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

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Prosecution opening

14:39
The 1987 FA Cup semi-final
We now look at the Leeds v Coventry 1987 FA Cup semi-final at Hillsborough.

ITN footage from the semi-final is being played. Ch Supt Mole was the match commander, Supt Freeman the ground commander. The decision was taken to delay kick off by 15 minutes, apparently to allow supporters delayed by traffic congestion to get to the stadium, RM says. He says you will hear a file point barrier was set up outside Leppings Lane by police. Fans had to show tickets to pass. One fan recollects 200 yards up LL police were checking tickets at random.Outside the turnstile the crowd was dense and there no queues, RM says.


14:45
Eastwood and Partners ground plan
We are looking a 1987 stadium plan drawn up Eastwood and Partners.

On the Leppings Lane terrace pen three appears to have a capacity of 1,200, and pen four 1,000.

RM says Mr Mackrell received this plan, with its specific capacity figures for the individual pens.

RM adds it is no part of the prosecution case to criticise or blame Mr Mackrell for any failing on the part of Mr Strange of Dr Eastwood for how those numbers were reached.

“However, if nothing else, Mr Mackrell was firmly put on notice of the idea and some figure for a safe limit on numbers in those pens.”


14:49
Mr Mackrell had Green Guide
Mr Mackrell wrote a letter on 23 October 1987 confirming he had had a copy of the Green Guide for many months. As to the appointment of a Safety Officer, he wrote: “my duties encompass those of the Safety Officer”. He asked for records to be amended to note that he (Mr Mackrell) was responsible for all matters of safety within the ground.


14:50
The 1988 FA Cup semi-final
RM now moves to 1988.

In 1988 you know that there was that FA Cup semi-final and that was 9/4/88 between Liverpool and Notts Forest.

LFC entry through 23 turnstiles at the LL end.

1-10 for the North Stand (9,882 tickets)

11-16 and A-G for the West Stand/West Terraces (14,565).


14:59
Jury to hear about police practice of closing entrance to tunnel of pens three and four
RM shows an image of the turnstiles A-G. It’s written green and brown tickets above them.

In 1989 they became separate. A-G solely for West Terraces including the NW Terrace.

RM says jury will hear more about the 1988 semi-final.

Relevant areas will include ticket arrangements, LL turnstile arrangements, filter cordons and overcrowding more generally.

Also the practice of closing the tunnel to pens three and four and what the evidence is concerning police practice of closing entrance to tunnel of pens three and four.

Ch Supt Mole was match commander in 1988.

The jury is told they will hear some evidence over how police formed cordons to filter the arriving fans at the Leppings Lane end.


14:59
Tunnel to pen three and four ‘closed’ by police in the past
BBC footage of pens three and four before kick off at the 1988 FA Cup semi-final is now being shown to the jury. RM says you will hear evidence tunnel closed at some points,

A Sgt Crawford will give evidence.

He said there were no problems in 1988 and that fans were in position 10 minutes before kick off.

RM: “You will hear Sgt Crawford’s recollection as to how a PC Lang was instructed to close the tunnel gates at a time before kick-off.

“His recollection will be that the tunnel was closed by pushing one gate and done so in this way because the pens were full. His recollection will be that this had happened before. In league matches, he had seen the gates closed or partially closed because the pens were full.”

RM says he expects you will hear from others that tunnel access had also been prevented by police previously.


15:10
Change in turnstile arrangements between 1988 and 89
After the 1989 draw, South Yorkshire Police appeared to agree to police match if allocation of ends was same as 1988. Police view appeared the different fans’ approach to ground would prevent problems.

RM says that all Liverpool fans going to the north stand had to use the turnstiles at Leppings Lane. There were around 24,500 spectators with tickets to the north and west stands, so that the 23 turnstiles at Leppings Lane were to be for entry of all of these people.

The average number of fans for each turnstile was 468 for the Notts Forest turnstiles against an average of one turnstile for 1,065 Liverpool fans at the Leppings Lane.

In 1989 the ticket and turnstile arrangement was different to 88 for LFC fans.

A-G to be used to all standing spectators in West and NW terraces in 1989.

That meant 4,465 West Stand seated spectators to go through 11-16, more than twice as many, 10,100 were to be directed to seven turnstiles.


15:10
‘Congestion inevitable’
RM: “Inevitably, the prosecution case is that outcome of this redistribution was to contribute to greater congestion at the Leppings Lane entrance.”


15:11
Obviously identifiable ‘bottleneck’
The Green Guide gave a notional expectation of 750 fans to pass through a turnstile in an hour.

RM: “You may think that it should have been obvious to anyone with a responsibility to consider the arrangements for entry of those 24,500 spectators, at any time up to and including the hour before kick off on the 15th April 1989 what the geography, the physical layout and the turnstile arrangements were, inevitably, the prosecution say, going to contribute to, namely congestion at Leppings Lane.

“So in short then, whilst it was to be an average of one turnstile for 1,065 Liverpool fans at the Leppings Lane end, at what we, the prosecution say, a location that should have been obviously identifiable in advance as a bottleneck for spectators in the hour before kick-off; the actual arrangements meant there would be an average of 1,443 west and north-west terrace supporters for each of the 7 turnstiles at A-G.

“That is almost double what the notional maximum in the Green Guide gave.”
Click to expand...

Hillsborough: Updates from trial of David Duckenfield and Graham Mackrell
 
Prosecution opening

15:13
10,100 fans to get into ‘even more constrained area’
RM adds “what we say is that a further and more pronounced bottleneck was also being created” because 10,100 spectators had to get themselves into an even more constrained area.

RM: No evidence police notified of that change in turnstile arrangement.


15:20
Police planning ahead of 1989 semi-final
The police planning operation began shortly after the 1989 FA Cup semi final draw and selection of Hillsborough.

On 6 April 1989, the F Division Operational Order was formally issued - Mr Duckenfield, who had just become commander of F Division, signed it. Little was changed from the 1988 Order.


15:22
The first ‘extraordinarily bad failing’ of Duckenfield
On April 14 Duckenfield gives a briefing to senior officers.

RM says this is the first ‘extraordinarily bad failing’ of Duckenfield as match commander.


15:22
Duckenfield ‘should have been aware of risks posed to safe entry of fans’
RM: “It is the Crown’s case that David Duckenfield should have been fully aware of the potential confining points and hazards to the safe entry of 24,000 spectators arriving from the Leppings Lane area of Hillsborough into the stadium... and it was so very, very far from good enough or sufficient if all that he was aware of werethat 23 turnstiles were going to serve the entry of 24,000 people.”


15:23
Duckenfield’s ‘reasonable care’
RM: “Reasonable care as a match commander required him to have been personally aware of how the spectators for the west terraces and north west terraces were going to gain entry, where they were likely to arrive from and what would confront them when they entered through 7 turnstiles A-G.

“Reasonable care required him to have identified the effect of the radial fences dividing those pens and not if he was merely to have been merely aware of a tunnel but to have identified what is the obvious hazard that is posed by the layout of pens 3 and 4, the tunnel leading directly to them, the passage of 10,100 through turnstiles A-G to be confronted by that “standing” sign.”
Click to expand...

Hillsborough: Updates from trial of David Duckenfield and Graham Mackrell
 
Prosecution opening
15:28 KEY EVENT
‘The risk of death was obvious, serious and present throughout the failings of David Duckenfield to show reasonable care’
RM continues:

“And it will ultimately be a matter for you, members of the jury, to consider, but the prosecution’s case is that it is no excuse or answer to suggest, if it be suggested, that Mr Duckenfield was entitled to rely upon the knowledge of others in this respect.

“He had the personal responsibility and accepted the personal command – at the very least he should have ensured that he identified potential confining points and hazards to safe entry; and such a failure to have that knowledge is so extraordinarily bad and such an extraordinary failure because such personal knowledge, you may think, is obviously central and essential to discharging the responsibility of match commander.

“We put it like this: if you are going to be responsible for making decisions, for accepting or rejecting advice or granting or refusing requests, then it is fundamental to the care that goes with command that you have personal knowledge of the situation.

“It’s personal knowledge that allows you to take an informed view in what may, again obviously, be or have become an urgent or pressing problem.

“That’s personal knowledge obviously central and essential to discharging the responsibility of match commander, because it was that the risk to people’s lives was obvious and serious:

“It is not in any way merely with hindsight that we can look back and see that there was an obvious, serious and very present risk of death from crushing to those entering the Leppings Lane.

“It is not solely because 96 people died towards the front of pens 3 and 4 crushed by the weight and push of the involuntary movement of those people behind them against the immovable solid wall and fence at the front of the pens.

“It involves no hindsight to read the warning words of the 1986 Green Guide concerning the ‘potential scale of death and injury at a crowded sporting event’.

“It involves no hindsight to recognise that there is a need to prevent too many people from entering a particular wholly confined area, bounded by metal fencing, that is to avoid crushing and that with crushing comes the real risk of death.

“And none of the geography of the pens and tunnel, the arrangements for entry of those designated to standing areas, and the view from just inside turnstiles A – G of that tunnel needed any hindsight to be identified as posing a risk of death – it just needed the personal knowledge of the match commander who was always going to be called upon to take decisions and give orders.

“That will be the Crown’s case, and will ultimately be a matter for you to decide, the Crown say that the risk of death was obvious, serious and present throughout the failings of David Duckenfield to show reasonable care.”


15:38
‘Pitch perimeter gates were not be opened unless permission was first obtained’
After a short break we return to court, with RM showing jurors footage from the introductory video.

On the morning of the match Chief Supt Duckenfield gave a briefing to all the officers.

RM says one of the witnesses jury will hear from is Fiona Nicol, who was on duty on that day.

She frequently policed football matches at Hillsborough. She mainly policed the area outside Leppings Lane turnstiles. On the day of the disaster, as part of serial 1, she was on the perimeter track towards the south stand.

She will describe her experience of the blue perimeter gates outside Leppings Lane turnstiles being closed on previous matches to prevent pushing against the turnstiles; to create a sterile area.

She also recalls an occasion prior to the disaster when the sergeant told officers to line up in front of the tunnel and send the fans to the pens at either side, because the central pens were too busy.

She was at the Ch Supt Duckenfield briefing and will describe what stuck in her mind - an instruction the pitch perimeter gates were not be opened unless permission was first obtained.


15:46
Fans ‘to find own level’
We hear how Liverpool and Notts Forest fans arrived at Hillsborough on the day of the tragedy.

By 2pm less than 20% had entered through A-G for the terrace.

We hear RM say that, prior to 2.15pm, according to a Sergeant Goddard, an Inspector Creaser came to the police control box.

Inspector Creaser wanted to know how fans would be directed into the pens.

RM: “Sergeant Goddard heard Mr Murray tell him that they were to find their own level.”

Supt Murray kept a handwritten log which stops at 2.21pm

RM: It appears that by 2.21pm, activity in the Police Control Box had increased to such a

degree he was unable to maintain his log of events.

About 2.22pm, Supt Roger Marshall was radioing for Leppings Lane to be closed to traffic.


15:47
Looking at turnstiles A-G and how many had passed through at different points prior to 1989 kick off
RM: By 2.15: 3,223 people had passed through turnstiles A-G. More than 6850 needed to pass through those 7 turnstiles in the 45 minutes to kick off.

By 2.30pm over 5,700 were still to enter via A-G.

Jurors will hear from Mr Houldsworth about his recollection in club control room. He and PC Guest aware of developing crush outside LL entrance and could hear over police radio police having problems outside.
Click to expand...

Hillsborough: Updates from trial of David Duckenfield and Graham Mackrell
 
Prosecution opening

15:50
‘Virtually impossible to contact police control box’
His recollection is after around 2.30pm it became virtually impossible for PC Guest to get through to police control box.

RM says he expects jurors to hear Duckenfield had ‘keenest view’ in the police control box.


16:00KEY EVENT
‘Without monitoring and supervision and closing of the tunnel when the central pens became full, find your own level was not a tactic at all. It was an abdication of responsibility.’
RM: “It is the prosecution case that an essential part of the policy of “find your own level” involved the monitoring and supervision of what was occurring and that this should have been obvious to anyone who had given the appropriate care to considering how the stadium would be filled by spectators on that day.”

RM adds: “Without monitoring and supervision and closing of the tunnel when the central pens became full, find your own level was not a tactic at all.

“It was an abdication of responsibility. There could not be a policy of finding your own level without the match commanders in the police control box operating very close supervision.“


16:00
Central pens posed ‘serious danger’
RM: It is the prosecution case it was obvious that potentially the central pens posed a serious danger.


16:01
"Are we going to get them all in, in time, Bernard?"
RM now tells the jury that, according to Sergeant Goddard, there was a discussion in the control box about the fact that the Nottingham parts of the ground were filling to a greater extent than Liverpool and there was no discussion about the police doing anything.

He does not recollect any difficulty contacting PC Guest in the SWFC control room by telephone.

He does recollect a concentration focused on Leppings Lane. He was, he will say, passing the information on to others in the control box, specifically Mr Murray.

But there was no discussion about the figures given.

RM: “According to Sergeant Goddard, at about 2.30pm Mr Duckenfield asked Mr Murray “Are we going to get them all in, in time, Bernard?” The response was, ‘Yes, we’ll get them in.’”


16:01
It appears ‘extremely packed’
RM: “Now we have the video that shows the build-up of the crowd around Leppings Lane – you may think that both the club cameras and the police cameras appear to show a “very significant” build up at the turnstiles by 2.15pm.

“More importantly the area in front of turnstiles A to G looks packed at 2.29pm.

“By 2.37pm the crowd in the Leppings Lane - there is no other way of describing it - appears extremely packed.”


16:08
Footage shows build up outside ground
The jury is now being played footage showing the build up of fans outside the ground. The court is also being shown what the cameras viewable in the police control box were shown.

16:10
Court adjourned - thank you for following
Following that footage being shown, the court has adjourned for the day. Thank you for reading my updates. I’ll have an overview of proceedings published later - you can keep an eye out for that in here, on my Twitter (@joe_thomas18) and on our dedicated trial Facebook page.

We’ll be back at 10.30am tomorrow.
Click to expand...
Hillsborough: Updates from trial of David Duckenfield and Graham Mackrell
 
I can't follow this thread as it is just too heartbreaking and over my own treshold limit. All what they went through that day and all the families suffering for all those years.

All I can say, Legally Bland, Thank You for all the important updates on the case and for imprinting them here so anyone can read it up in near future or even in many years from now on.

Bless
 
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