The Hillsborough disaster was a fatal crowd crush at a football match at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, on 15 April 1989. It occurred during an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest in the two standing-only central pens within the Leppings Lane stand, which were allocated to Liverpool supporters. Shortly before kick-off, police match commander David Duckenfield ordered exit gate C to be opened in an attempt to ease crowding, which led to an influx of supporters entering the pens. This resulted in overcrowding of those pens and the fatal crush; with a total of 97 fatalities and 766 injuries, the disaster is the deadliest in British sporting history. Ninety-four people died on the day; one more died in the hospital days later, and two more suffered irreversible brain damage on the day and died in 1993 and 2021, respectively. The match was abandoned and replayed at Old Trafford in Manchester on 7 May 1989; Liverpool won and went on to win that season's FA Cup.
In the following days and weeks, South Yorkshire Police (SYP) fed the press false stories suggesting that football hooliganism and drunkenness by Liverpool supporters had caused the disaster. Blaming Liverpool fans persisted even after the Taylor Report of 1990, which found that the main cause was a failure of crowd control by the SYP. Following the Taylor Report, the Director of Public Prosecutions ruled there was no evidence to justify the prosecution of any individuals or institutions. The disaster led to several safety improvements in the largest English football grounds, notably the elimination of fenced standing terraces in favor of all-seater stadiums in the top two tiers of English football.
The first coroner's inquests into the Hillsborough disaster, completed in 1991, concluded with verdicts of "accidental death" in respect of all the deceased. Families disputed the findings and fought to have the case reopened. In 1997, Lord Justice Stuart-Smith concluded that there was no justification for a new inquiry. Private prosecutions brought by the Hillsborough Family Support Group against Duckenfield and his deputy Bernard Murray failed in 2000. In 2009, a Hillsborough Independent Panel was formed to review the evidence. Reporting in 2012, it confirmed Taylor's 1990 criticisms and revealed details about the extent of police efforts to shift blame onto fans, the role of other emergency services, and the errors of the first coroner's inquests. The panel's report resulted in the previous findings of accidental death being quashed, and the creation of new coroner's inquests. It also produced two criminal investigations led by police in 2012: Operation Resolve to look into the causes of the disaster, and by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) to examine actions by police in the aftermath.
The second coroner's inquests were held from 1 April 2014 to 26 April 2016. They ruled that the supporters were unlawfully killed owing to grossly negligent failures by police and ambulance services to fulfil their duty of care. The inquests also found that the design of the stadium contributed to the crush and that supporters were not to blame for the dangerous conditions. Public anger over the actions of their force during the second inquests led to the suspension of the SYP chief constable, David Crompton, following the verdict. In June 2017, six people were charged with offences including manslaughter by gross negligence, misconduct in public office, and perverting the course of justice for their actions during and after the disaster. The Crown Prosecution Service subsequently dropped all charges against one of the defendants.
Before the disaster
Venue
Hillsborough Stadium was constructed in 1899 to house Sheffield Wednesday. It was selected by the Football Association (FA) as a neutral venue to host the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest Football Clubs. Kick-off was scheduled for 3:00 pm on 15 April 1989, and fans were advised to take up positions 15 minutes beforehand.
At the time of the disaster, most English football stadiums had high steel fencing between the spectators and the playing field in response to pitch invasions. Hooliganism had affected the sport for some years and was particularly virulent in England. Since 1974, when these security standards were put in place, crushes had occurred in several English stadiums.
A report by Eastwood & Partners for a safety certificate for the stadium in 1978 concluded that although it failed to meet the recommendations of the Green Guide, a guide to safety at sports grounds, the consequences were minor. It emphasised that the general situation at Hillsborough was satisfactory compared with most grounds. Sheffield Wednesday were later criticised for neglecting safety in the stadium, especially after an incident in the semi-final of the 1981 FA Cup. The Leppings Lane end of the ground did not hold a valid safety certificate at the time of the disaster; it had not been updated since 1979.
Risks associated with confining fans in pens were highlighted by the Committee of Inquiry into Crowd Safety at Sports Grounds (the Popplewell inquiry) after the Bradford City stadium fire in May 1985. It made recommendations on the safety of crowds penned within fences, including that "all exit gates should be manned at all times ... and capable of being opened immediately from the inside by anyone in an emergency".
Previous incidents
Hillsborough hosted five FA Cup semi-finals in the 1980s. During the 1981 semi-final between Tottenham Hotspur and Wolverhampton Wanderers, a crush occurred at the Leppings Lane end of the ground after hundreds more spectators were permitted to enter the terrace than could safely be accommodated, resulting in 38 injuries, including broken arms, legs, and ribs. Police believed there would have been a real chance of fatalities had swift action not been taken, and recommended that the club reduce its capacity. In a post-match briefing to discuss the incident, Sheffield Wednesday chairman Bert McGee remarked: "Bollocks – no one would have been killed". The incident nonetheless prompted Sheffield Wednesday to alter the layout at the Leppings Lane end, dividing the terrace into three separate pens to restrict sideways movement. This particular change, and other later alterations to the stadium, invalidated the stadium's safety certificate, which was not renewed, and the stated capacity of the stadium was never changed. The terrace was divided into five pens when the club was promoted to the First Division in 1984, and a crush barrier near the access tunnel was removed in 1986 to improve the flow of fans entering and exiting the central enclosure.
After the crush in 1981, Hillsborough was not selected to host an FA Cup semi-final again until 1987. Significant overcrowding was observed at the ground during that year's quarter-final between Sheffield Wednesday and Coventry City, and again during the semi-final between Coventry City and Leeds United. The Leeds fans were assigned the Leppings Lane end for the semi-final; one fan described disorganisation at the turnstiles and no steward or police direction inside the stadium, resulting in the crowd in one enclosure becoming so compressed that he was at times unable to raise and clap his hands. Other accounts told of fans having to be pulled to safety from above.
Liverpool and Nottingham Forest met in the semi-final at Hillsborough in 1988, and fans again reported crushing at the Leppings Lane end. Liverpool lodged a complaint before the match in 1989. One supporter wrote to the Football Association and the Minister for Sport: "The whole area was packed solid to the point where it was impossible to move and where I, and others around me, felt considerable concern for personal safety."
South Yorkshire Police command changes
South Yorkshire Police (SYP) presence at the previous year's FA Cup semi-final (also between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest and also at Hillsborough Stadium) had been overseen by Chief Superintendent Brian L. Mole. Mole had supervised numerous police deployments at the stadium in the past. In October 1988, a probationary PC in Mole's F division, South Yorkshire, was handcuffed, photographed, and stripped by fellow officers in a fake robbery, as a hazing prank. Four officers resigned, and seven were disciplined over the incident. Chief Superintendent Mole himself was to be transferred to the Barnsley division for "career development reasons". The transfer was to be done with immediate effect on 27 March 1989.
Meanwhile, Hillsborough was accepted as the FA Cup semi-final venue on 20 March 1989 by the Football Association. The first planning meeting for the semi-final took place on 22 March and was attended by newly promoted Chief Superintendent David Duckenfield, not by Mole. No known minutes exist of this meeting. Although Mole could have been assigned the semi-final match's planning despite his transfer, that was not done. This left planning for the semi-final match to Duckenfield, who had never commanded a sell-out football match before, and who had "very little, if any," training or personal experience in how to do so.
Disaster
Leppings Lane was the sole access point for Liverpool fans. The approach has been described as a "bottleneck" from which two sides of the stadium were being filled.
Access to the stadium
As is common practice at domestic football matches in England, opposing supporters were segregated in and around the stadium. Nottingham Forest were allocated the South Stand and Spion Kop, with a combined capacity of 29,800 spectators, reached by 60 turnstiles spaced along the south and east sides of the ground. Liverpool were allocated the North Stand and West Stand, with a combined capacity of 24,256 spectators, reached by 23 turnstiles from a narrow concourse off Leppings Lane. Ten turnstiles (numbered 1 to 10) provided access to 9,700 seats in the North Stand, six turnstiles (numbered 11 to 16) provided access to 4,456 seats in the upper tier of the West Stand, and a further seven turnstiles (lettered A to G) gave access to 10,100 standing places in the lower tier of the West Stand. Although a greater number of Liverpool supporters were expected to attend the match, Forest had been allocated the larger spectator area to avoid the approach routes of rival fans crossing. As a result of the stadium layout and the segregation policy, the additional turnstiles that would normally have allowed access to the North Stand from the east were not being used, and the Liverpool fans were forced to converge on the single entrance at Leppings Lane. On the day of the match, radio and television broadcasters were advising anyone without a ticket not to attend. Rather than establishing crowd safety as their top priority, the clubs, local authorities, and police viewed their roles and responsibilities through the 'lens of hooliganism'.
Build-up
Three chartered trains had transported Liverpool supporters to Sheffield for the 1988 semi-final, but only one such train was provided in 1989. The 350 passengers arrived at the ground at about 2:20 pm. Many of the supporters wished to enjoy the day and were in no hurry to enter the stadium too early. Some were delayed by roadworks while crossing the Pennines on the M62 motorway, which resulted in minor traffic congestion. Between 2:30 pm and 2:40 pm, there was a build-up of supporters outside the turnstiles facing Leppings Lane, eager to enter the stadium before the game started. At 2:46 pm, the BBC's football commentator John Motson had already noticed the uneven distribution of people in the Leppings Lane pens, and while rehearsing for the match off-air, he had suggested a nearby cameraman look as well. "There are gaps, you know, in parts of the ground. Well, if you look at the Liverpool end, to the right of the goal, there's hardly anybody on those steps... that's it. Look down there."
A bottleneck developed outside the stadium, with more fans arriving than could be safely filtered through the turnstiles before the 3:00 pm kick-off. People presenting tickets at the wrong turnstiles and those who had been refused entry were blocked from leaving because of the crowd behind them, and remained as an obstruction. Fans outside the ground could hear cheering as the teams came onto the pitch ten minutes before the start of the match, and as the match kicked off, but could not gain entrance. A police constable radioed control requesting that the game be delayed, as had happened in 1987, to ensure the safe passage of supporters into the ground, but the request to delay the kick-off by 20 minutes was declined.
By this time, an estimated 5,000 fans were trying to enter through the turnstiles. Amid increasing safety concerns and to avoid fatalities outside the ground, the police opened a large exit gate (Gate C) that ordinarily permitted the free flow of supporters departing the stadium after a match. Two more gates (A and B) were subsequently opened to further relieve the pressure. After an initial rush, thousands of supporters entered the stadium "steadily at a fast walk".
Crush
When the gates were opened, thousands of fans entered a narrow tunnel leading from the rear of the terrace into two overcrowded central pens (pens 3 and 4), creating pressure at the front. Hundreds of people were pressed against one another and the fencing by the weight of the crowd behind them. People entering were unaware of the problems at the front of the pens; police or stewards would normally stand at the entrance to the tunnel and, if the central pens reached capacity, they would direct people to the side pens, but that did not happen on this occasion, for reasons not fully explained.
The match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest started at 3:00 pm, as scheduled. Fans were still streaming into pens 3 and 4 from the rear entrance tunnel as the match began. For some time, problems at the front of the Liverpool central goal pens went largely unnoticed except by those inside the pens and a few police at that end of the pitch. Liverpool's goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar later reported that fans behind him were pleading with him for help as the situation worsened. At first, the police made attempts to stop people from spilling out of the pens, some believing this to be a pitch invasion. At approximately 3:04 pm, a shot from Liverpool's Peter Beardsley hit the crossbar; possibly connected to the excitement, a surge in pen 3 caused one of its metal crush barriers to give way.
Police superintendent Roger Greenwood (the most senior SYP officer in command inside the ground on the day) realized the situation, and ran onto the field to gain the attention of referee Ray Lewis, who stopped the match at 3:05:30. At this point, people were climbing the fence at the front of the pens in an effort to escape the crush and get to the pitchside. A small gate in the fence had been forced open, and some fans managed to escape via this route, while others continued to climb over the fencing. Some were pulled to safety by people at the front of the upper tier of the West Stand above the Leppings Lane terrace. The intensity of the crush broke more crush barriers on the terrace. Holes were made in the perimeter fencing by fans desperately attempting to rescue others.
The crowd in the Leppings Lane terrace spilled onto the pitch, where the many injured and traumatised fans who had climbed to safety congregated. The football players were ushered to their dressing rooms and informed that there would be a 30-minute postponement. The people still trapped in the pens were packed so tightly that many victims died of compressive asphyxia while standing. Meanwhile, on the pitch, police, stewards, and members of the St John Ambulance service were overwhelmed. Many uninjured fans were assisting the injured; several attempted CPR, and others tore down advertising hoardings to use as makeshift stretchers. SYP chief superintendent John Nesbit later briefed Michael Shersby MP, at a Police Federation meeting in October 1989, that allowing the fans to help with the rescue effort was a deliberate strategy "otherwise they might have turned their frustration on the police."
SYMAS response
The agreed protocol for the South Yorkshire Metropolitan Ambulance Service (SYMAS) was that ambulances were to queue at the entrance to the gymnasium under the North Stand, termed the casualty reception point, or CRP. Any individuals within the stadium who were seriously injured were to be delivered expeditiously by police and paramedics to the CRP to receive medical attention. The system of ferrying the injured from any location within the stadium to the CRP required a formal declaration to be made by those in charge for it to take effect. As this declaration was not immediately performed, there was confusion among those attempting to administer aid on the pitch. This indecision migrated to the first responders waiting in ambulances at the CRP, which quickly deteriorated into an ambulance car park. Some crews were hesitant to leave their vehicles, unsure of whether patients were coming to them, or vice versa. Others who did leave their vehicles were then faced with the obstacles inherent in placing distance between themselves and their equipment. As the Panel explained in their report:
The equipment was no use on the ambulance vehicle when critical early resuscitation was taking place some distance away on the pitch, behind the Leppings Lane end, and in the gymnasium. Some ambulance crews did take equipment when they left their vehicle, but there was no systematic direction to do so; not all did, and none initially had been given any information about the situation inside the stadium.
A total of 42 ambulances arrived at the stadium. Two ambulances managed to make their way onto the pitch of their own accord, and a third entered the field at the direction of deputy chief ambulance officer Alan Hopkins, who felt its visibility might allay crowd concerns. The remaining 39 ambulances were collectively able to transport approximately 149 people to either Northern General Hospital, Royal Hallamshire Hospital, or Barnsley Hospital for treatment.
The adverse comments of two doctors regarding the emergency response appeared in the media. Their views were not "a maverick view from a disaffected minority but the considered opinion of the majority of professionals present from the outset."
Reactions
Condolences flooded in from across the world, led by Queen Elizabeth II. Other messages came from Pope John Paul II, US President George H. W. Bush, and the chief executive of Juventus (fans of Liverpool and Juventus had been involved in the Heysel Stadium disaster), amongst many others.
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Home Secretary Douglas Hurd visited Hillsborough the day after the disaster and met survivors. Anfield Stadium was opened on Sunday to allow fans to pay tribute to the dead. Thousands of fans visited, and the stadium was filled with flowers, scarves, and other tributes. In the following days, more than 200,000 people visited the "shrine" inside the stadium. The following Sunday, a link of football scarves spanning the 1 mile (1.6 km) distance across Stanley Park from Goodison Park to Anfield was created, with the final scarf in position at 3:06 pm. Elsewhere on the same day, a silence – opened with an air-raid siren at three o'clock – was held in central Nottingham with the colors of Forest, Liverpool, and Wednesday adorning Nottingham Council House.
At Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, a requiem mass attended by 3,000 people was held by the Catholic Archbishop of Liverpool, Derek Worlock. The first reading was read by Liverpool goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar. Liverpool players Ronnie Whelan, Steve Nicol, and former manager Joe Fagan carried the communion bread and wine.
The FA chief executive Graham Kelly, who had attended the match, said the FA would conduct an inquiry into what had happened. Speaking after the disaster, Kelly backed all-seater stadiums, saying "We must move fans away from the ritual of standing on terraces". Standing on terraces and the use of perimeter fencing around the pitch, the use of CCTV, the timing of football matches, and policing of sporting events were factors for a subsequent inquiry to consider.
UEFA President Jacques Georges caused controversy by describing the Liverpool supporters as "beasts", wrongly suggesting that hooliganism was the cause of the disaster, which had occurred less than four years after the Heysel Stadium disaster. His remarks led to Liverpool F.C. calling for his resignation, but he apologised on discovering hooliganism was not the cause.
At the 1989 FA Cup final between Liverpool and local rivals Everton, held just five weeks after the Hillsborough disaster, the players from both participating teams wore black armbands as a gesture of respect to the victims.
During the final match of the 1988–89 Football League season, contested on 26 May 1989 between Liverpool and second-place Arsenal, the Arsenal players presented flowers to fans in different parts of Anfield in memory of those who had died in the Hillsborough disaster.
Disaster appeal fund
A disaster appeal fund was set up with donations of £500,000 from the UK Government, £100,000 from Liverpool F.C., and £25,000 each from the cities of Liverpool, Sheffield, and Nottingham. The Liverpool F.C. donation was the amount the club would have received (as its share of the match income) had the semi-final gone ahead as planned. Within days, donations had passed £1 million, swelled by donations from individuals, schools, and businesses. Other fundraising activities included a Factory Records benefit concert and several fundraising football matches. The two teams involved in the Bradford City stadium fire, Bradford City and Lincoln City, met for the first time since the 1985 disaster in a game that raised £25,000 for the Hillsborough fund. By the time the appeal closed in 1990, it had raised more than £12 million. Much of the money went to victims and relatives of those involved in the disaster and provided funds for a college course to improve the hospital phase of emergency care.
In May 1989, a charity version of the Gerry and the Pacemakers song "Ferry Cross the Mersey" was released in aid of those affected. The record was produced by Stock Aitken Waterman and featured Liverpool musicians Paul McCartney, Gerry Marsden (of the Pacemakers), Holly Johnson, and The Christians. It entered the UK Singles Chart at number 1 on 20 May, and remained at the top of the chart for three weeks. Despite having stronger ties to Liverpool F.C., Gerry and the Pacemakers' earlier hit "You'll Never Walk Alone" was not used because it had recently been re-recorded for the Bradford City stadium fire appeal.
Effect on survivors
By the disaster's 10th anniversary in 1999, at least three people who survived were known to have taken their own lives. Another survivor had spent eight years in psychiatric care. There were cases of alcoholism, drug abuse, and collapsed marriages involving people who had witnessed the events. The lingering effects of the disaster were seen as a cause or contributory factor in all of these.
Victims
In total, ninety-seven people died as a result of injuries incurred during the disaster. Ninety-four people, aged from 10 to 67 years old, died on the day, either at the stadium, in the ambulances, or shortly after arrival at the hospital. A total of 766 people were reported to have suffered injuries, among whom 300 were hospitalised. The less seriously injured survivors who did not live in the Sheffield area were advised to seek treatment for their injuries at hospitals nearer to their homes. On 19 April, the number of deaths reached 95 when 14-year-old Lee Nicol died in hospital after being taken off life support. The 96th victim died in March 1993, when artificial feeding and hydration were withdrawn from 22-year-old Tony Bland after nearly four years, during which time he had remained in a persistent vegetative state showing no sign of improvement. This followed a legal challenge in the High Court by his family to have his treatment withdrawn, a landmark challenge which succeeded in November 1992.
Andrew Devine, aged 22 at the time of the disaster, suffered similar injuries to Tony Bland and was also diagnosed as being in a persistent vegetative state. In March 1997 – just before the eighth anniversary of the disaster – it was reported he had emerged from the condition and was able to communicate using a touch-sensitive pad, and he had been showing signs of awareness of his surroundings for up to three years before. Devine died in 2021, as a consequence of the injuries sustained at Hillsborough; the coroner ruled that he had been unlawfully killed and thus the 97th fatality of the disaster.
Two sisters, three pairs of brothers, and a father and son were among those who died, as were two men about to become fathers for the first time: 25-year-old Steven Brown of Wrexham and 30-year-old Peter Thompson of Widnes. Jon-Paul Gilhooley, aged 10, was the youngest person to die. His cousin, Steven Gerrard, then aged 8, went on to become Liverpool F.C.'s captain. Gerrard has said the disaster inspired him to lead the team he supported as a boy and become a top professional football player. The oldest person to die at Hillsborough was 67-year-old Gerard Baron, the older brother of former Liverpool player Kevin Baron.
Stephen Whittle is considered by some to be another victim of Hillsborough, as due to work commitments, he had sold his ticket to a friend (whom he and his family chose not to identify), who then died in the disaster; the resulting feeling of survivor guilt is believed to be the main reason he took his own life at age 50 in February 2011. In addition, it was also noted that Whittle became withdrawn from friends and family, and was unable to go to football matches due to his guilt and related feeling of responsibility for his friend's death.
The majority of victims who died were from Liverpool (38) and Greater Merseyside (20). A further 20 were from counties adjacent to Merseyside. An additional three victims came from Sheffield, with two more living in counties adjacent to South Yorkshire. The remaining 14 victims lived in other parts of England.
Ages
Of those who died, 79 were aged under 30, 38 of whom were under 20, and all but three of the victims were aged under 50.
Inquests into the deaths were opened and adjourned immediately after the disaster.
Resumed on 19 November 1990, they proved to be controversial. South Yorkshire coroner Stefan Popper limited the main inquests to events up to 3:15 pm on the day of the disaster – nine minutes after the match was halted and the crowd spilled onto the pitch. Popper said this was because the victims were either dead or brain-dead by 3:15 pm. The decision angered the families, many of whom felt the inquests were unable to consider the response of the police and other emergency services after that time. The inquests returned verdicts of accidental death on 26 March 1991, much to the dismay of the bereaved families, who had been hoping for a verdict of unlawful killing or an open verdict, and for manslaughter charges to be brought against the officers who had been present at the disaster. Trevor Hicks, whose two daughters had been killed, described the verdicts as 'lawful' but 'immoral'.
Popper's decision regarding the cut-off time was subsequently endorsed by the Divisional Court, which considered it to have been justified in the light of the medical evidence available to him. Relatives later failed to have the inquests reopened to allow more scrutiny of police actions and closer examination of the circumstances of individual cases.
Families believed that Popper was 'too close' to the police. After the verdicts, Barry Devonside, who had lost his son, witnessed Popper hosting a celebration party with police officers.
One of the individual cases where the circumstances of death were not fully resolved was that of Kevin Williams, the fifteen-year-old son of Anne Williams. Anne Williams, who died in 2013, rejected the coroner's decision that the Hillsborough victims, including her son, had died before 3:15 pm, citing witness statements that described him showing signs of life at 4:00 pm. She unsuccessfully appealed to the European Court of Human Rights in 2009. The Hillsborough Independent Panel considered the available evidence and stated that "the initial pathologist's opinion appeared definitive, but further authoritative opinions raised significant doubts about the accuracy of that initial opinion."
Popper had excluded the witness evidence of two qualified Merseyside doctors (John Ashton and Glyn Phillips) who had been inside the stadium on the day and who had been critical of the chaotic emergency response. The views of both were dismissed by the Taylor report. They both gave evidence at the 2016 Warrington inquests. Phillips stated that the exclusion of their evidence was a 'serious error of judgement' by Popper. He said that he 'could not fathom why he didn't call us, other than he specifically did not want to hear our evidence, in which case the first inquests were colored and flawed before they even started'.
Ashton and Phillips were not the only doctors present at the disaster not to be called to give evidence to the Popper inquests. The only one called was the Sheffield Wednesday club doctor.
Taylor Inquiry
After the disaster, Lord Justice Taylor was appointed to conduct an inquiry into the events. The Taylor Inquiry sat for a total of 31 days (between 15 May and 29 June 1989) and published two reports: an interim report (1 August 1989), which laid out the events of the day and immediate conclusions; and a final report (19 January 1990), which outlined general recommendations on football ground safety. The two publications together became known as the Taylor Report.
Taylor concluded that policing on the day "broke down" and "the main reason for the disaster was the failure of police control". Attention was focused on the decision to open the secondary gates; moreover, the kick-off should have been delayed, as had been done at other venues and matches.
Sheffield Wednesday was also criticised for the inadequate number of turnstiles at the Leppings Lane end and the poor quality of the crush barriers on the terraces, "respects in which failure by the Club contributed to this disaster".
Police control
Taylor found there was "no provision" for controlling the entry of spectators into the turnstile area. He dismissed the claim by senior police officers that they had no reason to anticipate problems, since congestion had occurred at both the 1987 and 1988 semi-finals. He said that "the Operational Order and police tactics on the day failed to provide for controlling a concentrated arrival of large numbers should that occur in a short period. That it might so occur was foreseeable". The failure by the police to give the order to direct fans to empty areas of the stadium was described by Taylor as "a blunder of the first magnitude".
There was no means for calculating when individual enclosures had reached capacity. A police officer ordinarily made a visual assessment before guiding fans to other pens. However, on the day of the disaster, "by 2:52 pm when gate C was opened, pens 3 and 4 were over-full to allow any more into those pens was likely to cause injuries; to allow in a large stream was courting disaster".
The report noted that the official capacity of the central pens was 2,200, that the Health and Safety Executive found this should have been reduced to 1,693 due to crush barriers and perimeter gates, but actually an estimated 3,000 people were in the pens around 3:00 pm. The report said, "When spectators first appeared on the track, the immediate assumption in the control room was that a pitch invasion was threatened. This was unlikely at the beginning of a match. It became still less likely when those on the track made no move towards the pitch. ... [T]here was no effective leadership either from control or on the pitch to harness and organize rescue efforts. No orders were given for officers to enter the tunnel and relieve pressure. Further, that: "The anxiety to protect the sanctity of the pitch has caused insufficient attention to be paid to the risk of a crush due to overcrowding".
Regarding the decision to allocate Liverpool spectators to the West and North Ends, Taylor stated, "I do not consider the choice of ends was causative of the disaster. Had it been reversed, the disaster could well have occurred similarly but to Nottingham supporters".
Lord Taylor noted about the performance of the senior police officers in command that "...neither their handling of the problems on the day nor their account of it in evidence showed the qualities of leadership to be expected of their rank".
Behavior of fans
Lord Taylor concluded that the behaviour of Liverpool fans, including accusations of drunkenness, was a secondary factor, and said that most fans were: "not drunk, nor even the worse for drink". He concluded that this formed an exacerbating factor but that police, seeking to rationalise their loss of control, overestimated the element of drunkenness in the crowd.
The report dismissed the theory, put forward by South Yorkshire Police, that fans attempting to gain entry without tickets or with forged tickets were contributing factors.
Emergency response
Taylor concluded that in responding to the disaster, there had been no fault on the part of the emergency services (St John Ambulance, South Yorkshire Metropolitan Ambulance Service, and fire brigade).
Police evasion
Taylor concluded his criticism of South Yorkshire Police by describing senior officers in command as "defensive and evasive witnesses" who refused to accept any responsibility for error: "In all, some 65 police officers gave oral evidence at the Inquiry. Sadly, I must report that for the most part the quality of their evidence was in inverse proportion to their rank". Further stating: "South Yorkshire Police were not prepared to concede they were in any respect at fault in what occurred. ... [T]he police case was to blame the fans for being late and drunk, and to blame the Club for failing to monitor the pens. ... Such an unrealistic approach gives cause for anxiety as to whether lessons have been learnt".
Effect on stadiums in Britain
The Taylor Report had a deep impact on safety standards for stadiums in the UK. Perimeter and lateral fencing were removed, and many top stadiums were converted to all-seated. Purpose-built stadiums for Premier League and most Football League teams since the report are all-seater.
In July 1992, the government announced a relaxation of the regulations for the lower two English leagues (known now as League One and League Two). The Football Spectators Act does not cover Scotland, but the Scottish Premier League chose to make all-seater stadiums a requirement of league membership; this has not applied since the creation of the Scottish Professional Football League in 2013. In England and Wales, all-seating is a requirement of the Premier League and of the Football League for clubs that have been present in the Championship for more than three seasons. Several campaigns have attempted to get the government to relax the regulations and allow standing areas to return to Premiership and Championship grounds.
Stuart-Smith scrutiny
In May 1997, when the Labour Party came into office, Home Secretary Jack Straw ordered an investigation. It was performed by Lord Justice Stuart-Smith. The appointment of Stuart-Smith was not without controversy. At a meeting in Liverpool with relatives of those involved in Hillsborough in October 1997, he flippantly remarked, "Have you got a few of your people, or are they like the Liverpool fans, turn up at the last minute?" He later apologised for his remark, saying it was not intended to offend. The terms of reference of his inquiry were limited to "new evidence", that is, "...evidence which was not available or was not presented to the previous inquiries, courts or authorities." Therefore, evidence such as witness statements that had been altered was classed as inadmissible. When he presented his report in February 1998, he concluded that there was insufficient evidence for a new inquiry into the disaster. In paragraph 5 of his summary, Lord Justice Stuart-Smith said:
I have come to the clear conclusion that there is no basis upon which there should be a further Judicial Inquiry or a reopening of Lord Taylor's Inquiry. There is no basis for a renewed application to the Divisional Court or for the Attorney General to exercise his powers under the Coroners Act 1988. I do not consider that there is any material which should be put before the Director of Public Prosecutions or the Police Complaints Authority which might cause them to reconsider the decisions they have already taken. Nor do I consider that there is any justification for setting up any further inquiry into the performance of the emergency and hospital services. I have considered the circumstances in which alterations were made to some of the self-written statements of South Yorkshire Police officers, but I do not consider that there is any occasion for any further investigation.
Importantly, Stuart-Smith's report supported the coroner's assertion that evidence after 3:15 pm was inadmissible as "that by 3:15 pm the principal cause of death, that is, the crushing, was over." This was controversial as the subsequent response of the police and emergency services would not be scrutinised. Announcing the report to the House of Commons, Home Secretary Jack Straw backed Stuart-Smith's findings and said that "I do not believe that a further inquiry could or would uncover significant new evidence or provide any relief for the distress of those who have been bereaved." However, the determination by Stuart-Smith was heavily criticised by the Justice Minister, Lord Falconer, who stated, "I am absolutely sure that Sir Murray Stuart-Smith came completely to the wrong conclusion". Falconer added: "It made the families in the Hillsborough disaster feel that after one establishment cover-up, here was another."
Hillsborough Independent Panel
The Hillsborough Independent Panel was instituted in 2009 by the British government to investigate the Hillsborough disaster, to oversee the disclosure of documents about the disaster and its aftermath, and to produce a report. On 12 September 2012, it published its report and simultaneously launched a website containing 450,000 pages of material collated from 85 organisations and individuals over two years.
History
In the years after the disaster, the Hillsborough Family Support Group had campaigned for the release of all relevant documents into the public domain. After the disaster's 20th anniversary in April 2009, supported by the Culture Secretary, Andy Burnham, and Minister of State for Justice, Maria Eagle, the government asked the Home Office and Department of Culture, Media and Sport to investigate the best way for this information to be made public. In April 2009, the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith announced she had requested secret files concerning the disaster be made public.
In December 2009, Home Secretary Alan Johnson said the Hillsborough Independent Panel's remit would be to oversee "full public disclosure of relevant government and local information within the limited constraints set out in the disclosure protocol" and "consult with the Hillsborough families to ensure that the views of those most affected by the disaster are taken into account". An archive of all relevant documentation would be created and a report produced within two years explaining the work of the panel and its conclusions.
The panel was chaired by James Jones, the Bishop of Liverpool. Other members were:
Raju Bhatt, human rights lawyer
Christine Gifford, an expert in the field of access to information
Katy Jones, investigative journalist
Bill Kirkup, Associate Chief Medical Officer in the Department of Health
Paul Leighton, former deputy chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland
Phil Scraton, an expert in criminology
Peter Sissons, broadcaster (media)
Sarah Tyacke, former chief executive of the National Archives
Findings
On 12 September 2012, the Hillsborough Independent Panel concluded that no Liverpool fans were responsible in any way for the disaster, and that its main cause was a "lack of police control". Crowd safety was "compromised at every level," and overcrowding issues had been recorded two years earlier. The panel concluded that "up to 41" of the 96 who had died up to that date might have survived had the emergency services' reactions and coordination been better. The number is based on post-mortem examinations, which found some victims may have had heart, lung, or blood circulation function for some time after being removed from the crush. The report stated that placing fans who were "merely unconscious" on their backs rather than in the recovery position would have resulted in their deaths due to airway obstruction. Their report was in 395 pages and delivered 153 key findings.
The findings concluded that 164 witness statements had been altered. Of those statements, 116 were amended to remove or change negative comments about South Yorkshire Police. South Yorkshire Police had performed blood alcohol tests on the victims, some of them children, and run computer checks on the national police database in an attempt to "impugn their reputation". The report concluded that the then Conservative MP for Sheffield Hallam, Irvine Patnick, passed inaccurate and untrue information from the police to the press.
The panel noted that, despite being dismissed by the Taylor Report, the idea that alcohol contributed to the disaster proved remarkably durable. Documents disclosed confirm that repeated attempts were made to find supporting evidence for alcohol being a factor, and that available evidence was significantly misinterpreted. It noted "The weight placed on alcohol in the face of objective evidence of a pattern of consumption modest for a leisure event was inappropriate. It has since fuelled persistent and unsustainable assertions about drunken fan behavior".
The evidence released online included altered police reports.
Effects
Subsequent apologies were released by Prime Minister David Cameron on behalf of the government, Ed Miliband on behalf of the opposition, Sheffield Wednesday Football Club, South Yorkshire Police, and former editor of The Sun, Kelvin MacKenzie, who apologized for making false accusations under the headline "The Truth". MacKenzie said he should have written a headline that read "The Lies", although this apology was rejected by the Hillsborough Family Support Group and Liverpool fans, as it was seen to be "shifting the blame once again."
After publication, the Hillsborough Family Support Group called for new inquests for the victims. They also called for prosecutions for unlawful killing, corporate manslaughter and perversion of the course of justice in respect of the actions of the police, both in causing the disaster and covering up their actions; and in respect of Sheffield Wednesday F.C., Sheffield Council and the Football Association for their various responsibilities for providing, certifying and selecting the stadium for the fatal event.
Calls were made for the resignation of police officers involved in the cover-up, and for Sheffield Wednesday, the police, and the Football Association to admit their blame. Calls were also made for Sir Dave Richards to resign as chairman of the Premier League and give up his knighthood as a result of his conduct at Sheffield Wednesday at the time of the disaster. The Home Secretary called for investigations into law-breaking and promised resources to investigate individual or systematic issues.
On 23 October 2012, Norman Bettison resigned with immediate effect as chief constable of West Yorkshire Police, after Maria Eagle MP, on the floor of the House and protected by parliamentary privilege, accused him of boasting about concocting a story that all the Liverpool fans were drunk and police were afraid they were going to break down the gates and decided to open them. Bettison denied the claim and other allegations about his conduct, saying:
Fans' behavior, to the extent that it was relevant at all, made the job of the police, in the crush outside Leppings Lane turnstiles, harder than it needed to be. But it didn't cause the disaster any more than the sunny day that encouraged people to linger outside the stadium as kick off approached. I held those views then; I hold them now. I have never, since hearing the Taylor evidence unfold, offered any other interpretation in public or private.
Merseyside Police Authority confirmed that Bettison would receive an £83,000 pension, unless convicted of a criminal offence. Hillsborough families called for the payments to be frozen during the IPCC investigation. In the same 22 October House of Commons debate, Stephen Mosley MP alleged West Midlands police pressured witnesses – both police and civilians – to change their statements. Maria Eagle confirmed her understanding that WMP actions in this respect would be the subject of IPCC scrutiny.
Second coroner's hearing
Following an application on 19 December 2012 by the Attorney General Dominic Grieve, the High Court quashed the verdicts in the original inquests and ordered fresh inquests to be held. Sir John Goldring was appointed as Assistant Coroner for South Yorkshire (East) and West Yorkshire (West) to conduct those inquests. The inquest hearings started on Monday, 31 March 2014, at Warrington. Transcripts of the proceedings and evidence that were produced during the hearings were published on the Hillsborough Inquests official website. On 6 April 2016, the nine jurors were sent out to consider their verdicts. These were formally given to the inquests at 11:00 on 26 April 2016. The jury returned a verdict of unlawful killing in respect of all 96 victims (by majority verdict of 7–2). Upon receiving the April 2016 verdict, Hillsborough Family Support Group chair Margaret Aspinall, whose 18-year-old son James was killed in the disaster, said:
Let's be honest about this – people were against us. We had the media against us, as well as the establishment. Everything was against us. The only people that weren't against us were our own city. That's why I am so grateful to my city and so proud of my city. They always believed in us.
On the day after the verdicts were reached, the Home Secretary, Theresa May, made a statement to Parliament which included the verdicts of the jury to the fourteen questions they had been asked regarding the roles of South Yorkshire police, the South Yorkshire Metropolitan Ambulance Service, Sheffield Wednesday football club and Hillsborough stadium's engineers and two specific questions relating to the time and cause of death for each of the dead. In addition to the "unlawful killing" verdict, the jury concluded that "errors or omissions" by police commanding officers, Sheffield Wednesday, the ambulance service, and the design and certification of the stadium had all "caused or contributed" to the deaths, but that the behaviour of football supporters had not. In all but one case, the jury recorded the time of death as later than the 3:15 pm cut-off point adopted by the coroner at the original inquests.
Prime Minister David Cameron also responded to the April 2016 verdict by saying that it represented a "long overdue" but "landmark moment in the quest for justice", adding "All families and survivors now have official confirmation of what they always knew was the case, that the Liverpool fans were utterly blameless in the disaster that unfolded at Hillsborough." The Labour Party described the handling of the Hillsborough disaster as the "greatest miscarriage of justice of our times", with Labor MPs Andy Burnham and Steve Rotheram calling for accountability and the prosecution of those responsible. Liberal Democrat MP John Pugh called for David Cameron to make a formal apology in the House of Commons to the families of those killed at Hillsborough and to the city of Liverpool as a whole.
Echoing his 2012 expression of regret, former Home Secretary Jack Straw apologised to the families for the failures of his 1997 review of the disaster.
Kelvin MacKenzie, who wrote the now-infamous "The Truth" front page for the Sun, said that although he was "duped" into publishing his story, his "heart goes out" to the families of those affected, saying that "It's quite clear today the fans had nothing to do with it". However, MacKenzie did not accept any personal responsibility for the story.
During the inquests, Maxwell Groome – a police constable at the time of the disaster – made allegations of a high-level "conspiracy" by Freemasons to shift blame for the disaster onto Superintendent Roger Marshall, also that junior officers were pressured into changing their statements after the disaster, and told not to write their accounts in their official police pocketbooks. Groome also claimed that match commander Duckenfield was a member of the "highly influential" Dole lodge in Sheffield (the same lodge as Brian Mole, his predecessor). Coroner Sir John Goldring warned the jury that there was "not a shred of evidence" that any Masonic meeting actually took place, or that those named were all Freemasons, advising the jury to cast aside "gossip and hearsay". During the inquests, Duckenfield confirmed that he became a Freemason in 1975 and became Worshipful Master of his local lodge in 1990, a year after the disaster; following this revelation, Freemasons were forbidden to take part in the IPCC investigation and Operation Resolve as civilian investigators to prevent any perceived bias.
Independent Police Complaints Commission investigation
Following the inquest verdicts, South Yorkshire police announced it would refer the actions of its officers to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC). West Yorkshire Police announced it would refer its Chief Constable, Norman Bettison, to the IPCC in mid-September. Bettison had been one of a number of police officers who were accused by the Hillsborough Independent Panel of manipulating evidence. In early October, Bettison announced his retirement, becoming the first senior figure to step down since publication of the panel's report.
The IPCC announced on 12 October 2012 that it would investigate the failure of the police to declare a major incident, failure to close the tunnel to the stands which led to overcrowded pens despite evidence it had been closed in such circumstances in the past; changes made to the statements of police officers; actions which misled Parliament and the media; shortcomings of previous investigations; and the role played by Norman Bettison.
By 22 October 2012, the names of at least 1,444 serving and former police officers had been referred to the IPCC investigation. In its announcement, the IPCC praised the tenacity of the Hillsborough families' campaign for truth and justice. On 16 October 2012, the Attorney General announced in Parliament that he had applied to have the original inquests' verdicts quashed, arguing it proceeded on a false basis and that evidence now in hand required this exceptional step.
On 12 July 2013, it was reported that the IPCC had found that in addition to the now 164 police statements known to have been altered, a further 55 police officers had changed their statements. Deborah Glass, deputy chair of the IPCC, said, "We know the people who have contacted us are the tip of the iceberg." That was after the IPCC's Hillsborough Contact team had received 230 pieces of correspondence since October 2012.
The IPCC is[needs update] also investigating the actions of West Midlands Police, who in 1989 had been tasked with investigating South Yorkshire Police's conduct for both the original inquests and also the Taylor independent inquiry.
In April 2016, the Crown Prosecution Service announced that it would consider bringing charges against both individuals and corporate bodies once the criminal investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission – Operation Resolve – had been completed.
In April 2016, the then Home Secretary Theresa May commissioned the Right Reverend James Jones (Bishop of Liverpool from 1998 to 2013) to produce a report on the experiences of the Hillsborough families, in the hope that their pain and suffering would not be repeated and that their perspective would not be lost. After carrying out a thorough review, Jones published his report – titled The patronising disposition of unaccountable power: A report to ensure that the pain and suffering of the Hillsborough families is not repeated – on 1 November 2017. Having met the Hillsborough families in one-to-one meetings and group sessions whilst compiling his report, Jones was able to include numerous first-hand accounts of their encounters with private and public authorities.
The report identified 25 'points of learning', of which the following drew particular attention:
Charter for Families Bereaved through Public Tragedy – a series of commitments by public bodies to change, related to transparency and acting in the public interest.
Proper participation of bereaved families at inquests – including publicly funded legal representation for bereaved families at inquests at which public bodies are legally represented, an end to public bodies spending limitless sums, and a change in the way that public bodies approach inquests
A duty of candor for police officers – requiring them to cooperate fully with investigations into alleged criminal offences or misconduct, as undertaken by the Independent Police Complaints Commission or its successor body
In the report, James also called for the government to give "full consideration" to a proposed Public Authority Accountability Bill, known informally as 'The Hillsborough Law', which would include a legal duty of candour on public authorities and officials to be truthful and to proactively cooperate with official investigations and inquiries. The full text of the draft bill was provided as an appendix to his report.
Six years after the report was published, on 6 December 2023, the government issued its response and signed the Hillsborough Charter, giving a commitment to transparency following a public tragedy. However, the proposal for a 'Hillsborough Law' was rejected as it was considered by the government to be "not necessary".
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