UK - Hillsborough, Inquest into the deaths of 96 people at the FA Cup semi-final game, 1989 mistrial

A new inquest has opened into the deaths of 96 people at Sheffield Wednesday's Hillsborough football ground, April 15th, 1989. The 11-member jury have been chosen with great care and have been told to disregard anything they ever read or watched about the case.

It was the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. The case was horrendous in many respects; police allowed latecomers to squeeze into the back of the crowds, and there were high fences and rows of metal at the front, to stop people running onto the pitch.

The result was a catastrophe that unfolded live on camera and that I think everyone now agrees was badly handled. People towards the front were simply crushed, while the part of the crowd at the back at first were not even aware of what was happening. They'd gone through a tunnel too, I think, so there was no way back.

I watched this at the time and it's seared into my brain - I remember screaming at the TV, 'help them' because there were policemen on the pitch standing watching people behind the fence die in front of their eyes. Some people trying to climb over were even pushed back....if I recall correctly, the game went on for quite a while too, until one player just stopped playing, and went towards the fence of death. And even as the bodies were finally brought onto the pitch, there didn't seem to be any medical personnel or organised help......

Even worse; afterwards some British newspapers (The Sun notoriously) blamed fans' hooliganism for their own deaths. This was totally untrue. The Sun even accused Liverpool fans of urinating on bodies. Again, totally untrue.

So, today. Families of the victims finally have a chance for justice after years of suffering.The duty of the jury of seven women and four men is to determine why each of those 96 victims really died. The inquest is expected to last a year and the presiding coroner is Lord Justice Goldring. On the second day, he has stated it;

"Will not degenerate into an adversarial battle which scarred the first inquest....the families of those who died in this disaster will be vindicated and the memory of each victim will be properly respected."

The accidental death findings of the first inquest in 1990-91 were quashed in 2012 after a long campaign by bereaved families. A complete list of victim's names were read out at the opening, which took over six minutes.

Day 1: 'Jury members to forget all they have read or heard'
http://www.theguardian.com/football...aster-inquest-jury-96-liverpool-football-fans

'Who were the victims?'
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-20782891

Day 2: 'Official capacity numbers for the fatal stand were substantially too high..crush barrier removed....no way of counting"
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...tand-were-substantially-too-high-9230348.html

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-
news/2014/apr/01/hillsborough-disaster-judge-inquiry

Picture link: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-s...ld-hillsborough-stadium-disaster-2255307.html

This is something quite close to my heart so I'll be folliwing avidly. JF96 YNWA

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

http://www.theguardian.com/football...ough-inexperienced-coroner-tells-inquest-jury

The South Yorkshire police officer in charge of the 1989 FA Cup semi-final at Sheffield Wednesday's Hillsborough football ground, at which 96 Liverpool supporters died, had never commanded a match there before, the inquest jury has been told.

Ch Supt David Duckenfield was promoted less than three weeks earlier to take operational command of the match, replacing Ch Supt Brian Mole, an experienced Hillsborough match commander.

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Christina Lambert QC, for the coroner, had opened proceedings at the converted courtroom in a Warrington business park by reading out the names of each person who died in the crush at Hillsborough. In alphabetical order, from John Anderson, who was 62 when he died, to Graham Wright, who was 17, the 96 names took Lambert more than six minutes to read. About 300 relatives of those men, women and children sat listening in complete silence.

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I hope this inquest is better than the last one. What a bloody travesty.

zwiebel thank you so much for starting a thread! I wanted to do it but when it comes to Hillsborough I turn into a quivering mess. As you may know from my sig, this is something very close to my heart. I am a lifelong Liverpool fan, I was sick and planning to listen to the game on the radio that day, as it was not live on TV. It is seared into my memory too, and my heart, forever. I have friends who were there, know people who lost loved ones and had a very good friend who was in leppings lane that day, sadly he passed away a few years ago. Survivors guilt has also ruined many lives.

I am so proud to be a red, so proud of my LFC family, it took over 20 years for the truth to be known, the truth we knew all along. The families never gave up and we have been with them all the way. If I keep going I'm gonna ramble on and get myself in a tizzy and angry, so I will leave it at that.

JUSTICE is coming. JUSTICE for the 96 :rose: Thank you! YNWA

From a bit earlier in site timeline, September 2012:

WS thread: 'The truth': the Hillsborough 1989 association football disaster revisited

Thanks for the link wfgodot - I searched and searched yesterday and didn't find anything, so started a new thread. But maybe it's good to have a new thread just for the inquest anyway, as it is going to last so long.

Apologies - I've got my legal processes mixed up. These three days have just been the opening statement days apparently, which have now closed. So Day 1 of the inquest will actually be on Thursday, when it officially starts. I'll call this last day of the opening Day 3 anyhow, then just start the numbers again Thursday.

Day 3: The coroner says accounts of the Hillsborough disaster by police on duty at the time were amended by senior officers and lawyers from South Yorkshire Police, to remove negative comments about senior officers. He said the jury will have to decide if the purpose was to deflect criticism or place the blame on fans.

Large numbers of comments were removed, which also included expletives, remarks about poor/defective radio communications and even abusive remarks about fans.

He also outlined the first inquest in 1990 as brief, with few questions asked and families of victims not given disclosure of documents before it opened.

About the first coroner's vehemently disputed decision that all victims were beyond help by the time of 3.15pm, Lord Justice Goldring said: "We shall not follow that course."

That decision meant there wasn't seen to be any need to examine police and emergency response times at the first inquest, whereas this time they will be subject to scrutiny.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-merseyside-26852324

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/apr/02/hillsborough-inquest-police-accounts-criticism

I agree it's good to have a new one, zweibel, if only to underscore the importance of the matter -- plus the old thread had had little activity and had been inactive since I think the end of '12. Some good background-on-the-case links thereupon are worth preserving links to.

If the Liverpool Echo is calling this the fourth day, I will too. The blogger's wishing us a good weekend when it's only Thursday because the Inquest is finished for this week. Resumes Monday.

There is a live blog on the inquest here each day, as well as TRANSCRIPTS!! I hadn't realised. Wonderful Liverpudlians.

Oh, it's all the families' tributes to their lost ones. Heartbreaking.

Day 4.

The Battlefield
by Richard Jones, age 10.
(Richard died aged 25 with his girlfriend Tracey Cox, at Hillsborough.)

People lying everywhere,
Crying, sobbing in the air,
A hurrying, shouting, frightened mass,
Blubbering and running for their lives.
The dead have all been dragged away, but the blood
upon the ground tells of men who fought that day,
And the last word they had to say.

'Tracey initially wasn't going to be going to the match at Hillsborough, and after a ticket became available, she decided to go with Rick and Stephanie, who is delivering the statement'

'When he was 18, Rick went hosteling in Lakes with his brother Peter, and they met Tracey, a clever, vibrant, outgoing girl who came and stayed with our family on lots of occasions'.

(Doreen Jones broke down as she described her son Peter and his girlfriend Tracey. Listeners were tearful too.)

'I wish I'd had the chance to treat my daughter more. At the time of her death, she was thinking of going to Italy for the 1990 World Cup.'

Background statements will resume Monday. I don't know if I can bear to hear them.

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/live-hillsborough-disaster-inquests---6911789

Richard Jones and Tracey Cox, and their tributes.

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/hillsborough-tribute-richard-jones-3418463

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/hillsborough-tribute-tracey-cox-3418456

Arthur Horrocks, died at Hillsborough aged 41.

'I met Arthur when I was 12 years old, as we were both attending the same church. We started courting when I was 16 and we married when I was 18.....He once brought home a poodle from a customer who was unable to pay her dues. Arthur put in her money himself, and the dog was part of our family for many years.'

Tribute
http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/arthur-horrocks-41-3418550

Inquest Transcript
http://hillsboroughinquests.indepen...anscript-of-morning-hearing-03-April-2014.pdf

Patrick John Thompson. Died at Hillsborough, age 35.

"My husband Pat had worked as a guard for British Rail at the Garston Depot for some 15 years before his death. At the time he died, we had five children all under six...'

'Pat was at Heysel in 1985 but in a part of the ground where he never became aware that there had been any trouble....Please listen to the evidence and let my children know that their dad was not a hooligan, but a hardworking family man who just happened to love football.'

News article about Patrick.
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-merseyside-26866318

Inquest transcript
http://hillsboroughinquests.indepen...anscript-of-morning-hearing-03-April-2014.pdf

I was a tiny one when this happened, only around 7 years old, but I still remember watching the news and hearing about it. I watched a BBC documentary about it recently, showing their footage of the match. The most horrific part of it was watching the policeman stand watching people die.... and hearing the other players boo-ing from the stands because they thought they were fighting.

To this day the Sun has it's lowest readership in the Liverpool area, and for a good reason. The articles they wrote and the hate they spouted was just awful. I read an account of the journalist who wrote the original article, claiming he was forced into it and that the editor had changed it. I didn't believe him at all, why didn't he come forward at the time?

And the police lies and coverups were just horrific. I hope the families get the inquest they deserved at the time, and I hope the people who contributed to the horror that day are shown up, rather than hidden and protected.

I shall be reading the accounts as the inquests go on, but I won't make it through any of them without shedding tears.

'Margaret Thatcher's ministers to be interviewed by police watchdog over Hillsborough tragedy.'

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...chdog-over-hillsborough-disaster-9236663.html

That should be interesting.

Gerard Baron Snr. Oldest victim of Hillsborough, age 67.

"The son of the eldest fan killed in the Hillsborough disaster has told an inquest jury how he and his father battled desperately for their lives after witnessing "hell before our eyes". '

Gerard Baron Jnr, who now lives in South Australia, but was honored to fly to the inquest, detailed how the last words he ever said to his father were: "You will be okay."

Gerard Snr's Dad was born in the poorhouse in Blackburn, and the family struggled moneywise, but raised Gerard and his siblings with solid christian values and good work and family ethics. He served in WW2, Burma and India. He was a postman/postal inspector for 33 years. People under him at work nicknamed him the Red Baron.

http://news.uk.msn.com/fan-tells-of-hillsborough-hell

Tribute: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/hillsborough-tribute-gerard-baron-3418501

Inquest Transcript: http://hillsboroughinquests.indepen...anscript-of-morning-hearing-08-April-2014.pdf

Gary Jones, died at Hillsborough, age 18.

"Even though our Dad is an Everton fan and tried to indoctrinate Gary as an Evertonian, Gary was a devoted Liverpool Football Club fan probably from about the age of 3 or 4....He had made plans to visit me in Spain on his own. It would have been the first time I had seen him since New Year 1989. He never made it."

Tribute: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/hillsborough-tribute-gary-jones-3418549

Inquest Transcript: http://hillsboroughinquests.indepen...anscript-of-morning-hearing-08-April-2014.pdf

Eric Hankin Jnr. Died at Hillsborough, age 33.

"I remember he was a bit accident prone. Once, when he was about 4, he got his head stuck inbetween two railings, trying to look at two newborn kittens. When I finally got him out, he came home and decided to tell Susan, his sister...he took her back to the railings and demonstrated what happened, step by step. His head got stuck again. We had to get the fire brigade to cut him out this time.."

Tribute: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/hillsborough-tribute-eric-hankin-33-3418487

Inquest Transcript: http://hillsboroughinquests.indepen...anscript-of-morning-hearing-08-April-2014.pdf

Stephen Paul Copoc. Died at Hillsborough, age 20.

"When Stephen was about 15 years old, he met his girlfriend Jackie. They were very much in love and engaged to be married when he died....his main ambition in life was to save enough money to buy our parents a house.

Stephen of course loved football..... The whole family travelled around to watch matches, but not since 1989....we never went to a football match again."

Tribute: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/hillsborough-tribute-to-stephen-copoc-3418460

Inquest Transcript: http://hillsboroughinquests.indepen...anscript-of-morning-hearing-08-April-2014.pdf

The testimony of families at the inquest are just heartbreaking. But it is so, so right that at last they are being allowed to tell their stories in full, to authorities and the world.