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. These were formally given to the inquests at 11:00 on 26 April 2016. 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. Williams was portrayed by Maxine Peake, whose performance was described in The Guardian as "almost unwatchably intense".[327]. [311][312], In 1996, Sir Bernard Ingham, former press secretary to former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, caused controversy with his comments about the disaster. The transfer was to be done with immediate effect on 27 March 1989. Ofcom also received 177 complaints. Liverpool lodged a complaint before the match in 1989. They will have to answer 14 key questions about the disaster . [242][243], In other regional newspapers, the Manchester Evening News wrote that the "Anfield Army charged on to the terrace behind the goalmany 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". [267], 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. The Hillsborough disaster was a fatal human crush during a football match at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, on 15 April 1989. 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. It made recommendations on the safety of crowds penned within fences,[21] 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".[22]. [129], Subsequent apologies were released by Prime Minister David Cameron on behalf of the government,[9] Ed Miliband on behalf of the opposition,[130] Sheffield Wednesday Football Club, South Yorkshire Police, and former editor of The Sun, Kelvin MacKenzie, who apologised for making false accusations under the headline "The Truth". [45], The agreed upon protocol for the South Yorkshire Metropolitan Ambulance Service (SYMAS) was that ambulances were to queue at the entrance to the gymnasium, termed the casualty reception point, or CRP. [12], The second coroner's inquests were held from 1 April 2014 to 26 April 2016. In October 1988 a probationary PC in Mole's F division, South Yorkshire was handcuffed, photographed, and stripped by fellow officers in a fake robbery, as a hazing prank. [52] Within days, donations had passed 1million,[54] swelled by donations from individuals, schools and businesses. In addition to the "unlawful killing" verdict, the jury concluded that "errors or omissions" by police commanding officers, Sheffield Wednesday, the ambulance service and the design and certification of the stadium had all "caused or contributed" to the deaths, but that the behaviour of football supporters had not. [147] On 6 April 2016, the nine jurors were sent out to consider their verdicts. Hillsborough remains the worst disaster in British sporting history On a sunny spring afternoon in 1989, a crush developed at the Hillsborough stadium in Sheffield resulting in the deaths of. Former Chief Superintendent Duckenfield, in charge of the match, faced 95 counts of manslaughter by gross negligence. The ceremony ended with 96 rings of church bells across the city and a rendition of "You'll Never Walk Alone". 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 memorial at Hillsborough stadium, unveiled on the tenth anniversary of the disaster on 15 April 1999, reads: "In memory of the 96 men, women, and children who tragically died and the countless people whose lives were changed forever. ", "Hillsborough: Freemason cops banned from working on criminal probe into cover-up", "Freemasons barred from investigation into alleged Hillsborough 'cover-up', "Hillsborough disaster: Why have freemasons been banned from the 1989 tragedy 'cover up' probe? A quotation, attributed to an unnamed policeman, claimed a partially unclothed dead girl had been verbally abused, and that Liverpool fans were "openly urinating on us and the bodies of the dead". Several campaigns have attempted to get the government to relax the regulation and allow standing areas to return to Premiership and Championship grounds. Transcripts of the proceedings and evidence that was produced during the hearings were published at the Hillsborough Inquests official website. A total of 42 ambulances arrived at the stadium. 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. "[304], In 2013, a formal complaint was made against David Crompton, South Yorkshire's chief constable, over internal emails relating to the Hillsborough disaster. [32], Meanwhile, Hillsborough was accepted as the FA Cup semi-final venue on 20 March 1989 by the Football Association. When he presented his report in February 1998, he concluded that there was insufficient evidence for a new inquiry into the disaster. "[112] Therefore, evidence such as witness statements which had been altered were classed as inadmissible. 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. [23] Police believed there would have been a real chance of fatalities had swift action not been taken, and recommended the club reduce its capacity. [119] 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. September 2012 Hillsborough disaster report (7.25 megabytes), 1915 British football match-fixing scandal, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hillsborough_disaster&oldid=1141795975, Short description is different from Wikidata, Wikipedia articles in need of updating from January 2022, All Wikipedia articles in need of updating, Articles to be expanded from January 2022, Wikipedia articles needing page number citations from December 2021, Articles with unsourced statements from January 2023, Articles with unsourced statements from February 2021, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Christine Gifford, expert in the field of access to information. trying to usher myself and my husband out . How They Buried the Truth", "Bruce Grobbelaar: I heard the crowd at Hillsborough cry 'Please help us..', "Senior police officer did not step in, Hillsborough trial hears", "Key Hillsborough Evidence Backed By TV Footage", "Ambulanceman's Struggle to Live with Decisions Made on Pitch at Hillsborough", "Hillsborough: New Probe Backs Crucial Evidence", "Ambulances Got 'Stuck' As They Tried to Enter Hillsborough Stadium, Inquests Hear", "Police to face inquiry as questions go unanaswered", "Liverpool resists pressure to make decision on FA Cup", "Soccer rivals united in grief as church bells toll", "MPs urge Hurd to introduce safety gates into 'killer cages', "Feature: It's Up For Grabs Now The 20th Anniversary Of Anfield 1989", "A random sample of letters from public, schools and clubs reflecting the nature of donations to the disaster appeal fund", "College course developed with funds from the Hillsborough Disaster Appeal Fund goes from strength to strength", "The Official Charts Company Ferry Cross The Mersey by Gerry Marsden, Paul McCartney, Holly Johnson, The Christians and Stock Aitken Waterman Search", "Hillsborough: Brian Reade on the day that changed football forever", "Mum pays tribute to teenage Hillsborough victim Lee Nicol from Smollett Street Bootle", "James Milner's Hillsborough Liverpool Champions League", "A statement from the family of Andrew Devine", "Steven Brown, 25 Hillsborough 96 Hillsborough Remembered", "Peter Thompson, 30 Hillsborough 96 Hillsborough Remembered", "Steven Gerrard says death of his cousin at Hillsborough was biggest inspiration", "Hillsborough's '97th victim' remembered", "Hillsborough: how stories of disaster police were altered", "Timeline of a 27 year fight for the truth after the Hillsborough disaster", "Judgement of Divisional Court, 5 November 1993 application to quash the Inquest verdicts of six of the Hillsborough victims", "European court blow for mother of Hillsborough victim", "Two doctors who criticised Hillsborough ambulance response speak of "vindication" after inquests", "The two doctors who criticised the Hillsborough ambulance response", "Football: Long haul to implement Taylor Report", "The Architects Journal:Building Study (September 1993)", "The Stuart Smith Scrutiny Hillsborough Football Disaster", "Scrutiny of Evidence Relating to the Hillsborough Football Stadium Disaster", "Hillsborough inquiry by Blair government criticised", "Hillsborough Independent Panel: Disclosed Material and Report | Home page", "Organisations and people whose material has been reviewed", "Hillsborough panel set to publish report on 1989 disaster", "Who are the members of the Hillsborough Independent Panel? It obviously wasn't a silly mistake; nor was it a simple oversight. [93] The two publications together became known as the Taylor Report.[6]. 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. 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. [192] On 29June 2018, a ruling was made that Duckenfield would be prosecuted on the manslaughter charges. The equipment was no use on the ambulance vehicle when critical early resuscitation was taking place some distance away on the pitch, behind the Leppings Lane end and in the gymnasium. The panel concluded that "up to 41" of the 96 who had died up to that date, might have survived had the emergency services' reactions and co-ordination been better. Taylor concluded that policing on the day "broke down" and "the main reason for the disaster was the failure of police control". [111], In May 1997, when the Labour Party came into office, Home Secretary Jack Straw ordered an investigation. [29] Other accounts told of fans having to be pulled to safety from above. [283], 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. . A terrible crowd crush claimed the lives of 96 innocen. ", "Did Freemasons influence police over Hillsborough? The disaster was a fatal human crush at the match held at the Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield. List of archive and library material relating to the disaster held at Sheffield City Council's Libraries and Archives. . [160][161], During the inquests, Maxwell Groomea police constable at the time of the disastermade allegations of a high-level "conspiracy" by Freemasons to shift blame for the disaster onto Superintendent Roger Marshall, also that junior officers were pressured into changing their statements after the disaster, and told not to write their accounts in their official police pocketbooks. They did not seek endless further inquiries. [53] The Liverpool F.C. [238][239], In December 2021, Liverpool City Council nominated Andrew Devine posthumously for the freedom of the city of Liverpool, a tribute given to the original 96 victims in 2016. [70] On 19 April, the death toll reached 95 when 14-year-old Lee Nicol died in hospital after being taken off life support. It affirmed the position of the courts once again towards claims of psychiatric injuries of secondary victims. "[318], Further extracts from what Eileen Delaney said can be found on the Hillsborough Justice Campaign website[319] and in Phil Scraton's book Hillsborough: The Truth. Duckenfield was not required to appear as the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) needed to apply to the High Court to lift a court order before he could be prosecuted on the manslaughter charges. . [302], In October 2011, Sir Oliver Popplewell, who had 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". ", "Report summary (Page 14 of 14): Summary of Chapter 12: Behind the headlines: the origins, promotion and reproduction of unsubstantiated allegations", "Hillsborough disaster: new inquest likely after damning report", "Hillsborough files: Report raises spectre of criminal cases and shaming", "Report summary (Page 5 of 14): Summary of Chapter 3: Custom, practice, roles, responsibilities", "Hillsborough Disaster Report Published Wednesday 12 September", "Hillsborough statement: Cameron and Miliband apologise", "Kelvin MacKenzie offers 'profuse apologies' over Hillsborough", "Hillsborough families demand new inquests be held", "New Hillsborough inquest likely after damning report", "Hillsborough families call for FA apology over disaster", "Hillsborough report: FA could face charges, lawyers tell Liverpool fans' families", "Hillsborough: Sheffield Wednesday and police urged to admit blame", "Premier League chairman must resign, says Hillsborough support group", "Hillsborough: home secretary says law-breakers must face investigation", "Hillsborough: Norman Bettison resigns from West Yorkshire police", "Hillsborough: police chief 'boasted' of role in smearing fans", "Hillsborough: Football fans' behaviour made police's job harder, says Sir Norman Bettison", "Bettison due 83k-a-year pension despite Hillsborough probe", "Hillsborough inquests: Jury reaches decision on unlawful killing question", "Hillsborough disaster: Fans unlawfully killed", "Hillsborough inquest verdicts quashed by High Court", "Margaret Aspinall: I am so grateful to the people of Liverpool", "Tears of joy as inquest jury exonerates the 96 Hillsborough victims", "Hillsborough inquests: Reaction to unlawful killing conclusion", "Hillsborough inquest suggests police 'should be prosecuted', "Calls for prosecutions after 'greatest miscarriage of justice of our times', "Labour Party: 'Greatest miscarriage of justice of our times', "Jack Straw expresses regret over failure of Hillsborough review", "Jack Straw on 1997 Hillsborough inquiry: 'I wish I could turn the clock back', "Kelvin MacKenzie is still blaming other people for S*n's shameful front page", "Watch ex-S*n editor Kelvin MacKenzie squirm as he's chased by cameraman", "Freemason police officers tried to 'shift blame' after Hillsborough disaster, inquest told", "Hillsborough: David Duckenfield was in same Masons lodge as officer he replaced", "Hillsborough tragedy: Did the Freemasons influence the Police? 15 April 1989. There was insufficient evidence against the police officer to charge him with the offence. In response, 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". [297], 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" teammate Damien Plessis. The programme was repeated on 1May 2016, at the end of the week in which the Hillsborough inquest ruled that the 96 Liverpool football fans died unlawfully. [166][167][168], Following the inquests verdicts, South Yorkshire police announced it would refer the actions of its officers to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC). The disaster has been acknowledged on 15April every year by the community in Liverpool and football in general. I have never, since hearing the Taylor evidence unfold, offered any other interpretation in public or private. [123] 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. [174][175][176][177][178] On 16 October 2012, the Attorney General announced in Parliament he had applied to have the original inquests verdicts quashed, arguing it proceeded on a false basis and evidence now to hand required this exceptional step. [146] Sir John Goldring was appointed as Assistant Coroner for South Yorkshire (East) and West Yorkshire (West) to conduct those inquests. close panel. This left planning for the semi-final match to Duckenfield, who had never commanded a sell-out football match before, and who had "very little, if any" training or personal experience in how to do so. Several British stadiums have a stand called "Spion Kop" or "The Kop". During a 2011 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 recorded in the Hansard transcripts. Gerrard has said the disaster inspired him to lead the team he supported as a boy and become a top professional football player. 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". By the time the appeal closed in 1990, it had raised more than 12million. [162] Groome also claimed that match commander Duckenfield was a member of the "highly influential" Dole lodge in Sheffield (the same lodge as Brian Mole, his predecessor). It emphasised the general situation at Hillsborough was satisfactory compared with most grounds. [118], In the years after the disaster, the Hillsborough Family Support Group had campaigned for the release of all relevant documents into the public domain. [110] Let's be honest about thispeople were against us. An apology appeared on page 10, reiterating previous statements that the 1989 headline had been an error of judgement. He was suspended from the club for a fortnight and many fans felt he should not play for the club again. [97] The failure by the police to give the order to direct fans to empty areas of the stadium, was described by Taylor as "a blunder of the first magnitude". Had it been reversed, the disaster could well have occurred in a similar manner but to Nottingham supporters". Stand Up Sit Down A Choice to Watch Football. Two British stage plays also dealt with the disaster with different view points: On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. [257] In 1993, he told a House of Commons committee, "I regret Hillsborough. [154], 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. [181][182], In April 2016, the Crown Prosecution Service announced that it would consider bringing charges against both individuals and corporate bodies once the criminal investigation by the Independent Police Complaints CommissionOperation Resolvehad been completed. They always believed in us. [39][40], 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. Kenny Dalglish, Liverpool's manager at the time of the disaster, read a passage from the Bible, "Lamentations of Jeremiah". "[115], The Hillsborough Independent Panel was instituted in 2009 by the British government to investigate the Hillsborough disaster, to oversee the disclosure of documents about the disaster and its aftermath and to produce a report. The reason given was that the public inquiry in 1990, to which the altered statements were submitted, was not a statutory inquiry, and therefore not a Court of Law. [313] In another letter written to a Liverpool supporter, also written in 1996, Ingham remarked that people should "shut up about Hillsborough". Mole. His remarks led to Liverpool F.C. 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. [43] Football players from both teams were ushered to their respective dressing rooms, and told that there would be a 30-minute postponement. It said criticism of Rooney was wrong and co-ordinated by the Liverpool Echo and Liverpool Post. The editor at the time, Dominic Mohan, wrote: "We published an inaccurate and offensive story about the events at Hillsborough. It was brought by police officers on duty against the chief constable who was said to have been vicariously liable for the disaster. Popper's decision regarding the cut-off time was subsequently endorsed by the Divisional Court who considered it to have been justified in the light of the medical evidence available to him. Time of. "[114] This was controversial as the subsequent response of the police and emergency services would not be scrutinised. It was a 'classic smear'. It occurred during an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest in the two standing-only central pens in the Leppings Lane stand allocated to Liverpool supporters. [316], In March 2018, British clothing retailer Topman marketed a T-shirt which was interpreted by members of the public, including relatives of Hillsborough victims, as mocking the disaster. "[114] 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". [35], Three chartered trains transported Liverpool supporters to Sheffield for a match in 1988, but only one such train ran in 1989. [197], On 13 March 2019, it was reported that Duckenfield would not be called to give evidence in his defence. A police officer ordinarily made a visual assessment before guiding fans to other pens. [51], Condolences flooded in from across the world, led by the Queen. We had the media against us, as well as the establishment. [126][127], The panel noted that, despite being dismissed by the Taylor Report, the idea that alcohol contributed to the disaster proved remarkably durable. . He dismissed the claim by senior police officers that they had no reason to anticipate problems, since congestion had occurred at both the 1987 and 1988 semi-finals. fans had died (a 96th fan died in 1993, and 97th in 2021).An interim report was published in August 1989 . [219] A candle was lit for each of the 96 victims. [144] In the same 22 October House of Commons debate, Stephen Mosley MP alleged West Midlands police pressured witnessesboth police and civiliansto change their statements. Some supporters were delayed by roadworks while crossing the Pennines on the M62 motorway which resulted in minor traffic congestion. [299], Fans of rival clubs[300] have been known to chant about the Hillsborough disaster at football matches, in order to upset Liverpool fans. [102] Further that: "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".