Hillsborough disaster: courts to be asked to quash inquest verdicts By Owen Gibson from The Guardian
The attorney general is to apply to quash the original inquest verdicts of "accidental death" for the 96 fans killed at Hillsborough in 1989, in a move welcomed by families of the victims of the football stadium disaster. Dominic Grieve QC told parliament he would apply to the high court to have the original verdicts overturned in the wake of new evidence revealed last month by the Hillsborough Independent Panel's report. "Having announced my decision, I will need further time to prepare the application so the strongest case can be made to the court," said Grieve. Because the deaths all arose from a "common chain of events", he said it would make sense to apply for all 96 verdicts to be quashed, but said he would take representations from the families of the victims on the matter. Trevor Hicks, chair of the Hillsborough Family Support Group, said the families would meet the attorney general to decide the likely next steps. "We are very pleased with the pace things are going at. We have waited 23 years; due process will have to take place. We are pleased he has pointed out it will be 96 fresh inquests. We didn't want any differentiation between those who might have been saved and those who would not," said Hicks, who lost two teenage daughters in the disaster on 15 April 1989. The panel's 395-page report, which was based on consideration of 450,000 pages of evidence, confirmed the reasons for the disaster as the unsafe stadium, a chaotic emergency response and police failings. It also laid bare the extent of the cover-up that followed as police attempted to shift the blame to the fans at the FA Cup Semi-Final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. At the Leppings Lane end of the ground, allocated to Liverpool fans, 96 people lost their lives and 760 were injured in the crush. The report revealed that up to 41 of the 96 victims had the "potential to survive" beyond the 3.15pm cut-off time imposed by the original coroner, prompting new questions over how many could have been saved had the emergency response been better. Liverpool MP Steve Rotheram said the original verdicts were patently unsound and Grieve's decision was one of the biggest steps forward in the families' fight for justice in the past 23 years. "For the first time in over two decades, all the evidence can now be reviewed into the disaster and potentially a new verdict recorded on the death certificates of the deceased," he said. "At long last, the full horror of Hillsborough will be on the public record alongside the names of the people and the organisations that are accountable for what happened." Grieve said it was not for him to direct where any new inquest should be held but the families will demand that it takes place in Liverpool rather than Sheffield. If a new coroner is appointed, he is expected to liaise with the families over whether a new inquest should proceed before any criminal or disciplinary charges that may arise. On Friday, the Independent Police Complaints Commission announced it would launch the largest ever review of police conduct in light of new evidence unearthed by the panel, and the director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer, said he would undertake a review of all the evidence to see if new charges of manslaughter could be brought against corporations or individuals. Lord Falconer, who is representing the families; group, called on Starmer to lead a single integrated process that took in the IPCC review and the Crown Prosecution Service's review of evidence. Sheila Coleman, of the Hillsborough Justice Campaign, called for a public inquiry to bring together the various strands of the response to the panel's report. "People are weary but still feeling they have to fight on all fronts. If there is any way all the strands could be brought together to give true transparency and accountability, then the HJC would welcome that," she told the home affairs select committee. The chief constable of South Yorkshire police, David Crompton, agreed with the assessment of MPs who labelled attempts by senior officers to blame fans for the disaster as "wrong and sick". Crompton said there were "around a hundred" officers still serving in the force who were on duty at Hillsborough, together with an estimated "600 or 700" who have since retired. He said he would provide all their names and addresses within a fortnight but would leave it to the IPCC to decide which officers to pursue. _______________________________________________ Leedslist mailing list Info and options: http://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/leedslist To unsubscribe, email [email protected] PETE CASS (1962 - 2011) Rest In Peace Mate
