Uncovering a cover up

It is hard to believe on the face of it, but the cover up over the causes of the Hillsborough stadium disaster may soon be about to come out in full. You may wonder how I am so sure there was a cover up, but sure I am. Why? Because I still recall well the aftermath of the events 22 years ago and how the police treated me and my evidence at the time.

Having survived the game, and still shell shocked by the events that had unfolded, I was keen to give my evidence to the police and the subsequent enquiry. I knew a few things were being misrepresented in the media and knew I could add first hand eye witness evidence of what has happened. To start with I knew the gate being shown on the TV wasn’t the one that the fans had gone through. I had been down to the ground the day after the disaster and placed my Ipswich scarf along with the many others, yet I knew that the real gate (Gate C) was not the one with the flowers, as just 24 hours earlier I had been through the gate C myself.

I knew that the gates to the stadium had been opened twice. The first time I had been through the gate myself and I was actually the last person to get in. Separated from my mates I had waited by the gate (inside the stadium) hoping my mates would be through soon. I was there when they were opened again.

I also knew, that the police had opened the gates. I saw it with my own eyes and I had heard the order being given. I was there when it happened, an eye witness who was arguably independent, my not being a Liverpool supporter.

So I contacted the police and two coppers visited my student house in Sheffield. Realising that my evidence was useful, they took my unused ticket and arranged a formal interview with me at the offices where the West Midlands crime squad set up their enquiry. The same West Midlands serious crime squad, who were later disbanded over their parts in fabricating evidence in a series of miscarriages of justice, they were the “independent” source used to collate and present the evidence for the Taylor enquiry.

So about two weeks after the match, with memories still raw, I went down to give my evidence to the police. The first questions centered on my match ticket and how I’d come to get it, how much I’d paid. I’d paid £8 for a £6 terrace ticket, with a drink for the lad who my fellow (Scouse) student mate had got it from. That set the police interviewer off asking who the tout was. I explained he was nothing of the sort, rather a mate’s mate, who’d got the ticket at face value via a player who he knew well. The policeman demanded to know his name, which I duly gave him, though I explained that as he was dead, he wouldn’t be able to verify exactly where the ticket had come from.

With the wind temporarily taken from his sails, he next started to probe my days drinking. How many pints had I had? What time had I got to the pub? How drunk was I? How could I recall anything if I was drunk? I explained that the two pints I’d had from 12 to 1.30pm were unlikely to make my drunk at 2.20pm when we jumped off the bus near the Leppings lane end. Still, he noted in detail that I’d been drinking since midday with a group of fans.

We proceeded to document the days events, including my assertions that it was Gate C that was opened rather than the gate shown on the TV. I also detailed the complete lack of control and guidance outside the ground and the fact that the gate was opened twice and that I had seen the police open it themselves. This seemed to agitate the police interview who proceeded to start accusing me of fabricating my evidence and claiming I was a student agitator. That I had been wearing a “Free Mandela” t shirt when he first visited my house, was he suggested, a sign that I was clearly an agitator looking to make things up to discredit the police. He asserted that I wasn’t even from Liverpool and would have no reason to be at the match.

The aggression shown towards me was quite shocking and he proceeded to sneer, snigger and contest every point I made. He saw my notes I had made which included the points that the police had initially hindered the "escape", pushing people back over the fence, had refused to open the gate onto the pitch, and been drinking teas whilst people dieing, all indisputable facts that have never been fully exposed.

It is clear to me that the police had a predetermined agenda which was to frame all the evidence to support their case that drunk and ticketless fans had stormed the gates. They fed these lies, and worse, to the press, to the politicians and to Justice Taylor, who put the following in his report

The Police Case at the Inquiry
285. It is a matter of regret that at the hearing, and in their submissions, the South Yorkshire Police were not prepared to concede they were in any respect at fault in what occurred. Mr Duckenfield, under pressure of cross-examination, apologised for blaming the Liverpool fans for causing the deaths. But, that apart, the police case was to blame the fans for being late and drunk, and to blame the Club for failing to monitor the pens. It was argued that the fatal crush was not caused by the influx through gate C but was due to barrier 124a being defective. Such an unrealistic approach gives cause for anxiety as to whether lessons have been learnt. It would have been more seemly and encouraging for the future if responsibility had been faced.

Make no bones about it, the police started feeding their lies before the match had even been abandoned and carried on with this is a concerted effort to falsely blame the fans for their own mistakes.

So what's next? Personally, I’d like to see charges brought against those who orchestrated the attempts to pervert the course of justice. Fabricating evidence, stolen video tapes, feeding lies to newspapers. This was a coordinated effort and those who led should be held to account.