Youngest Hillsborough victim ‘lost in crowd’

Two family friends of the youngest victim at Hillsborough have described how they lost sight of the 10-year-old boy as crushing on a terrace at the 1989 FA Cup semi-final became “unbearable”.

One lost consciousness while the other was unable to look down to see where 1.4 metre Jon-Paul Gilhooley — a cousin of Liverpool and England footballer Steven Gerrard — was following a number of surges in the crowd.

All three had entered Sheffield Wednesday’s ground through exit gate C which had been opened by police to alleviate overcrowding at the Leppings Lane turnstiles, the inquest into the deaths of the 96 fans heard.