Exposure of cover-up finally gives justice to the 96

British police tried to blame Liverpool football fans to cover up mistakes that contributed to the deaths of 96 supporters who were crushed at a stadium, according to secret documents finally released following a 23-year campaign by families of the victims.

Prime minister David Cameron apologised for Britain’s worst sports disaster and said the country had been shamed by its failure for more than 20 years to disclose the errors that helped lead to the death of Liverpool fans at Hillsborough stadium, most of whom were crushed and suffocated in a standing-room-only section.

Lawmakers gasped as Cameron said the panel found that police repeatedly tried to cover-up evidence of their own failings following the disaster in a bid to make it look as if fans were at fault.

Police “significantly amended” 164 statements, including the removal of 116 negative comments about the leadership of the police, he said.

He said there were also failings by the ambulance service, including that it may have been possible to revive some 41 of the victims had they received treatment earlier.

A government-appointed panel that reviewed the papers confirmed failures by police led directly to the disaster and that some injured fans were denied medical treatment that could have saved their lives, he said.

Police officers herded around 2,000 Liverpool fans into caged-in enclosures that were already full during an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest on April 15, 1989, at the stadium in Sheffield, central England.

No individual or organisation has ever faced charges in connection with the disaster.

Dr Bill Kirkup, a member of the panel, told a press conference that 41 of the 96 fans who died had “evidence that they had potential to survive after the period of 3.15pm” if the emergency response had been adequate.

An original inquest ruled that all those who lost their lives were dead or brain dead by 3.15pm, meaning the failings of the emergency services after that time were not scrutinised.

Dr Kirkup said: “Twenty eight people had definite evidence that they didn’t have obstruction of the bloodflow, 16 people had definite evidence of heart and lungs continuing to function for a prolonged period after the crush.

“In total 41 therefore had evidence that they had potential to survive after the period of 3.15. What I can’t say is how many of them could, in actuality, have been saved.

“But I can say is that, potentially, it was in that order of magnitude.”

The report concludes that the decision of the coroner to rule that all 96 victims died in the same way, and to impose a 3.15pm cut-off time on the inquest, was “unsustainable”.

Cameron said that evidence contained in 400,000 pages of previously undisclosed papers turned over to the families of the dead yesterday detailed sophisticated attempts by police to turn the blame for the disaster onto the victims and to sully their reputations by insinuating that many were drunken, and had histories of violence or criminality.

“New evidence that we are presented with today makes clear that these families have suffered a double injustice,” Cameron told the House of Commons.

“The injustice of the appalling events, the failure of the state to protect their loved ones and the indefensible wait to get to the truth, and the injustice of the denigration of the deceased — that they were somehow at fault for their own deaths,” he said.

“On behalf of the government — and indeed our country — I am profoundly sorry for this double injustice that has been left uncorrected for so long,” he told legislators, many of whom gasped audibly or wept as Cameron discussed details of failures by British authorities.

Cameron said that Attorney General Dominic Grieve would review the evidence and likely apply to Britain’s High Court to overturn the verdict of an original inquest hearing and order a new hearing.

An inquest jury ruled in 1991 that the deaths were accidental, but criticised the local South Yorkshire Police for its actions.

“With all the documents revealed, with nothing held back, the families finally have access to the truth,” Cameron said.

The response to the Hillsborough disaster transformed British sports, bringing the introduction of all-seated soccer stadiums for elite clubs.

In turn, that helped the clubs to drive out the remnants of hooliganism that had long tainted British football and heralded a shift in the demographics of sports fans, as improved stadium safety meant more families and women attended matches.

Relatives, who were reviewing the documents at Liverpool Cathedral, said they plan to meet in the coming days to discuss whether any new legal action should be taken.

“This is what the families and the fans have been fighting for, for 23 years. Without the truth, you cannot grieve and where there is deceit, you get no justice,” said Margaret Aspinall, whose 18-year-old son James was killed.

Bishop James Jones of Liverpool, who led the government-appointed panel, said the documents included clear evidence of failings by British authorities.

“There were clear operational failures in response to the disaster and in its aftermath there were strenuous attempts to deflect the blame onto the fans,” he said.

In the aftermath, the police claimed that violent behaviour by drunken Liverpool supporters who arrived without tickets was the primary cause of the disaster.

Having reviewed more than 450,000 previously unseen documents, the panel concludes: “The evidence shows conclusively that Liverpool fans neither caused nor contributed to the deaths of 96 men, women and children.”

The youngest victim was 10-year-old Jon-Paul Gilhooley, a cousin of current Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard.

Key findings

* Police carried out criminal record checks on the deceased in an attempt to “impugn their reputations”.

Senior officers privately discussed the “animalistic behaviour” of “drunken marauding fans”.

In its report, the Hillsborough Independent Panel said: “It is evident from analysis of the various investigations that, from the outset, South Yorkshire Police sought to deflect responsibility for the disaster on to Liverpool fans.”

The panel found evidence that South Yorkshire Police’s submissions to the Taylor Inquiry, “emphasised exceptional, aggressive, and unanticipated crowd behaviour: Large numbers of ticketless, drunk, and obstinate fans involved in concerted action, even ‘conspiracy’, to enter the stadium”.

* The documents also revealed that further attempts were made to “impugn the reputations of the deceased by carrying out Police National Computer checks on those with a non-zero alcohol level.”

The extent of this testing remains unknown, the report says. It also says “there was no evidence to support the proposition that alcohol played any part in the genesis of the disaster”.

* Astonishing disclosure that 41 of the 96 people who died in the tragedy might have survived had the response of the emergency services been adequate.

* The documents also reveal the “extent to which substantive amendments were made” to statements by South Yorkshire Police to remove or alter “unfavourable” comments about the policing of the match and the disaster.

The report found that 116 of the 164 police statements identified for “substantive amendment” were “amended to remove or alter comments unfavourable to SYP”.

* The documents show, for the first time, that South Yorkshire Ambulance Service documents were “subject to the same process”, the panel said.

* The panel went on to say the wrongful allegations about the fans’ behaviour later printed in some newspapers, particularly The Sun, originated from “a Sheffield press agency, senior South Yorkshire Police officers, a South Yorkshire Police Federation spokesman and a local MP” in police attempts to change the record of events.

* The crowd’s safety was “compromised at every level”, from the failure to meet minimum ground standards to over-calculation of ground capacity.

* Read more:

Hillsborough families seek justice for 96