The 96 people who died at the Hillsborough football stadium disaster in 1989 were unlawfully killed and a catalogue of failings by police and the ambulance services contributed to their deaths, the jury at the new inquests into the disaster has determined.
The verdict, which came shortly after the 27th anniversary of the lethal crush at the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest, vindicated the bereaved families, who have campaigned tirelessly against the police’s efforts to blame supporters for the tragedy.
The jury of six women and three men answered 14 questions relating to the events in Sheffield of 15 April 1989, including one concerning the behaviour of supporters.
Barristers for police officers at the new inquests had repeatedly emphasised allegations of drunkenness and misbehaviour, while the families’ lawyers denounced them as “perpetuating the cover-up”.
On Tuesday, the jury rejected those police claims, ruling unanimously that the fans did not contribute to the dangerous situation at Hillsborough that day.
Families of the 96 victims, who ranged in age from 10 to 67, packed the courtroom in Birchwood Park, Warrington, to hear the jury deliver its decisions at the end of the two-year inquests – the longest jury case in British legal history. Many of the relatives had attended almost every day of the inquests, which began on 1 April 2014.
Once the jury had delivered its unlawful killing verdict and its exoneration of the supporters, those in court and in an overspill annexe cheered, applauded, hugged and burst into tears. Someone shouted “God bless the jury” and the jurors were given a round of applause as they left. Outside, the relatives gathered and spontaneously sang Liverpool football club’s anthem, You’ll Never Walk Alone.
Of those who died, 37 were teenagers, most still at school. Three pairs of brothers, one pair of sisters and one father and son died together. Twenty-six of the dead were parents.
The jury’s answers about how they died were comprehensively damning of South Yorkshire police’s planning and handling of the match, at which they had been responsible for the safety of 54,000 people.
Earlier, the jurors had been told they could only reach the determination of unlawful killing if they were sure of four essential matters concerning the deaths.
They had to be convinced that overall match commander Ch Supt David Duckenfield owed a duty of care to those who died, and that he was in breach of that duty.
They also needed to be satisfied that this breach of duty caused the deaths and that it amounted to “gross negligence”. The jury reached their verdict of unlawful killing by a 7-2 majority.
The Crown Prosecution Service, meanwhile, said it was cooperating with two investigations into possible criminal offences committed by police officers and others leading to the Hillsborough deaths, and the alleged police cover-up afterwards.
That could lead to a prosecution of Duckenfield, who was appointed only 19 days before the game, replacing an experienced match commander.
Duckenfield opened a large gate to allow 2,000 supporters trapped in a crush outside the Leppings Lane turnstiles into the ground. The jury found he should have ordered the closure of the tunnel that led to central “pens” three and four, but he did not, and the incoming supporters went into those pens where the overcrowding caused the crush that killed 96 people and caused more than 400 others to be taken to hospital.
In its verdicts, the jury concluded:
- Planning errors “caused or contributed to’’ the dangerous situation that developed on the day of the disaster.
- Senior officers failed to issue specific instructions on how crowds were to be managed at the Leppings Lane end of the stadium.
- The response to a build-up of fans at the Leppings Lane end was “slow and uncoordinated”.
- Commanding officers failed to appreciate that ordering the opening of a gate would increase pressure in the terraces.
- Police and the ambulance service caused or contributed to the loss of lives by an error or omission after the crush in the west terrace had begun to develop.
- Fans were not to blame for the dangerous situation.
- The design of the stadium, home to Sheffield Wednesday football club, contributed to the tragedy.
- Club officials should have requested the match to be delayed when they became aware of the huge number of fans still outside the Leppings Lane turnstiles.
David Cameron’s spokeswoman said the government would respond to the verdicts in a written ministerial statement on Tuesday, followed by a statement on Wednesday. She said: “Clearly, this has been one of the longest running legal cases in British history and we are going to need to take time to digest the verdict.”
The prime minister tweeted:
David Cameron (@David_Cameron)I would like to pay tribute to the extraordinary courage of #Hillsborough campaigners in their long search for the truth.
April 26, 2016
After the verdicts, relatives of the victims criticised the adversarial approach to the inquests taken by the police and ambulance service. Some called for the chief constable of South Yorkshire police, David Crompton, to resign immediately. He is stepping down in November.
Solicitors Elkan Abrahamson and Marcia Stewart, from the law firms representing the Hillsborough Justice Campaign (HJC) and Hillsborough Family Support Group, said in a statement that the verdicts “completely vindicate the families’ long fight for justice”.
“It is therefore all the more shameful that, rather than focusing on the search for truth and despite having made public apologies, the approach to the inquests taken by South Yorkshire police and the Yorkshire ambulance service was to fight tooth and nail to avoid adverse findings by the jury; this turned the inquests into an adversarial battle that probably doubled the length of time it might otherwise have [taken].”
Margaret Aspinall, chair of the Hillsborough Family Support Group, whose 18-year-old son James died in the disaster, said on Tuesday that she had refused in 1991 to pick up her son’s death certificate showing the original inquest’s verdict of accidental death.
She paid tribute to Liverpool supporters and survivors of the disaster, many of whom gave harrowing evidence during the inquests, almost all saying they saw no evidence of drunken or unusually rowdy behaviour outside the ground.
“The fans should go home and be proud of themselves, they are the heroes,” Aspinall said. “They did nothing wrong that day, and we did this for all of them, too. Our city always gets brought down, but yet again it’s the tough people of Liverpool who have had to fight a cause that was so unjust and so unfair.”
The Labour shadow home secretary, Andy Burnham, whose call for the disclosure of all Hillsborough documents in 2009 led to the 2012 independent panel report and quashing of the first inquest, described the police campaign against supporters as “the greatest miscarriage of justice of our times”.
He said repeated allegations of misbehaviour made by Duckenfield’s barristers at the new inquests were “disgraceful”, adding it “put the families through hell once again”. He also accused South Yorkshire police of going back on the full apology they made in 2012.
Burnham called for prosecutions to follow from the two major investigations, overseen by the Independent Police Complaints Commission. The investigations said on Tuesday they intended to send files to the CPS by the end of the year.
Crompton, the chief constable of South Yorkshire police, admitted the force got the policing of the Hillsborough match “catastrophically wrong”, as he accepted the unlawful killing verdicts and apologised to the families. Crompton said relatives of those who died had been failed, and that officers “will now take time to carefully reflect on the implications of the verdicts”.
The verdicts came a day after the coroner, Sir John Goldring, had directed the jury that it could reach a majority decision on the unlawful killing question. He was told last week that the jury was unanimous on the 13 other questions.
Sheffield Wednesday FC faced a number of criticisms from the inquest jury over its Hillsborough stadium and its management at the ground before the match. Among its conclusions, the jury found that a lack of dedicated turnstiles for individual pens meant capacities could not be monitored, while signage to side pens was inadequate and there were insufficient turnstiles for a capacity crowd. These facts, along with the removal of a barrier and the design and layout of crush barriers, caused or contributed to the disaster, the jury decided.
Following the verdict, Sheffield Wednesday said it “recognised the tireless dedication of the families” and that the club’s thoughts were with all those affected. It added: “Since the disaster, football has evolved immeasurably, with all stadia and associated safety procedures changing beyond recognition in the intervening years. Both the ownership and leadership of Sheffield Wednesday has also changed in this time.”
Later in the afternoon the coroner, addressing the jurors, said: “You have devoted over two years of your lives to these inquests. Your commitment and diligence has been remarkable ... I thank you very much indeed.”
The families stood and applauded the coroner’s words.
