The lifting of Hillsborough’s grotesque cloud

Was it really all over? Even when favourable verdicts were being widely predicted there was still tension, a sense of dread. Before the verdicts were read out one of the bereaved, now in a wheelchair, was said to be “beaming”. Thankfully the cruellest of denouements didn’t happen.

The questions to the jury were numbered but it was the answer to number 6 that created the real ripple through the court. Were the fans unlawfully killed? “Yes.”

There was a 27-year wait to hear it confirmed, something most of us had known within a few weeks after April 15 1989. It’s remarkable how little difference there was between the Lord Justice Taylor report results of 1990 and the Lord Justice Goldring inquest results of 2016.