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Hillsborough: Milestones in the fight for justice for 96 dead Liverpool fans

Fans erected their memorials following the disaster
Fans erected their memorials following the disaster

Yahoo Sport traces the 28-year journey that ended in an inquest jury deciding that the deaths of 96 football fans at Hillsborough were unlawful.

  • April 15 1989 – Ninety-six football fans are fatally injured in a deadly crush as Liverpool play Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup semi-final at Sheffield Wednesday’s Hillsborough ground.

  • April 1989 – Lord Justice Taylor is appointed to conduct a public inquiry into the disaster, with the West Midlands Police force later instructed to examine the role of their South Yorkshire counterparts.READ MORE: Six charged over Hillsborough disaster that left 96 Liverpool fans dead
    READ MORE: What happened at Hillsborough in 1989?
    READ MORE: Who has been charged with what over the Hillsborough disaster?

    Barry Devonside leaves Parr Hall, Warrington, where the Crown Prosecution Service ruled David Duckenfield, former chief constable Sir Norman Bettison and four other individuals have been charged with offences relating to the Hillsborough disaster must face charges
    Barry Devonside leaves Parr Hall, Warrington, where the Crown Prosecution Service ruled David Duckenfield, former chief constable Sir Norman Bettison and four other individuals have been charged with offences relating to the Hillsborough disaster must face charges
  • August 4 1989 – An interim Taylor Report is published into the disaster after the submission of 3,776 written statements of evidence, 1,550 letters, 71 hours of video footage and the oral evidence of 174 witnesses.

  • January 1990 – The full Taylor Report finds the main reason for the disaster is the failure of police control and the decision to open Gate C without blocking the tunnel to central pens, calling them “blunders of the first magnitude”.

  • April 18 1990 – South Yorkshire Coroner Dr Stefan Popper begins the first inquests in Sheffield. A 3.15pm cut-off point is imposed so inquiries into lack of emergency response ruled inadmissable.

  • March 28 1991 – After the longest inquest in British history to date, lasting 90 days, a verdict of accidental death is returned by a majority verdict of 9-2.

  • November 1991 – Chief Superintendent David Duckenfield, who was in charge of the police operation on the day of the disaster, resigns on a police pension due to ill health.

  • March 1993 – Families seek a judicial review of the inquest, which is initially dismissed, then appealed, then rejected by the Royal Courts of Justice, which rules the original inquests should stand.

    Families of victims leaving Parr Hall, Warrington
    Families of victims leaving Parr Hall, Warrington
  • May 1997 – New Labour government Home Secretary Jack Straw appoints Lord Justice Stuart-Smith to conduct a ‘scrutiny of evidence’, but he concludes new inquests are not warranted.

  • November 2006 – Anne Williams, whose son Kevin, 15, died in the disaster, submits her case to European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

  • March 2009 – The ECHR rules Mrs Williams’s case should have been lodged earlier and is ‘out of time’.

  • April 15 2009 – Minister Andy Burnham is barracked while speaking at the 20th anniversary memorial at Anfield. He raises the matter at Cabinet and three months later the Home Office announces full disclosure of all information to be looked at by an Independent Panel.

  • September 12 2012 – A Hillsborough Independent Panel (HIP) report is critical of blame put on to fans. Prime Minister David Cameron offers in the Commons a “profound apology” for the “double injustice”.

  • October 12 2012 – The Independent Police Complaints Commission launches its biggest ever investigation into police in the UK, centred on officers’ conduct over Hillsborough.

  • December 19 2012 – The High Court quashes the accidental death verdicts in the original inquests and orders new ones. The same day, Home Secretary Theresa May announces a new criminal probe to investigate “all of the people and organisations involved – before, on, and after” the disaster.

  • March 31 2014 – New inquests begin at Birchwood Park, Warrington. Sir John Goldring reads the names of the 96 in court before swearing in a jury of seven men and four women.

    Michael Mansfield QC
    Michael Mansfield QC
  • January 25 2016 – After 280 days, the new inquests reach the summing up by the coroner, Sir John Goldring. He tells the jury they will answer questions in 14 sections about how the deaths were caused, including a possible verdict of unlawful killing based on whether Mr Duckenfield’s acts or omissions amounted to gross negligence manslaughter.

  • April 26 2016 – The inquest jury delivers its verdict, and finds that the 96 Liverpool fans were unlawfully killed. It finds that blunders by South Yorkshire’s police and ambulance services “caused or contributed to” their deaths, and exonerated Liverpool fans of wrongdoing. South Yorkshire Police Chief Constable David Crompton admitted the force got the policing of the match ”catastrophically wrong” and ”unequivocally” accepted the inquest jury’s conclusions.

  • April 27 2016 – Mr Crompton is suspended in the wake of the Hillsborough inquest findings by South Yorkshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner Dr Alan Billings, who said he had no choice but to act “based on the erosion of public trust and confidence”. Dr Billings said there was “clearly a difference of perception” between Mr Crompton and the families of the victims in relation to questions being asked over whether the fans were to blame.

  • June 28 2017 – The Crown Prosecution Service to announce its disaster charging decisions. Prosecutors have been examining files after investigators identified 23 criminal suspects over the disaster.