Hillsborough disaster's families to get access to secret documents

Families of 96 Liverpool fans crushed to death at the Sheffield stadium in 1989 told they will see papers after long campaign

First for those that are not familiar with this tragic event, I will give you a quick background on it,

It was by far the darkest day in British football, if not the whole of football. It took place on the 15th April 1989 at the semi-finals between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest, the game was being played at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, England.

At the time of the disaster, UK football stadiums had huge steel fencing that separated the fans from the pitch, because of the ever increasing threat of hooliganism, which was at it's worst in the 70's, 80's. Fans would throw missles, invade pitches and cause violent clashes outside before and after games, so they sought it necessary to have these fences up.

Liverpool fans were seated in the 'Leppings Lane' end of the stadium, which only seated 14,600 people, even though Liverpool had many more supporters.

Police started to send Liverpool Fans through the turnstiles to the central pen, but when this pen filled up police failed to send the rest of the fans to the 'wing' pens, instead letting them into the central pen which was already filled. To try and relieve the pressure, police opened up Gate C, which was used as a exit at the end of the game, and with no police coordination, these fans all went to the central pen aswell, adding futher weight to the front of the crowd.

As a result from the vast number of people in the central pen, which should of only been 1,600 reduced from 2,200 because of 'crush barriers' which was put in place 3 years before, 96 Liverpool fans were crushed to death. It wasent even noticed for many minutes untill the poilce told the ref to stop the game, but was to late. Liverpool fans tried the save there fellow brother and sisters, but were denied from the police, who also denied the ambulances to enter and save any Liverpool fans needing treatment.

Out of the 96 that died, only 14 were taken to hospital, it was later said that the main reason for the disaster was the failure of police control.

That was a very quick summary of this tragic event from memory, there are many detailed sites which detail the event more then I have.

Now to the main point of the topic, after 23 years the poor familys finally get to see the detailed, 'secret' documents that the govenment have locked up.

The Hillsborough Independent Panel has analysed more than 400,000 pages of documents from 80 organisations concerning the disaster, in which 96 Liverpool fans were crushed to death on overcrowded terraces at the Sheffield Wednesday ground during the FA cup semi-final in April 1989. It will hand them over on 12 September – more than 23 years after the tragedy.

In a statement released on Wednesday, the panel said the documents would be disclosed to the families first, and it hoped that "by making this announcement today it will give the bereaved families sufficient time to prepare for the disclosure". It emphasised that one of the panel's central objectives had been consultation with the bereaved families.

They have had to handle 23 years of suffering while you held all the secrets and tried to cover everything up, trying to hide the fact that the police killed 96 people that day, and then had the audacity to try and blame it on 'drunken Liverpool fans, disgusting.

The most controversial element of the papers seen by the corporation was a briefing note to the prime minister at the time, Margaret Thatcher, days after the disaster. In the note, an unnamed senior police officer wrongly blamed drunken Liverpool fans for the disaster.

Lord Justice Taylor's official report into the disaster, in 1990, said the "great majority [of supporters] were not drunk or even the worse for drink", and that "some officers, seeking to rationalise their loss of control, overestimated the drunkenness in the crowd".

If they were that drunk why did they risk there own lives giving CPR and trying thier damn hardest to keep thier brothers and sisters alive.

I hope the families can finally have disclosure and some justice be served for what happend that day, they will never be forgotten and will always be in our hearts and songs.

YNWA JFT96



Was there that day, still get the chills listening to this.

Link

About freckin time. So is anyone gonna finally be held responsible? I understand that things could have gotten out of control and bad decisions were made; open gates, close gates, roads blocked etc. but to blame those who lost their lives when they were mere casualties is shameful.

RIP 96 YNWA

While not a 'pool fan lets hope the truth gets out but the skeptic in me says the only reason they're releasing it is due to the senior police who caused the problem have all retired on fat pensions so can't be called to account

But even worse I remember was the Sun newspaper and even to this day its considered unbuyable in Liverpool (quite rightly)

As a yound lad I remember the fencing/segregation going up at my local ground but luckily I never had any trouble mainly due to where I stood with my dad which was near a tunnel from the boothen end to the clubs built in pub and due to the fact that if we went we always went via that tunnel since a relative ran the pub so we got in for free but sometimes I can remember the crowds becoming almost lethal in a tense game

reply to post by Maxatoria


Yes perfectly put.

For those that dont know, the sun, owned by the scum that is Rupert Murdoch, reported that the Liverpool fans robbed the people that were dieing or who had died.

Which is why The Sun is taboo in Liverpool and so it should.

Now the truth is out, lets hope there are some serious repercussions for the scum that lied and covered up their own asses. This is evidence that authority cares only about themselves and will screw anyone to avoid taking responsibility for their failures. A very real conspiracy has been exposed here, and you can bet there are many others still waiting to be.