opened. Gate C was opened to let fans in, but the number of fans entering the terrace was not thought to have been more than the capacity of the entire standing area. Once inside the stadium, most fans entering the terraces headed for the central pens 3 and 4, as directed by a large sign above the access tunnel.

Since pens 3 and 4 were full by 2.50 pm, the tunnel should have been closed off whether gate C was to be opened or not. ... [I]t should have been clear in the control room where there was a view of the pens and of the crowd at the turnstiles that the tunnel had to be closed. If orders had been given to that effect when gate C was opened, the fans could have been directed to the empty areas of the wings and this disaster could still have been avoided. Failure to give that order was a blunder of the first magnitude.[64]

Standard procedure for league fixtures was to estimate the size of the visiting fan base, determine how many enclosures need to be opened, then fill each standing area one at a time.[65] For all-ticket games that had sold out, such as semi-final matches, a different approach was adopted whereby supporters were allowed to enter any enclosure they wished upon arrival. There was no mechanical or electronic means for calculating when individual enclosures had reached capacity. A police officer made a visual assessment before guiding fans to other pens.[66]

Whilst in theory the police would intervene if a pen became "full", in practice they permitted the test of fullness to be what the fans would tolerate. By 2.52 pm when gate C was opened, pens 3 and 4 were over-full even by this test. Many were uncomfortable. To allow any more into those pens was likely to cause injuries; to allow in a large stream was courting disaster.[67]

The official combined capacity of the central pens was 2,200, but the Health and Safety Executive found this should have been reduced to 1,693 as crush barriers and perimeter gates did not conform to the Green Guide.[68] It is estimated that more than 3,000 people were in the pens shortly after kick off at 3:00 pm. Overcrowding caused the fatal crush.

When spectators first appeared on the track, the immediate assumption in the control room was that a pitch invasion was threatened. This was unlikely at the beginning of a match. It became still less likely when those on the track made no move towards the pitch. ... [T]here was no effective leadership either from control or on the pitch to harness and organise rescue efforts. No orders were given for officers to enter the tunnel and relieve pressure.[69]
The anxiety to protect the sanctity of the pitch has caused insufficient attention to be paid to the risk of a crush due to overcrowding. Certain it was, that once the crush occurred on 15 April gates 3 and 4 were wholly inadequate for rescue purposes.[70]

Lord Taylor regarded spectator allocation irrelevant to the disaster. "I do not consider choice of ends was causative of the disaster. Had it been reversed, the disaster could well have occurred in a similar manner but to Nottingham supporters."[60]

Aggravating factors

There were (now discredited) accusations that the behaviour of Liverpool fans contributed to the disaster centred around consumption of alcohol before the game and attempts to enter the ground without a ticket. Although Lord Taylor acknowledged that these aggravated the situation, they were secondary factors. Witness estimates of the number of fans who were drunk varied from a minority to a large proportion of the crowd. Although it was clear many fans had been drinking, Lord Taylor unequivocally stated that most of them were: "not drunk, nor even the worse for drink". He concluded that they formed an exacerbating factor[25] and that police, seeking to rationalise their loss of control, overestimated the element of drunkenness in the crowd.[71]

The Hillsborough Independent Panel later noted that, despite being dismissed by the Taylor Report, the idea that alcohol contributed to the disaster proved remarkably durable. Documents later disclosed confirm that repeated attempts were made to find supporting evidence for alcohol being a factor, and that available evidence was significantly misinterpreted. It noted "The weight placed on alcohol in the face of objective evidence of a pattern of consumption modest for a leisure event was inappropriate. It has since fuelled persistent and unsustainable assertions about drunken fan behaviour."[72]

The possibility of fans attempting to gain entry without tickets or with forged tickets was suggested as a contributing factor. South Yorkshire Police suggested the late arrival of fans amounted to a conspiracy to gain entry without tickets. However, analysis of the electronic monitoring system, Health and Safety Executive analysis, and eyewitness accounts showed that the total number of people who entered the Leppings Lane end was below the official capacity of the stand. Eyewitness reports suggested that tickets were available on the day and tickets for the Leppings Lane end were on sale from Anfield until the day before. The report dismissed the conspiracy theory.[62]

Police evasion

Taylor concluded his criticism of South Yorkshire Police by describing senior officers in command as "defensive and evasive witnesses" who refused to accept any responsibility for error.

In all some 65 police officers gave oral evidence at the Inquiry. Sadly I must report that for the most part the quality of their evidence was in inverse proportion to their rank.[60]
It is a matter of regret that at the hearing, and in their submissions, the South Yorkshire Police were not prepared to concede they were in any respect at fault in what occurred. ... [T]he police case was to blame the fans for being late and drunk, and to blame the Club for failing to monitor the pens. ... Such an unrealistic approach gives cause for anxiety as to whether lessons have been learnt. It would have been more seemly and encouraging for the future if responsibility had been faced.[73]

Effect on stadiums in Britain

The New Den, opened in 1993, became the first new stadium fully compliant with the safety recommendations of the Taylor Report.

The Taylor Report had a deep impact on safety standards for stadiums in the UK. Perimeter and lateral fencing was removed and many top stadiums were converted to all-seated.[74] Purpose-built stadiums for Premier League and most Football League teams since the report are all-seater.[75] Chester City F.C.'s Deva Stadium was the first English football stadium to fulfil the safety recommendations of the Taylor Report, with Millwall F.C.'s The Den being the first new stadium to be built that fulfilled the recommendations.

Lord Taylor noted that the evidence he received was overwhelmingly in favour of more seating accommodation and that most was in favour of reversing the two-thirds to one-third standing-seating ratio.[76] His final report made 76 recommendations,[77] including a reduction in standing in line with this evidence but that, after a given timescale, all stadiums designated under the Safety of Sports Ground Act 1975 should admit spectators to seated accommodation only.[78] A number of his recommendations were not implemented, including all-seating for sports other than football.[79] The Football Spectators Act (1989) contained a regulation requiring football grounds to become all-seated as directed by the Secretary of State.[80] This was to be overseen by the Football Licensing Authority[81] (now the Sport Grounds Safety Authority).

In July 1992, the government announced a relaxation of the regulation for the lower two English leagues (known now as League One and League Two). The Football Spectators Act does not cover Scotland, but the Scottish Premier League chose to make all-seater stadiums a requirement of league membership.[82] The regulations were however applied to Berwick Rangers, a team located in England and playing in Scotland's national leagues.[83] In England and Wales all-seating is a requirement of the Premier League[84] and of the Football League for clubs who have been present in the Championship for more than three seasons.[85] Several campaigns have been active in attempting to get the government to relax the regulation and allow standing areas to return to Premiership and Championship grounds.[86]

Stuart-Smith scrutiny

In May 1997, when the Labour Party came into office, Home Secretary Jack Straw ordered an investigation. It was performed by Lord Justice Stuart-Smith.[87] The appointment of Stuart-Smith was not without controversy. At a meeting in Liverpool with relatives of those involved in Hillsborough in October 1997, he flippantly remarked "Have you got a few of your people or are they like the Liverpool fans, turn up at the last minute?"[87] He later apologised for his remark, saying it was not intended to offend.[87] The terms of reference of his inquiry were limited to "new evidence", that is "...evidence which was not available or was not presented to the previous inquires, courts or authorities."[87] Therefore, evidence such as witness statements which had been altered were classed as inadmissible. When he presented his report in February 1998, he concluded that there was insufficient evidence for a new inquiry into the disaster. In paragraph 5 of his summary, Lord Justice Stuart-Smith said:

I have come to the clear conclusion that there is no basis upon which there should be a further Judicial Inquiry or a reopening of Lord Taylor's Inquiry. There is no basis for a renewed application to the Divisional Court or for the Attorney General to exercise his powers under the Coroners Act 1988. I do not consider that there is any material which should be put before the Director of Public Prosecutions or the Police Complaints Authority which might cause them to reconsider the decisions they have already taken. Nor do I consider that there is any justification for setting up any further inquiry into the performance of the emergency and hospital services. I have considered the circumstances in which alterations were made to some of the self-written statements of South Yorkshire Police officers, but I do not consider that there is any occasion for any further investigation.[88]

Importantly, Stuart-Smith's report supported the coroner's assertion that evidence after 3.15 pm was inadmissible as "that by 3.15 pm the principal cause of death, that is, the crushing, was over."[89] This was controversial as the subsequent response of the police and emergency services would not be scrutinised. Announcing the report to the House of Commons, Home Secretary Jack Straw backed Stuart-Smith's findings and said that "I do not believe that a further inquiry could or would uncover significant new evidence or provide any relief for the distress of those who have been bereaved."[89] However the determination by Stuart-Smith was heavily criticised by the Justice Minister, Lord Falconer, who stated "I am absolutely sure that Sir Murray Stuart-Smith came completely to the wrong conclusion".[90] Falconer added: "It made the families in the Hillsborough disaster feel after one establishment cover-up, here was another."[90]

Hillsborough Independent Panel

The Hillsborough Independent Panel was instituted by the British government to investigate the Hillsborough disaster with the remit to oversee the disclosure of thousands of documents about the disaster and its aftermath and to produce a report illustrating how the information disclosed added to public understanding of the disaster and its aftermath. On 12 September 2012 it published its report and simultaneously launched a website containing 450,000 pages of material[91] collated from 85 organisations and individuals[92] over two years.[93]

History of the panel

In the years after the disaster there was a feeling that the full facts were not in the public domain and a suspicion that some facts were deliberately covered up. The Hillsborough Family Support Group, led by Trevor Hicks, campaigned for the release of all relevant documents. After the disaster's 20th anniversary in April 2009, supported by the Culture secretary, Andy Burnham, and Minister of State for Justice, Maria Eagle, the government asked the Home Office and Department of Culture, Media and Sport to investigate the best way for this information to be made public.[94]

In December 2009, Home Secretary Alan Johnson announced the formation of the Hillsborough Independent Panel with a remit to oversee "full public disclosure of relevant government and local information within the limited constraints set out in the disclosure protocol" and "consult with the Hillsborough families to ensure that the views of those most affected by the disaster are taken into account".[94] An archive of all relevant documentation would be created and a report produced within two years explaining the work of the panel and its conclusions.

The panel was chaired by James Jones, the Bishop of Liverpool. Other members were:[95]

Findings

On 12 September 2012, the Hillsborough Independent Panel[96] concluded that no Liverpool fans were responsible in any way for the disaster,[97] and that its main cause was a "lack of police control". Crowd safety was "compromised at every level" and overcrowding issues had been recorded two years earlier. The panel concluded that "up to 41" of the 96 who perished might have survived had the emergency services' reactions and co-ordination been improved.[98] The number is based on post-mortem examinations which found some victims may have had heart, lung or blood circulation function for some time after being removed from the crush. The report stated that placing fans who were "merely unconscious" on their backs rather than in the recovery position, would have resulted in their deaths due to airway obstruction.[99]

The findings concluded that 164 witness statements had been altered. Of those statements, 116 were amended to remove or change negative comments about South Yorkshire Police. South Yorkshire Police had performed blood alcohol tests on the victims, some of them children, and ran computer checks on the national police database in an attempt to "impugn their reputation".[100] The report concluded that the then Conservative MP for Sheffield Hallam, Irvine Patnick, passed inaccurate and untrue information from the police to the press.[101][102]

Effects

Subsequent apologies were released by Prime Minister David Cameron on behalf of the government,[103] Ed Miliband on behalf of the opposition,[104] Sheffield Wednesday Football Club, South Yorkshire Police, and former editor of The Sun, Kelvin MacKenzie, who apologised for writing the headline "The Truth".[105] MacKenzie said he should have written a headline that read "The Lies", although this apology was widely discredited by the Hillsborough Family Support Group and Liverpool fans, as it was seen to be "shifting the blame once again."[105]

After publication, the Hillsborough Families Support Group called for new inquests for the victims.[106] They also called for prosecutions for unlawful killing, corporate manslaughter and perversion of the course of justice in respect of the actions of the police both in causing the disaster and covering up their actions; and in respect of Sheffield Wednesday FC, Sheffield Council and the Football Association for their various responsibilities for providing, certifying and selecting the stadium for the fatal event.[107]

Calls were made for the resignation of police officers involved in the cover-up, and for Sheffield Wednesday, the police and the Football Association to admit their blame.[108][109][110][111] Calls were also made for Sir Dave Richards to resign as chairman of the Premier League and give up his knighthood as a result of his conduct at Sheffield Wednesday at the time of the disaster.[112] The Home Secretary called for investigations into law-breaking and promised resources to investigate individual or systematic issues.[113]

South Yorkshire police announced it would refer the actions of its officers to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).[114] West Yorkshire Police announced it would refer its Chief Constable, Sir Norman Bettison, to the IPCC in mid September; in early October, Bettison announced his retirement, becoming the first senior figure to step down since publication of the report.[115][116][117]

The IPCC announced on 12 October 2012 it would investigate the failure of the police to declare a major incident, failure to close the tunnel to the stands which led to overcrowded pens despite evidence it had been closed in such circumstances in the past; changes made to the statements of police officers; actions which misled Parliament and the media; shortcomings of previous investigations; and the role played by Norman Bettison. Separately the Director of Public Prosecutions announced a review of evidence, including from the HIP Report, to determine if criminal charges, including charges of corporate manslaughter arising out of gross negligence, should be brought by the Crown Prosecution Service against South Yorkshire police, Sheffield Wednesday Football Club, Sheffield City Council, the Football Association, or individuals.

The IPCC investigation amounted to the biggest independent review of the police ever conducted; by 22 October 2012, the names of at least 1,444 serving and former police officers had been referred. In its announcement, the IPCC praised the tenacity of the Hillsborough families' campaign for truth and justice.[118][119][120][121][122] On 16 October 2012, the Attorney General announced in Parliament he has applied to have the original inquest verdict quashed, arguing it proceeded on a false basis and evidence now to hand requires this exceptional step.[123]

On 23 October 2012, Norman Bettison resigned with immediate effect as Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police, after Maria Eagle MP on the floor of the House and protected by Parliamentary privilege, accused him of boasting about concocting a story that all the Liverpool fans were drunk and police were afraid they were going to break down the gates and decided to open them.[124][125][126] Bettison denied the claim, and other allegations about his conduct, saying: "Fans' behaviour, to the extent that it was relevant at all, made the job of the police, in the crush outside Leppings Lane turnstiles, harder than it needed to be. But it didn't cause the disaster any more than the sunny day that encouraged people to linger outside the stadium as kick off approached. I held those views then, I hold them now. I have never, since hearing the Taylor evidence unfold, offered any other interpretation in public or private."[127] Merseyside Police Authority confirmed that Bettison would receive an £83,000 pension, unless convicted of a criminal offence. Hillsborough families called for the payments to be frozen during the IPCC investigation.[128] In the same 22 October House of Commons debate, Stephen Mosley MP alleged West Midlands police pressured witnesses—both police and civilians—to change their statements.[129] Maria Eagle confirmed her understanding that WMP actions in this respect would be the subject of IPCC scrutiny.[124]

On 12 July 2013 it was reported that the IPCC had found that in addition to the now 164 police statements known to have been altered, a further 55 police officers had changed their statements. Deborah Glass, deputy chair of the IPCC said, "We know the people who have contacted us are the tip of the iceberg." That was after the IPCC's Hillsborough Contact team had received 230 pieces of correspondence since October 2012. The IPCC also expected to launch a public appeal for more witnesses to come forward in the autumn of 2013. The IPCC investigation into how the West Midlands Police investigated South Yorkshire Police's conduct is also ongoing.[130]

The Hillsborough memorial at Anfield

Memorials

Permanent memorials

Several memorials have been erected in memory of the victims of the Hillsborough disaster; all are listed below:

The Memorial at Old Haymarket, Liverpool

Memorial ceremonies

The disaster has been acknowledged on 15 April each year by the community in Liverpool and football in general. An annual memorial ceremony is held at Anfield and at a church in Liverpool. The 10th and 20th anniversaries were marked by special services to remember the victims.

Since 2007 there has been a Hillsborough Memorial service held at Spion Kop, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The significance of this ceremony is that it is held on the Spion Kop Battlefield which gave its name to the Kop Stand at Anfield. There is a permanent memorial to the 96 fans who died, in the form of a bench in view of the battlefield at a nearby lodge. Dean Davis and David Walters, members of the Official South African Liverpool Supporters Club (Gauteng Branch), are responsible for the service and the bench was commissioned by Guy Prowse in 2008.

The FA decided all FA Cup, Premier League, Football League and Football Conference matches 11–14 April 2014 would kick-off seven minutes later than originally scheduled with a six-minute delay and a one-minute silence tribute.[131]

10th anniversary

In 1999 Anfield was packed with a crowd of around 10,000 people ten years after the disaster.[132] A candle was lit for each of the 96 victims. The clock at the Kop End stood still at 3:06 pm, the time that the referee had blown his whistle in 1989 and a minute's silence was held, the start signalled by match referee from that day, Ray Lewis. A service led by the Right Reverend James Jones, the Bishop of Liverpool, was attended by past and present Liverpool players, including Robbie Fowler, Steve McManaman and Alan Hansen. According to the BBC report: "The names of the victims were read from the memorial book and floral tributes were laid at a plaque bearing their names."[133] A gospel choir performed and the ceremony ended with a rendition of "You'll Never Walk Alone". The anniversary was also marked by a minute's silence at the weekend's league games and FA Cup semi-finals.

20th anniversary

Liverpool fans unfurl a banner displaying the names of the deceased on the 20th anniversary of the disaster

In 2009, on the 20th anniversary of the disaster, Liverpool's request that their Champions League quarter-finals return leg, scheduled for 15 April, be played the day before was granted.[134]

The event was remembered with a ceremony at Anfield attended by over 28,000 people.[135][136] The Kop, Centenary and Main Stands were opened to the public before part of the Anfield Road End was opened to supporters. The memorial service, led by the Bishop of Liverpool began at 14:45 BST and a two-minute silence (observed across Liverpool and in Sheffield and Nottingham, including public transport coming to a stand-still)[137][138] was held at the time of the disaster twenty years earlier, 15:06 BST. Sports Minister Andy Burnham addressed the crowd but was heckled by supporters chanting "Justice for the 96".[139] The ceremony was attended by survivors of the disaster, families of victims and the Liverpool team, with goalkeeper Pepe Reina leading the team and management staff onto the pitch. Team captain Steven Gerrard and vice-captain Jamie Carragher handed the freedom of the city to the families of all the victims. Candles were lit for each of the 96 people who died. Kenny Dalglish, Liverpool's manager at the time of the disaster, read a passage from the Bible, "Lamentations of Jeremiah". The Liverpool manager, Rafael Benítez, set 96 balloons free. The ceremony ended with 96 rings of church bells across the city and a rendition of "You'll Never Walk Alone".[140]

Other services took place at the same time, including at Liverpool's Anglican and Catholic Cathedrals. After the two minutes' silence, bells on civic buildings rang out throughout Merseyside.[141]

A song was released to mark the 20th anniversary, entitled "Fields of Anfield Road" which peaked at No. 14 in the UK charts.[142]

Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United players showed respect by wearing black armbands during their Champions League matches on 14 and 15 April.

On 14 May, more than 20,000 people packed Anfield for a match held in memory of the victims. The Liverpool Legends, comprising ex-Liverpool footballers beat the All Stars, captained by actor Ricky Tomlinson, 3–1. The event also raised cash for the Marina Dalglish Appeal which was contributed towards a radiotherapy centre at University Hospital in Aintree.[143][144]

With the imminent release of police documents relating to events on 15 April 1989, the Hillsborough Family Support Group launched Project 96, a fundraising initiative on 1 August 2009. At least 96 current and former Liverpool footballers are being lined up to raise £96,000 by auctioning a limited edition (of 96) signed photographs.

On 11 April 2009 Liverpool fans sang "You'll Never Walk Alone" as a tribute to the upcoming anniversary of the disaster before the home game against Blackburn Rovers (which ended in Liverpool winning 4–0) and was followed by former Liverpool player, Stephen Warnock presenting a memorial wreath to the Kop showing the figure 96 in red flowers.

Tributes from other clubs

The Hillsborough disaster touched not only Liverpool, but clubs in England and around the world.[145] Supporters of Everton, Liverpool's traditional local rivals, were affected, many of them having lost friends and family. Supporters laid down flowers and blue and white scarves to show respect for the dead and unity with fellow Merseysiders.

On 19 April 1989, the Wednesday after the disaster, the European Cup semi-final tie between A.C. Milan and Real Madrid was played. The referee blew his whistle two minutes into the game to stop play and hold a minute's silence for those who lost their lives at Hillsborough.[146] Halfway through the minute's silence, the A.C. Milan fans sang Liverpool's "You'll Never Walk Alone" as a sign of respect.[147][148] In April 1989, Bradford City and Lincoln City held a friendly match to benefit the victims of Hillsborough. The occasion was the first in which the two teams had met since the 1985 Bradford City stadium fire that had claimed 56 lives at Valley Parade.[149]

On 30 April 1989 a match organised by Celtic F.C. was played at Celtic Park, Glasgow between the home club and Liverpool, the proceeds going to the Hillsborough fund. Liverpool won the match by four goals to nil.[150]

As a result of the disaster, Liverpool's scheduled fixture against Arsenal[lower-alpha 2] was delayed from 23 April until the end of the season and eventually decided the league title. At this fixture, Arsenal players brought flowers onto the pitch and presented them to the Liverpool fans around the stadium before the game commenced.

Charges against officials

Inquests

First hearing

Inquests into the deaths, commencing later in 1989, proved controversial. South Yorkshire coroner Stefan Popper limited the main inquest to events up to 3:15 pm on the day of the disaster – nine minutes after the match was halted and the crowd spilled onto the pitch. Popper said this was because the victims were either dead, or brain dead, by 3:15 pm. The decision angered the families, many of whom felt the inquest was unable to consider the response of the police and other emergency services after that time.[151] The inquest returned a verdict of accidental death on 26 March 1991, much to the dismay of the bereaved families, who had been hoping for a verdict of unlawful killing or an open verdict, and for manslaughter charges to be brought against the officers who had been present at the disaster. Popper's decision was subsequently endorsed by the Divisional Court who considered it to have been justified in the light of the medical evidence available to him.[152] Relatives later failed to have the inquest reopened to allow more scrutiny of police actions and closer examination of the circumstances of individual cases.

On 19 April 2009, the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith announced she had requested secret files concerning the disaster should be made public.[153] On 8 March 2011 the Hillsborough Independent Panel announced it would examine previously hidden documents to determine what took place after the 3:15 pm cutoff imposed during the inquest in 1991. A HIP spokesman said: "We have a wide remit to analyse all documents relating to the context, circumstances and consequences of the tragedy and its aftermath."[154] A governmental e-petition attracted over 139,000 signatories on 17 October 2011,[155] and parliament agreed to debate the full release of cabinet documents relating to the disaster to the public.[156] During a debate in the House of Commons, the Labour MP for Liverpool Walton, Steve Rotheram, read out a list of the victims and, as a result, the names were entered into Hansard – the official publication of printed scripts of all House of Commons debates.[157][158]

One of the individual cases where the circumstances of death were not fully resolved was that of Kevin Williams, the fifteen-year-old son of Anne Williams. Williams, who died in 2013, rejected the coroner's decision that the Hillsborough victims, including her son, had died before 3:15 pm, citing witness statements that described her son showing signs of life at 4:00 pm. She unsuccessfully appealed to the European Court of Human Rights in 2009.[159] The Hillsborough Independent Panel considered the available evidence and stated that "the initial pathologist's opinion appeared definitive, but further authoritative opinions raised significant doubts about the accuracy of that initial opinion."[5]:313

Second hearing

Following an application by the Attorney-General, in December 2012 the High Court quashed the verdicts in the original inquests and ordered fresh inquests to be held.[160] Sir John Goldring was appointed as Assistant Coroner for South Yorkshire (East) and West Yorkshire (West) to conduct those inquests. The inquest hearings started on Monday 31 March 2014 at Warrington. Transcripts of the proceedings and evidence that was produced during the hearings were published at the Hillsborough Inquests official website.[161] On 6 April 2016, the nine jurors were sent out to consider their verdicts. These were formally given to the inquest at 11:00 on 26 April 2016.[162] The jury returned a verdict of unlawful killing in respect of all 96 victims (by majority verdict of 7–2).[163] Upon receiving the April 2016 verdict, Hillsborough Family Support Group chair Margaret Aspinall, whose 18-year-old son James was killed 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.[164][165][166]

Prime Minister David Cameron also responded to the April 2016 verdict by saying that it represented a "long overdue" but "landmark moment in the quest for justice", adding "All families and survivors now have official confirmation of what they always knew was the case, that the Liverpool fans were utterly blameless in the disaster that unfolded at Hillsborough."[167] The Labour Party described the handling of the Hillsborough disaster as the "greatest miscarriage of justice of our times", with Labour MPs Andy Burnham and Steve Rotheram calling for accountability and the prosecution of those responsible.[168][169] Liberal Democrat MP John Pugh called for David Cameron to make a formal apology in the House of Commons to the families of those killed at Hillsborough and to the city of Liverpool as a whole.[167]

Kelvin MacKenzie, who wrote the now-infamous "The Truth" front page for the Sun, said that although he was "duped" into publishing his story, that his "heart goes out" to the families of those affected, saying that "It's quite clear today the fans had nothing to do with it". However, MacKenzie did not accept any personal responsibility for what happened.[170][171]

Prosecutions

A private prosecution was brought against Chief Superintendent David Duckenfield and another officer, Bernard Murray. Prosecutor Alun Jones told the court that Duckenfield gave the order to open the gates so that hundreds of fans could be herded on to the already crowded terraces at the stadium. Jones stated that minutes after the disaster, Duckenfield "deceitfully and dishonestly" told senior FA officials that the supporters had forced the gate open. Duckenfield admitted he had lied in certain statements regarding the causes of the disaster. Other officers, including Norman Bettison, were accused of manipulating evidence. Bettison was later appointed Chief Constable of Merseyside in controversial circumstances. The prosecution ended on 24 July 2000, when Murray was acquitted and the jury was unable to reach a verdict in the case of Duckenfield. On 26 July 2000, the judge refused the prosecution's application for a re-trial of Duckenfield.

Police disciplinary charges were abandoned when Duckenfield retired on health grounds, and because he was unavailable, it was decided it would be unfair to proceed with disciplinary charges against Bernard Murray. Duckenfield took medical retirement on a full police pension.[172][173][174]

In the wake of the decision, Home Secretary Theresa May announced on 18 December 2012 that a new police enquiry would be initiated to examine the possibility of charging agencies other than the police over the deaths of the 96 Liverpool fans who lost their lives at Hillsborough.[175] The enquiry was headed by former Durham Chief Constable Jon Stoddart.

On 19 December 2012, Attorney General Dominic Grieve made an application to the High Court following the findings laid out in the report by the Hillsborough Panel. The decision set out by Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge quashed the original inquest verdicts.[176] The ruling came after revelations from the Hillsborough panel's findings showed police and emergency services had made "strenuous attempts" to deflect the blame for the disaster on to the fans which included alteration of more than 160 police statements where 116 of them were so altered with the intent to remove or change negative comments about the policing of the match.

Following the unlawful killing verdict at the second inquest, the Crown Prosecution Service announced that it would formally consider bringing charges against both individuals and corporate bodies once the criminal investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission – Operation Resolve – had been completed.[177]

Psychiatric injury and other litigation

Various negligence cases were brought against the police by spectators who had been at the ground but had not been in the pens, and by people who watched the incident unfolding on television (or heard about it on the radio). A case, Alcock v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police [1992] 1 A.C. 310, was eventually appealed to the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords and was an important milestone in the law of claims of secondary victims for negligently inflicted psychiatric injury. It was held that claimants who watched the disaster on television/listened on radio were not 'proximal' and their claims were rejected.

Another psychiatric injury claim was brought to the House of Lords, White v Chief Constable of the South Yorkshire Police [1999] 2 A.C. 455. It was brought by police officers on duty against the Chief Constable who was said to have been vicariously liable for the disaster. Their claims were dismissed and the Alcock decision was upheld. It affirmed the position of the courts once again towards claims of psychiatric injuries of secondary victims.

A third legal case which resulted from the Hillsborough disaster was Airedale N.H.S. Trust v Bland [1993] A.C. 789, a landmark House of Lords decision in English criminal law, that allowed the life-support machine of Tony Bland, a Hillsborough victim in a persistent vegetative state, to be switched off.

Controversies

Media portrayal

Initial media outlets – spurred by what Phil Scraton calls in Hillsborough: The Truth the "Heysel factor" (after the Heysel Stadium disaster) and "hooligan hysteria" – began to shift the onus of blame onto the behaviour of the Liverpool fans at Hillsborough stadium, turning the issue into a public order issue.[178] Although Kelvin MacKenzie's "The Truth" article on 19 April 1989 is the most infamous, it was not the only newspaper to publish these allegations; the Daily Star headline on the same day said "Dead fans robbed by drunk thugs"; the Daily Mail accused the Liverpool fans of being "drunk and violent and their actions were vile", and The Daily Express ran a story alleging that "Police saw 'sick spectacle of pilfering from the dying'." and even broadsheet reporters such as Peter McKay in the Evening Standard wrote that the "catastrophe was caused first and foremost by violent enthusiasm for soccer and in this case the tribal passions of Liverpool supporters [who] literally killed themselves and others to be at the game"[179][180] and published a front page headline "Police attack 'vile' fans" on 18 April 1989, in which police sources blamed the behaviour of a section of Liverpool fans for the disaster.[181]

In the regional newspapers, the Liverpool Daily Post wrote in an article titled "I Blame the Yobs"[182] that "The gatecrashers wreaked their fatal havoc ... Their uncontrolled fanaticism and mass hysteria ... literally squeezed the life out of men, women and children ... yobbism at its most base ... Scouse killed Scouse for no better reason than 22 men were kicking a ball";[179][180] the Manchester Evening News wrote that the "Anfield Army charged on to the terrace behind the goal – many without tickets", and the Yorkshire Post wrote that the "trampling crush" had been started by "thousands of fans" who were "latecomers ... forc[ing] their way into the ground".[178] The Sheffield Star published similar allegations to The Sun, running the headline "Fans in Drunken Attacks on Police".[182]

Many of the more serious allegations – such as stealing from the dead and assault of police officers and rescue workers – appeared on 18 April,[178] although several evening newspapers published on 15 April 1989 also gave inaccurate reporting of the disaster. This included the Wolverhampton-based Express & Star, which reported that the match had been cancelled as a result of a pitch invasion in which many fans were injured. These early media reports of the disaster were published before the full extent of the disaster or its circumstances had been realised.[183] This media coverage and others were examined and scrutinised during the 2012 Hillsborough Independent Panel report.[180]

The Sun

The false allegations on the front page of The Sun on 19 April 1989

On 19 April, four days after the disaster, Kelvin MacKenzie, editor of The Sun, ordered "The Truth" as the front page headline, followed by three sub-headlines: "Some fans picked pockets of victims", "Some fans urinated on the brave cops" and "Some fans beat up PC giving kiss of life". Mackenzie reportedly spent two hours deciding on which headline to run; his original instinct being for "You Scum" before eventually deciding on "The Truth".[184]

The information was provided to the newspaper by Whites News Agency in Sheffield;[185] the newspaper cited the words of police inspector Gordon Sykes,[186] unnamed police officers and local Conservative MP Irvine Patnick for information relating to the alleged incidents.[187][188] The Daily Express also carried Patnick's version, under the headline "Police Accuse Drunken Fans" and giving Patnick's views, saying he had told Margaret Thatcher, while escorting her on a tour of the ground after the disaster, of the "mayhem caused by drunks" and that policemen told him they were "hampered, harassed, punched and kicked".[189]

The story accompanying The Sun headlines claimed "drunken Liverpool fans viciously attacked rescue workers as they tried to revive victims" and "police officers, firemen and ambulance crew were punched, kicked and urinated upon". A quotation, attributed to an unnamed policeman, claimed a dead girl had been "abused", and that Liverpool fans were "openly urinating on us and the bodies of the dead".[190] These allegations contradicted the behaviour of many Liverpool fans, who helped security personnel stretcher away a large number of victims and gave first aid to many of the injured.[191] The Guardian wrote that "The claim that supporters higher up the Leppings Lane terrace had urinated on police pulling bodies out of the crush appeared to have roots in the fact that those who were dying or sustaining serious injuries suffered compression asphyxia and many involuntarily urinated, vomited and emptied their bowels as they were crushed."[192]

In their history of The Sun,[193] Peter Chippendale and Chris Horrie wrote:

As MacKenzie's layout was seen by more and more people, a collective shudder ran through the office (but) MacKenzie's dominance was so total there was nobody left in the organisation who could rein him in except Murdoch. (Everyone in the office) seemed paralysed—"looking like rabbits in the headlights"—as one hack described them. The error staring them in the face was too glaring. It obviously wasn't a silly mistake; nor was it a simple oversight. Nobody really had any comment on it—they just took one look and went away shaking their heads in wonder at the enormity of it. It was a 'classic smear'.

After The Sun's report, the newspaper was boycotted by most newsagents in Liverpool and many readers cancelled their orders and refused to buy it from newsagents. The Hillsborough Justice Campaign organised a less successful national boycott that had some impact on the paper's sales, which some commentators considered a reason for continued price cuts, the introduction of free magazines, and video and free DVD offers.[194] The issue was addressed on the documentary Alexei Sayle's Liverpool on BBC Two when it covered the subject of Hillsborough.[195] The segment saw comedian Alexei Sayle with a newsagent attempting to give away copies of The Sun, but every customer declined. Eventually, Sayle and the newsagent took the copies outside and set them alight.

MacKenzie explained his actions in 1993. Talking to a House of Commons National Heritage Select Committee, he said: "I regret Hillsborough. It was a fundamental mistake. The mistake was I believed what an MP said. It was a Tory MP. If he had not said it and the Chief Superintendent had not agreed with it, we would not have gone with it."[196]

MacKenzie retracted the apology in November 2006, saying he apologised because the newspaper's owner, Rupert Murdoch, had ordered him to do so, stating: "I was not sorry then and I'm not sorry now".[197] MacKenzie refused to apologise when appearing on the BBC's topical Question Time on 11 January 2007.[198]

The Sun apologised for its treatment of the Hillsborough disaster "without reservation" in a full page opinion piece on 7 July 2004, saying it had "committed the most terrible mistake in its history" by publishing it. The newspaper apologised in response to criticism of Wayne Rooney, a Liverpool-born footballer who then played for Everton, who had sold his life story to the newspaper.[199] Rooney's actions incensed Liverpudlians still angry with the newspaper whose apology was somewhat bullish, saying the "campaign of hate" against Rooney was organised in part by the Liverpool Daily Post & Echo, owned by Trinity Mirror—arch-rivals of The Sun. The apology angered some Liverpudlians further. The Liverpool Echo did not accept the apology, calling it "shabby" and "an attempt, once again, to exploit the Hillsborough dead".[200]

Poster urging the Liverpool public not to purchase The Sun newspaper

On 6 January 2007, during Liverpool's FA Cup match at Anfield, fans in the Kop held up coloured cards spelling out "The Truth" and chanted "Justice for the 96" for six minutes at the start of the game. The protest was directed at Kelvin MacKenzie, The Sun, and the BBC for employing MacKenzie.

The controversy was referred to at the 2009 Labour Party conference. On 30 September 2009, after the decision by The Sun to switch support to the Conservative Party in advance of the 2010 general election, Union Leader Tony Woodley ripped up a copy saying "In Liverpool we learnt a long time ago what to do."[201]

James Murdoch made a full apology for The Sun's coverage when he appeared at a hearing of the House of Commons Select Committee dealing with the News International phone hacking scandal in 2012.[202]

On 12 September 2012, after the publication of the report exonerating the Liverpool fans, MacKenzie issued the following statement:

Today I offer my profuse apologies to the people of Liverpool for that headline. I too was totally misled. Twenty-three years ago I was handed a piece of copy from a reputable news agency in Sheffield, in which a senior police officer and a senior local MP were making serious allegations against fans in the stadium. I had absolutely no reason to believe that these authority figures would lie and deceive over such a disaster. As the prime minister has made clear, these allegations were wholly untrue and were part of a concerted plot by police officers to discredit the supporters thereby shifting the blame for the tragedy from themselves. It has taken more than two decades, 400,000 documents and a two-year inquiry to discover to my horror that it would have been far more accurate had I written the headline The Lies rather than The Truth. I published in good faith and I am sorry that it was so wrong.[203]

Anger about The Sun's reporting remains. Trevor Hicks, chairman of the Hillsborough Family Support Group, rejected MacKenzie's apology as "too little, too late", calling him "lowlife, clever lowlife, but lowlife".[204] A press conference held by families of the victims also banned all Sun reporters from entering, with a sign on the door reading "NO ENTRY TO SUN JOURNALISTS".[205] Sales of The Sun remain poor in Merseyside and a boycott is still practised.[206] Its articles are not published on Liverpool's official website. In 2004, its average circulation in Liverpool was 12,000 copies a day.[207][208]

Following the April 2016 verdict of unlawful killing, the Sun and the first print edition of the Times (both owned by Rupert Murdoch's News UK, formerly News International), did not cover the stories on their front pages, with the Sun relegating the story to pages 8 and 9. An apology appeared on page 10, reiterating that previous statements about the 1989 headline being an error of judgement.[209]

This was widely condemned on social media, with Twitter users saying that this reflected "Murdoch's view on Hillsborough", which was a "smear", which "now daren't speak its name".[209] The Sun became a trending topic on the night of the verdict, with more than 124,000 tweets using the term,[210] with some users posting a picture of the two front pages and saying "Just a quick recap, this is how a cover up works."[211] One of the most-shared tweets was from actor Stephen Mangan, who wrote: "Wait – neither The Sun nor the Times mention Hillsborough on their front pages?"[212] Ex-Liverpool striker Stan Collymore called for the publication to be shut down in the wake of the verdict, and another former Liverpool forward, John Aldridge called Kelvin MacKenzie a "complete and utter disgrace to humanity".[213] Liverpool fans renewed their call for a boycott of the Sun, and social media users using hashtags such as #dontbuythesun #shutthesun and #shutthesundown on Twitter to renew the boycott. Actor Jamie Lee-Hill also called for a boycott of the Times, which did not feature the story on its front page, saying "#Murdoch just stuck two fingers up at victims of tragedy.[212] Readers of the newspaper's website also complained, with commenter Paul Jacob saying: "The honourable thing at this point would be to apologise, front page, for the disgraceful news article that represented a distortion of the truth ... It was a smear to all Liverpool supporters." Reader Happy Londoner added: "The Sun can't afford to give the article the position it deserves because of the disgusting lie-filled front page it ran following this tragedy", with reader Jo W saying the Sun "collude[d] in an Establishment lie! Don't hide... Apologise."[214]

However, on Sky News, the Sun's Political Editor Tom Newton Dunn defended this decision, saying "I don't think it should all be about the Sun – it was not us who committed Hillsborough."[209] Trevor Kavanagh, the political editor at the time of the Hillsborough disaster, said that he was "not sorry at all" about the reporting and supported his former boss Kelvin MacKenzie, claiming that "we were clearly misled about the events and the authorities, including the police, actively concealed the truth".[205]

The Times

Edward Pearce

Edward Pearce was criticised for writing a controversial article in the aftermath of the disaster, at a time when a number of victims' funerals were taking place. His article in The Sunday Times on 23 April 1989, included the text:

"For the second time in half a decade a large body of Liverpool supporters has killed people ... the shrine in the Anfield goalmouth, the cursing of the police, all the theatricals, come sweetly to a city which is already the world capital of self-pity. There are soapy politicians to make a pet of Liverpool, and Liverpool itself is always standing by to make a pet of itself. 'Why us? Why are we treated like animals?' To which the plain answer is that a good and sufficient minority of you behave like animals."[215]

Pearce went on reflect that if South Yorkshire Police bore any responsibility, it was "for not realising what brutes they had to handle."[216]

Professor Phil Scraton described Pearce's comments as amongst the "most bigoted and factually inaccurate" published in the wake of the disaster.[217] A number of complaints were made to the Press Council concerning the article, but the Council ruled that it was unable to adjudicate on comment pieces, though the Council noted that tragedy or disaster is not an occasion for writers to exercise gratuitous provocation.[218]

2016 inquest

On 27 April 2016, Times staffers in the sports department expressed their outrage over the paper's decision to cover 26 April inquest, which ruled that the 96 dead were unlawfully killed, only on an inside spread and the sports pages, with some in the newspaper claiming there was a "mutiny" in the sports department.[219] The Times later tweeted that "We made a mistake with the front page of our first edition, and we fixed it for our second edition."[220]

The Times was the only major UK newspaper not to give the story front-page coverage other than fellow News UK-owned Sun.[219][221] Gary Lineker described the incident as "disgusting as it is unsurprising",[222] and David Walsh, chief sports writer at the Sunday Times, said it was a "shocking misjudgment" to not include this story on the front page.[223] However, insiders dismissed any suggestion that a visit by News UK owner Rupert Murdoch to the Times newsroom on the day of the verdict had anything to do with the editorial decision.[219]

FHM

The November 2002 edition of FHM in Australia was withdrawn from sale and a public apology made in the Australian and British editions, because it contained jokes mocking the disaster.[224] As a result, Emap Australia pledged to make a donation to the families of the victims.[225] Although the original apology was not printed in the magazine as it was not considered "serious enough",[226] its Australian editor, Geoff Campbell, released a statement: "We deeply regret the photograph captions published in the November issue of the Australian edition of FHM, accompanying an article about the Hillsborough disaster of 1989. The right course of action is to withdraw this edition from sale – which we will be doing. We have been in contact with the Hillsborough Family Support Group and the Hillsborough Justice Campaign to express our deep regret and sincere apologies."[224] The British edition disassociated itself from the controversy, stating: "FHM Australia has its own editorial team and these captions were written and published without consultation with the UK edition, or any other edition of FHM."[225]

The vice-chairman of the Hillsborough Family Support Group, Philip Hammond, said he wanted all football fans to boycott the magazine, saying, "I am going to write to every fanzine in the country – including Liverpool F.C.'s – telling them to ban FHM. People are very upset by it. I think there will be a real boycott." He added it would be like making jokes about the 2002 Bali bombings, in which eight fewer Australians were killed.[225]

The Spectator

Boris Johnson, then-editor of The Spectator, was criticised for an editorial which appeared in the magazine on 16 October 2004 following the death of British hostage Kenneth John "Ken" Bigley in Iraq, in which it was claimed that the response to Bigley's killing was fuelled by the fact he was from Liverpool, and went on to criticise the "drunken" fans at Hillsborough and call on them to accept responsibility for their "role" in the disaster:

The extreme reaction to Mr Bigley's murder is fed by the fact that he was a Liverpudlian. Liverpool is a handsome city with a tribal sense of community. A combination of economic misfortune — its docks were, fundamentally, on the wrong side of England when Britain entered what is now the European Union — and an excessive predilection for welfarism have created a peculiar, and deeply unattractive, psyche among many Liverpudlians. They see themselves whenever possible as victims, and resent their victim status; yet at the same time they wallow in it. Part of this flawed psychological state is that they cannot accept that they might have made any contribution to their misfortunes, but seek rather to blame someone else for it, thereby deepening their sense of shared tribal grievance against the rest of society. The deaths of more than 50 Liverpool football supporters at Hillsborough in 1989 was undeniably a greater tragedy than the single death, however horrible, of Mr Bigley; but that is no excuse for Liverpool's failure to acknowledge, even to this day, the part played in the disaster by drunken fans at the back of the crowd who mindlessly tried to fight their way into the ground that Saturday afternoon. The police became a convenient scapegoat, and the Sun newspaper a whipping-boy for daring, albeit in a tasteless fashion, to hint at the wider causes of the incident.[227]

Although Johnson did not make these comments,[228] journalist Simon Heffer alleged he wrote the first draft of the article "at Mr Johnson's request", and offered to apologise for its publication after it attracted "a furore in the city [of Liverpool]".[229] Johnson apologised at the time of the article, travelling to Liverpool to do so,[230] and again following the publication of the report of the Hillsborough Independent Panel in 2012; however, Johnson's apology was rejected by Margaret Aspinall, chairperson of the Hillsborough Families Support Group, whose son James, 18, died in the disaster:

What he has got to understand is that we were speaking the truth for 23 years and apologies have only started to come today from them because of yesterday. It's too little, too late. It's fine to apologise afterwards. They just don't want their names in any more sleaze. No, his apology doesn't mean a thing to me.[231]

The Spectator's comments – incorrectly attributed to Boris Johnson – were widely circulated following the April 2016 verdict by the Hillsborough inquest's second hearing proving unlawful killing of the 96 dead at Hillsborough.[228]

EastEnders

In November 2007, the BBC soap opera EastEnders caused controversy when the character Minty Peterson (played by Cliff Parisi) made a reference to the disaster. During the episode car mechanic Minty said: "Five years out of Europe because of Heysel, because they penned you lot in to stop you fighting on the pitch and then what did we end up with? Hillsborough." This prompted 380 complaints and the BBC apologised, saying that the character was simply reminding another character, former football hooligan Jase Dyer, that the actions of hooligans led to the fencing-in of football fans. Ofcom also received 177 complaints.[232]

Charles Itandje

Liverpool goalkeeper Charles Itandje was accused of having shown disrespect towards the Hillsborough victims during the 2009 remembrance ceremony, as he was spotted on camera "smiling and nudging" team-mate Damien Plessis. He was suspended from the club for a fortnight and many fans felt he should not play for the club again. He was omitted from the first team squad and never played for the club in any capacity again.[233]

Jeremy Hunt

On 28 June 2010, following England's departure from the World Cup competition in South Africa, the UK's Culture and Sport Secretary Jeremy Hunt praised the England fans for their behaviour during the competition, saying "I mean, not a single arrest for a football-related offence, and the terrible problems that we had in Heysel and Hillsborough in the 1980s seem now to be behind us." He later apologised and said "I know that fan unrest played no part in the terrible events of April 1989 and I apologise to Liverpool fans and the families of those killed and injured in the Hillsborough disaster if my comments caused any offence." Margaret Aspinall, chairperson of the Hillsborough Family Support Group, asked for a face to face meeting with Hunt before deciding if she would accept the apology.[234]

Fans' chants

Fans of rival football clubs such as Manchester United[235] and Millwall,[236] have been known to mention the Hillsborough disaster at fixtures[lower-alpha 2] to upset Liverpool fans. Following the findings of the Independent Panel in September 2012, Alex Ferguson and two Manchester United fan groups called for an end to the "sick chants".[237] Leeds United chairman Ken Bates endorsed this call in the club programme and stated, "Leeds have suffered at times with reference to Galatasaray; some of our so-called fans have also been guilty as well, particularly in relation to Munich."[238]

Oliver Popplewell

In October 2011, Sir Oliver Popplewell, who chaired the public inquiry into the 1985 Bradford City stadium fire at Valley Parade that killed 56 people, called on the families of the Hillsborough victims to look at the "quiet dignity and great courage relatives in the West Yorkshire city had shown in the years following the tragedy". He said: "The citizens of Bradford behaved with quiet dignity and great courage. They did not harbour conspiracy theories. They did not seek endless further inquiries. They buried their dead, comforted the bereaved and succoured the injured. They organised a sensible compensation scheme and moved on. Is there, perhaps, a lesson there for the Hillsborough campaigners?"[239]

Popplewell was criticised for the comments, including a rebuke from a survivor of the Bradford fire. Labour MP Steve Rotheram, for example, commented: "How insensitive does somebody have to be to write that load of drivel?"[240]

David Crompton

A formal complaint was made against David Crompton, South Yorkshire's chief constable, over internal emails relating to the Hillsborough disaster. In 2013 Crompton sent an email in which he said the families' "version of certain events has become 'the truth' even though it isn't". In September, David Crompton had emailed the force's assistant chief constable Andy Holt and head of media Mark Thompson on 8 September, just four days before the Hillsborough Independent Panel Report was published. The email came to light as the result of a Freedom of Information request. South Yorkshire's police and crime commissioner Shaun Wright has appointed chief constable Simon Parr of Cambridgeshire Constabulary to head the investigation. Wright said: "The request has been submitted by a firm of solicitors in Liverpool acting on behalf of a number of individuals affected by the event."[241]

In March 2016 Crompton announced that he would retire in November. On 26 April 2016, after the inquest jury delivered a verdict affirming all the charges against the police, Crompton "unequivocally accepted" the verdicts, including unlawful killing, said that the police operation at the stadium on the day of the disaster had been "catastrophically wrong", and apologised unreservedly.[242][243] Following continued criticism of Crompton in the wake of the unlawful killing verdict, South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner Alan Billings suspended Crompton from duty on 27 April.[244]

Civil servant

In June 2014, an unnamed 24-year-old civil servant was sacked for posting offensive comments about the disaster on Wikipedia.[245]

Steven Cohen

In 2009, nearly twenty years to the day after the disaster, Steven Cohen, a presenter on Fox Soccer Channel and Sirius satellite radio in the United States (and a native of England and fan of Chelsea), stated on his radio show that Liverpool fans "without tickets" were the "root cause" and "perpetrators" of the disaster. A boycott of advertisers by American Liverpool fans eventually brought about an apology from him.[246][247] Despite this he was replaced as presenter of Fox Football Fone-in. His actions were disowned by Chelsea Football Club. He no longer works as a broadcaster.

Bernard Ingham

Sir Bernard Ingham, former press secretary to former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, incited severe controversy for his comments about the disaster. In a letter addressed to a parent of a victim of the disaster, Ingham reiterated his belief that the disaster was caused by "tanked up yobs",[248] a view later entirely refuted by the Hillsborough inquest. In another letter written to a Liverpool supporter, Ingham remarked that people should "shut up about Hillsborough".[249][250] On the day of the inquest verdict, Ingham refused to apologise or respond to the previous comments he made, telling a reporter, "I have nothing to say."[249][250] The British public has since responded to this by creating petitions to have Ingham stripped of his knighthood. The petitions were made on change.org and petitions.parliament.uk, the official website for government petitions.[251]

Dramatisations and documentaries

A television drama film, based on the disaster and subsequent events, titled simply Hillsborough, was produced by Granada Television. It was highly praised and won the BAFTA Award for Best Single Drama in 1997. Christopher Eccleston, Ricky Tomlinson and Mark Womack were among the leading actors appearing in the film. It was aired for the first time in 1996, and has been aired four times since then, in 1998, 2009, in September 2012 on the weekend following the release of the findings of the Hillsborough Independent Panel, and again 1 May 2016 on itv.

The American sports network ESPN, as part of its 30 for 30 series of sports films (under a new "Soccer Stories" subdivision), aired the documentary Hillsborough as a co-production with the BBC. Directed by Daniel Gordon, the 2-hour film chronicles the disaster, the investigations, and their lingering effects; it also included interviews with survivors, victims' relatives, police officers and investigators. Hillsborough aired the first time on 15 April 2014, the 25th anniversary of the disaster.[252][253] The documentary was unable to be shown in Great Britain upon initial release due to the 2012 High Court inquest still being in progress and the UK's jury tampering laws; the documentary contains previously unreleased security camera footage from the stadium the day of the disaster.[254] However, upon the inquest verdict the BBC announced they would air the documentary, with additional footage from the inquest and final verdict.[255]

Two British stage plays also dealt with the disaster with different view points—Jonathan Harvey's 'Guiding Star' showed a father coming to terms with what had happened some years later, and Lance Nielsen wrote 'Waiting For Hillsborough' about two Liverpool families waiting for news of their missing loved ones on the day, which leads to discussion of football safety and the culture of blame.[256] Nielsen's play won him an award at the 1999 Liverpool Arts and Entertainment awards and was highly praised by the Liverpool press.

References

  1. ↑ Several British stadiums have a stand called "Spion Kop" or "The Kop". The name, originally that of a hill in South Africa, usually refers to an unusually steep stand.
  2. 1 2 3 [British] a sports event that takes place on a particular date
  1. ↑ Taylor, Lord Justice (August 1989). "Hillsborough Stadium Disaster Inquiry – Interim Report" (PDF). p. 49. Retrieved 18 September 2012. Unfortunately, their policing on 15 April broke down in the ways already described and, although there were other causes, the main reason for the disaster was the failure of police control.
  2. 1 2 Conn, David (26 April 2016). "Hillsborough inquests jury rules 96 victims were unlawfully killed". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 26 April 2016.
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