Hillsborough. Police did doctor evidence in a bid to avoid blame.

[Darkesteyeswithflecksofgold]

A report in the Independent about the cover up. RIP to the people who lost their lives on 15th April 1989.
And condolences to the families who are still suffering.

www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/exclusive-hillsborough--police-did-doctor-evidence-in-bid-to-avoid-blame-8126233.html

Accounts like this one show the lengths that the families have had to go to to get answers about how their loved news died. They show how cruel it was to deny them the dignity of a decent inquest.

Kevin was fifteen when he died. If the other forty three waiting ambulances had been allowed into the ground, if he had been taken to hospital, if if if...it is entirely possible he would be alive today.

I grew up on Great Homer Street and remember my first school trip to Anfield in the 1970s. I still have photos of us lined up pretending to run out of the players tunnel and sitting on the managers bench.

For those who don't know and those too young to remember this is what happened at Hillsborough:

Most football grounds in 1989 had fixed metal fencing at the front of stands (between the crowd and the pitch) due to hooliganism in football. Sturdy, solid stuff. Grounds had standing areas rather than the all seater stadiums we now have in football - essentially really wide, concrete steps with the odd metal railing here and there and fixed, concrete sides. So basically, you had an enclosed space with fixed boundaries, and tiny entrances/exits. Because of this, the numbers allowed in had to be watched very carefully, as unlike now it wasn't a case of one person for every seat and then it's full. There was the potential for overcrowding and death.

Hillsborough was a big ground that was used for FA cup semi final matches. It was chosen for capacity and it's ability to host big matches (it was neither teams home ground.)

The police were manning the entrance to the stands. There were a lot of Liverpool fans who had been stuck in traffic and so, just prior to kick off, lots of people were trying to get into the ground through a very small entrance, resulting in a big mass of people outside the turnstiles.

The police took the decision to open gates into an already full area to ease the build up. People flooded in. Those going in had no idea of the situation in the stand as they had no view of it as they entered the gates. Those already in the stand were pushed forward by the flow of people into the metal fencing. They were being crushed to death. People continued to pour in.

And it was the fans who realised what was happening. It was the fans who tried to save their fellow fans lives

96 died. Hundreds more were injured.

I had to walk past a plaque for Kevin every day I was at secondary school, SuperBOF, I will never forget :(

I was almost 16 when the events at hillsborough occured. Im not from Liverpool. I am from and live in Essex but i remember watching it on the news that day and being utterly horrified.
I could be remembering this wrong but im sure some of the tv news initially reported it as hooliganism and vandalism.
I remember watching it on the news in total shock and despair. I knew it wasnt hooliganism or vandalism.
The cover ups the corruption. That bastard McKenzie printing his LIES.
Printing a complete fabrication when people including children had lost their lives.
And today i hear on the news that they even tested alcohol levels in the children so desperate were they to shift the blame. Christ almighty!
The relatives have shown determination and dignity. I send them my condolences and my support. JFT96.

Shit. Just fucking hell.

I was 9 when this happened and living in the south. I had NO idea what it was all about and suspect my parents kept the news images away from me.

I've never really read more than the headlines about inquiries/anniversaries since. Until today. I'm beyond horrified that this happened. I cannot even begin to imagine the fear and pain that those poor people went through.

I'm ashamed of my 23 years of ignorance now. And disgusted at the 23 years of lies families and injured people have had to endure.

I remember watching it unfold on tv with my family in our new(ish) home down south as tickets were like gold dust. There was a hammering at the front door and my sister went to open it. The parish priest ran in, looked around the room at everyone, burst into tears and said 'I thought you'd all gone'.

I vividly remember sitting down with my mum top watch the match, I was 13, both of us big football fans tho not Liverpool supporters. I remember thinking it was hooliganism at first and then sitting and watching the horror of it all unfold.

Now, as parent of kids who love football and I can only imagine taking/sending your kids to a match with them all excited about their team being in a semi-final and then them not coming home. To then have them blamed is beyond appalling.

I don't have much time for Cameron but he has done the right thing today. I hope this is the start of justice. I have so much respect and admiration for the families and their refusal to give up

Wot Bof said.

I was seven, lived in the south and had no interest in football, no tv but I still remember when it happened. I don't know how but I do.
Glad that the right answers are starting to be given.

I hope the families get the information they need. To live without knowing the truth must be so hard, and to live being told lies even harder.

Hopefully today goes someway in bringing them that truth, so that they can start to grieve properly, after all these years.

Hard reading for them, but essential to know.

It is, I think, also important to remember to that it wan't ALL of the police and ALL of the emergency services in Sheffield that were to blame, not even all of those who were in attendance. It will be down to key figures in those services, not really the ordinary officer/ambulance person, etc.

Pond life Kelvin McKenzie was on Any Questions on Radio 4 just two months ago. Owen Jones had a go at him and said he should apologise. Mckenzie refused to aplologise then too.

It is, I think, also important to remember to that it wan't ALL of the police and ALL of the emergency services in Sheffield that were to blame, not even all of those who were in attendance. It will be down to key figures in those services, not really the ordinary officer/ambulance person, etc.

This is very true. Anne Williams would not have known anything but the official lies if some of those who tried to save her son hadn't told her the truth. She says the the WPC who was with him when he died told her that his final word was "Mum" at 4.00pm. How utterly heartbreaking that the official line was that this never happened because he died before 3.15. :(

One thing I would say is, listening to the statement and Q&A session from the families, is they were such normal people. They are not people with great legal minds or with access to unlimited resources.

It has taken them 23 years, but they took on a massive machine of cover up and lies by the establishment, often under suspicion themselves, and they have eventually won.

I didn't believe today would ever come.

I'm so glad the truth has finally come. Now
I hope the families get the justice they and their loved ones deserve.

Jft96. Ynwa.

That 96 people died in the most horrible circumstances is shocking enough, that their families have had to wait 23 years for the truth and apologies is just shameful.

I don't know anyone involved, I was 9 when it happened and saw it unfold on television after coming hime with my mum to find my dad with tears in his eyes watching but I feel do proud and respectful of those families who have fought and fought for this day.
JFT96

Can I just ask, why did the police open the gates into an already full part of the football ground?

And The Sun is still boycotted by my family.

Saltnpepa - I think this would be one of the questions that needs a truthful answer.

According to the programme that was on the other night, there was no filtering system of fans outside the ground as there had been the year before, when Liverpool also played at Hillsborough.

Which meant that (copied from Narked's post above):
^The police were manning the entrance to the stands. There were a lot of Liverpool fans who had been stuck in traffic and so, just prior to kick off, lots of people were trying to get into the ground through a very small entrance, resulting in a big mass of people outside the turnstiles.

The police took the decision to open gates into an already full area to ease the build up. People flooded in. Those going in had no idea of the situation in the stand as they had no view of it as they entered the gates. Those already in the stand were pushed forward by the flow of people into the metal fencing. They were being crushed to death. People continued to pour in.^

I think lack of communication between inside and outside was an issue, but cannot be the full answer.

And by lack of communication, I mean among police, not fans, who cannot be expected to see through concrete walls and know what is going on. People who should know are those sitting with CCTV footage, or above the action in police surveillance boxes.

Also the pen where the crush happened was down a massive tunnel which is right in front of you when you enter. The entrances to the less busy pens were less visible and to the sides. People unfamiliar with the ground wouldn't have known there was any other way to go than straight on.

There were a lot of Liverpool fans who had been stuck in traffic

The trains were delayed by the police stopping and searching them three times.

Can I just ask, why did the police open the gates into an already full part of the football ground

Part of that was because the match was being televised and there had been complaints by various sources about the kick off times being held up.

The police were pandering to other sources rather tahn carryout their public safety duties

That is one reason, anyway.

I had numerous friends there, one died, i watched the tradegy unfold on television.

Growlithe they deliberately destroyed evidence. Thank God your brothers friend kept another set of the photos.

I vividly remember that day, although I was only a child. We were watching on the tv. I had been taken to football matches by family before that and this was the first tragedy that really touched me. This could have been my family at any stadium.
The behaviour and mismanagement of the authorities that day was disgusting but the lies and treatment of the bereaved in the years after is unforgivable. Let's hope justice will finally be made.