Hillsborough: 23 years on, the real truth revealed

[Alsatian]

"The Hillsborough stadium disaster led to the "the biggest cover-up in history", it has been claimed as a new report disclosed the extent to which police doctored statements and tried to blame innocent fans.

Hillsborough report key findings:

• Police carried out criminal record checks on deceased to 'impugn reputations'
• Senior officers privately discussed 'animalistic behaviour' of 'drunken marauding fans'
• New evidence suggests dozens survived past 3.15pm inquest cut-off point
• 116 of the 164 South Yorkshire Police statements were doctored
• South Yorkshire Ambulance Service evidence was misleading
• No evidence to support police account that fans were drunk and aggressive
• Margaret Thatcher expressed concern in Cabinet that the first inquiry into the disaster contained 'devastating criticism of the police'
• Weight placed on blood alcohol levels among the dead was 'inappropriate'
• The Sun's allegations originated from police and a local MP

"Prosecutions for manslaughter and perverting the course of justice against public bodies and officials could be considered while the discredited inquests into the 96 deaths are almost certain to be re-opened. There are also calls for a fresh public inquiry to question those involved."

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/liverpool/9539424/Hillsborough-prosecutions-likely-over-the-biggest-cover-up-in-history.html


Absolutely shocking. Let alone the fact that the whole incident was covered up by the police due to their failure in dealing with the situation, but for 23 years!

Even more disgusting is the fact that the fans were described by the police as drunken, violent hooligans, when they were in fact completely innocent. The fans were also supposedly urinating and stealing from the dead.

I was listening to TalkSport tonight, and Bruce Grobbelaar, Liverpool's goalkeeper at the time of the disaster, spoke about how fans were screaming at him "Bruce, please help us, they're killing us" and the fact that he can still remember their faces and the look of fear that was in them.

[Gandalf]

So exactly who were killing them? The Police ?

[TheRock]

I was actually shocked that 116 duty reports of officers who were right there when it happent, were just 'vanished' before reaching to the hands of prince back then....

[Dark/Light]

Will never happen, but I'd love to see the police who were there that day charged. Perverting the course of justice at the very least...

[Alsatian]

So exactly who were killing them? The Police ?

They died through the police's poor control of the situation. Just before the match kicked off, thousands of Liverpool fans were still arriving, desperate to get in before the match had begun. Due to the slow movement at the turnstiles, police opened Gate C (an exit gate) to ease the build up of fans outside the stadium. However, when they did this, they did not close off the tunnel. As a result, there was a influx of fans into pens 3 and 4 which eventually led to the extreme crushing. The number of fans inside those pens was around double that of the 'safe' capacity.

You can read about this more in detail here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7992845.stm - there's also a brilliant graph showing the series of events leading up to the disaster.