Hillsborough disaster: New findings call for action against police

New report questions Liverpool football match death total of 96, over two decades later...

16:44 13 September 2012

A report has revealed that some of the 96 Liverpool fans who died at Hillsborough in 1989, following a crush during the FA Cup semi-final, could have survived. Thousands attended a Vigil in Liverpool on Wednesday night in memory of the victims, on the same day the Hillsborough Independent Panel revealed their findings.

 

New revelations come from the scrutiny of some 450,000 pages of documents over the last year and a half, and there are claims that police made changes to witness statements in an attempt to blame Liverpool fans for the disaster. Loved ones had challenged the original inquest.

 

Reportedly the panel said that up to 41 victims could have been spared, and that some 116 police statements have been identified which are ‘unfavourable’ to South Yorkshire Police. Allegedly police and ambulance services tried to prove fans were drunk.

 

According to The Telegraph, the report states that Sheffield authorities were aware the football ground was unsafe.

 

PM David Cameron, who has apologised for a "double injustice" as suffering families were not backed up over original accusations, has said that Attorney General Dominic Grieve would be reviewing the new report to see if there is to be a new inquest. 

 

In a statement he said: "On behalf of the government – and indeed our country – I am profoundly sorry for this double injustice that has been left uncorrected for so long."

 

The Crown Prosecution Service could look to investigating state services such as the police, for attempting to pervert the course of justice, as well as misconduct in public, in the cover-up.

 

Former Chief constable of South Yorkshire police Richard Wells has told the Mail Online he was “disappointed and angry” at the exposed police failings, and that a prosecution would be “absolutely essential.”

 

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I don’t know how practical it is going to be now. But the inquest, if that is re-opened my help to shed further light on the details.”

 

South Yorkshire Chief Constable David Crompton told BBC Two's Newsnight programme there are no special provisions for police and they are to be treated like anybody else. He said: "My position is a very simple and straightforward one, which is that if people have broken the law then they should be prosecuted.”