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Showing posts with label Hillsborough Stadium Disaster. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hillsborough Stadium Disaster. Show all posts

35 years ago today 97 Liverpool FC fans were unlawfully killed at Hillsborough Stadium. There followed a horrific and undeniable smear campaign of blame against the people of Liverpool by the establishment, Thatcher's government, a right wing press and the police.



⚽   ⚽   ⚽   ⚽   ⚽   ⚽

Jon-Paul Gilhooley - 10
Philip Hammond - 14
Thomas Anthony Howard - 14
Paul Brian Murray - 14
Lee Nicol - 14
Adam Edward Spearritt - 14
Peter Andrew Harrison - 15
Victoria Jane Hicks - 15
Philip John Steele - 15
Kevin Tyrrell - 15
Kevin Daniel Williams - 15 
Kester Roger Marcus Ball -16 
Nicholas Michael Hewitt - 16
Martin Kevin Traynor - 16
Simon Bell - 17
Carl Darren Hewitt - 17
Keith McGrath - 17 
Stephen Francis O'Neill - 17
Steven Joseph Robinson - 17
Henry Charles Rogers - 17
Stuart Paul William Thompson - 17
Graham John Wright - 17
James Gary Aspinall - 18
Carl Brown - 18
Paul Clark - 18
Christopher Barry Devonside - 18
Gary Philip Jones - 18 
Carl David Lewis - 18
John McBrien - 18
Jonathon Owens - 18
Colin Mark Ashcroft - 19
Paul William Carlile - 19
Gary Christopher Church - 19 
James Philip Delaney - 19
Sarah Louise Hicks - 19
David William Mather - 19
Colin Wafer - 19
Ian David Whelan - 19
Stephen Paul Copoc - 20
Ian Thomas Glover - 20
Gordon Rodney Horn - 20 
Paul David Brady - 21
Thomas Steven Fox - 21
Marian Hazel McCabe - 21
Joseph Daniel McCarthy - 21
Peter McDonnell - 21 
Carl William Rimmer - 21 
Peter Francis Tootle - 21 



David John Benson - 22
David William Birtle - 22 
Tony Bland - 22
Gary Collins - 22
Tracey Elizabeth Cox - 23
William Roy Pemberton - 23
Colin Andrew Hugh William Sefton 23
David Leonard Thomas - 23
Peter Andrew Burkett - 24
Derrick George Godwin - 24
Graham John Roberts - 24
David Steven Brown - 25
Richard Jones - 25
Barry Sidney Bennett - 26
Andrew Mark Brookes - 26
Paul Anthony Hewitson - 26
Paula Ann Smith - 26
Christopher James Traynor - 26
Barry Glover - 27
Gary Harrison - 27
Christine Anne Jones - 27
Nicholas Peter Joynes - 27
Francis Joseph McAllister - 27
Alan McGlone - 28
Joseph Clark - 29
Christopher Edwards - 29
James Robert Hennessy - 29
Alan Johnston - 29
Anthony Peter Kelly - 29
Martin Kenneth Wild - 29
Peter Reuben Thompson - 30
Stephen Francis Harrison - 31
Eric Hankin - 33 
Vincent Michael Fitzsimmons - 34
Roy Harry Hamilton - 34 
Patrick John Thompson - 35
Michael David Kelly - 38 
Brian Christopher Mathews - 38
David George Rimmer - 38
Inger Shah - 38
David Hawley - 39
Thomas Howard - 39
Arthur Horrocks - 41
Eric George Hughes - 42
Henry Thomas Burke - 47
Raymond Thomas Chapman - 50
John Alfred Anderson - 62
Gerard Bernard Patrick Baron - 67 
Andrew Devine - 55




Unlawfully Killed @ 35th Anniversary

Guardian 📰 Institutional defensiveness remains the default position from state bodies in inquests and inquiries into state-related deaths, writes Deborah Coles of Inquest. Recommended by Christy Walsh.

14-December-2023

After six years of waiting, the government response to the landmark review by James Jones, the former bishop of Liverpool, was a betrayal of and an insult to the Hillsborough bereaved and survivors and all they have fought for over more than three decades (Government rejects ‘Hillsborough law’ central to campaign by victims’ families, 6 December). 

The review exposed how the interests of powerful institutions and individuals prevail over bereaved people seeking the truth about how their relative died.

Institutional defensiveness remains the default position from state bodies in inquests and inquiries into state-related deaths. The government has rejected calls for a statutory duty of candour across public authorities, which would end obstructive and evasive practices following state-related deaths. Instead, it relies on a toothless code of conduct and an unenforceable charter. It has rejected increasing legal aid to ensure a level playing field between public authorities, which are routinely funded from the public purse, and those affected by inquiries and inquests.

The systems for responding to deaths must be fair and enable accountability. Both the lack of candour and inequality of arms undermine the fundamental purpose of inquests and inquiries to reach the truth and the identification of dangerous or defective practices so that learning can be enacted to ensure similar tragedies are averted.

As the Hillsborough Law Now coalition of survivors, the bereaved and others affected by contentious deaths argues, it is only the enactment of a “Hillsborough law” that will ensure there is no hiding place for official wrongdoing or failure, and address this power imbalance. At the crux of this is the democratic accountability of public authorities at an individual and corporate level.
Deborah Coles
Director, Inquest

Continue reading @ Guardian.

A ‘Hillsborough Law’ Would Ensure The Powerful Have No Place To Hide

34 years ago today 97 Liverpool FC fans were unlawfully killed at Hillsborough Stadium. There followed a horrific and undeniable smear campaign of blame against the people of Liverpool by the establishment, Thatcher's government, a right wing press and the police.



⚽   ⚽   ⚽   ⚽   ⚽   ⚽

Jon-Paul Gilhooley - 10
Philip Hammond - 14
Thomas Anthony Howard - 14
Paul Brian Murray - 14
Lee Nicol - 14
Adam Edward Spearritt - 14
Peter Andrew Harrison - 15
Victoria Jane Hicks - 15
Philip John Steele - 15
Kevin Tyrrell - 15
Kevin Daniel Williams - 15 
Kester Roger Marcus Ball -16 
Nicholas Michael Hewitt - 16
Martin Kevin Traynor - 16
Simon Bell - 17
Carl Darren Hewitt - 17
Keith McGrath - 17 
Stephen Francis O'Neill - 17
Steven Joseph Robinson - 17
Henry Charles Rogers - 17
Stuart Paul William Thompson - 17
Graham John Wright - 17
James Gary Aspinall - 18
Carl Brown - 18
Paul Clark - 18
Christopher Barry Devonside - 18
Gary Philip Jones - 18 
Carl David Lewis - 18
John McBrien - 18
Jonathon Owens - 18
Colin Mark Ashcroft - 19
Paul William Carlile - 19
Gary Christopher Church - 19 
James Philip Delaney - 19
Sarah Louise Hicks - 19
David William Mather - 19
Colin Wafer - 19
Ian David Whelan - 19
Stephen Paul Copoc - 20
Ian Thomas Glover - 20
Gordon Rodney Horn - 20 
Paul David Brady - 21
Thomas Steven Fox - 21
Marian Hazel McCabe - 21
Joseph Daniel McCarthy - 21
Peter McDonnell - 21 
Carl William Rimmer - 21 
Peter Francis Tootle - 21 



David John Benson - 22
David William Birtle - 22 
Tony Bland - 22
Gary Collins - 22
Tracey Elizabeth Cox - 23
William Roy Pemberton - 23
Colin Andrew Hugh William Sefton 23
David Leonard Thomas - 23
Peter Andrew Burkett - 24
Derrick George Godwin - 24
Graham John Roberts - 24
David Steven Brown - 25
Richard Jones - 25
Barry Sidney Bennett - 26
Andrew Mark Brookes - 26
Paul Anthony Hewitson - 26
Paula Ann Smith - 26
Christopher James Traynor - 26
Barry Glover - 27
Gary Harrison - 27
Christine Anne Jones - 27
Nicholas Peter Joynes - 27
Francis Joseph McAllister - 27
Alan McGlone - 28
Joseph Clark - 29
Christopher Edwards - 29
James Robert Hennessy - 29
Alan Johnston - 29
Anthony Peter Kelly - 29
Martin Kenneth Wild - 29
Peter Reuben Thompson - 30
Stephen Francis Harrison - 31
Eric Hankin - 33 
Vincent Michael Fitzsimmons - 34
Roy Harry Hamilton - 34 
Patrick John Thompson - 35
Michael David Kelly - 38 
Brian Christopher Mathews - 38
David George Rimmer - 38
Inger Shah - 38
David Hawley - 39
Thomas Howard - 39
Arthur Horrocks - 41
Eric George Hughes - 42
Henry Thomas Burke - 47
Raymond Thomas Chapman - 50
John Alfred Anderson - 62
Gerard Bernard Patrick Baron - 67 
Andrew Devine - 55




Unlawfully Killed @ 34th Anniversary

33 years ago today 97 Liverpool FC fans were unlawfully killed at Hillsborough Stadium. There followed a horrific and undeniable smear campaign of blame against the people of Liverpool by the establishment, Thatcher's government, a right wing press and the police.



⚽   ⚽   ⚽   ⚽   ⚽   ⚽

Jon-Paul Gilhooley - 10
Philip Hammond - 14
Thomas Anthony Howard - 14
Paul Brian Murray - 14
Lee Nicol - 14
Adam Edward Spearritt - 14
Peter Andrew Harrison - 15
Victoria Jane Hicks - 15
Philip John Steele - 15
Kevin Tyrrell - 15
Kevin Daniel Williams - 15 
Kester Roger Marcus Ball -16 
Nicholas Michael Hewitt - 16
Martin Kevin Traynor - 16
Simon Bell - 17
Carl Darren Hewitt - 17
Keith McGrath - 17 
Stephen Francis O'Neill - 17
Steven Joseph Robinson - 17
Henry Charles Rogers - 17
Stuart Paul William Thompson - 17
Graham John Wright - 17
James Gary Aspinall - 18
Carl Brown - 18
Paul Clark - 18
Christopher Barry Devonside - 18
Gary Philip Jones - 18 
Carl David Lewis - 18
John McBrien - 18
Jonathon Owens - 18
Colin Mark Ashcroft - 19
Paul William Carlile - 19
Gary Christopher Church - 19 
James Philip Delaney - 19
Sarah Louise Hicks - 19
David William Mather - 19
Colin Wafer - 19
Ian David Whelan - 19
Stephen Paul Copoc - 20
Ian Thomas Glover - 20
Gordon Rodney Horn - 20 
Paul David Brady - 21
Thomas Steven Fox - 21
Marian Hazel McCabe - 21
Joseph Daniel McCarthy - 21
Peter McDonnell - 21 
Carl William Rimmer - 21 
Peter Francis Tootle - 21 



David John Benson - 22
David William Birtle - 22 
Tony Bland - 22
Gary Collins - 22
Tracey Elizabeth Cox - 23
William Roy Pemberton - 23
Colin Andrew Hugh William Sefton 23
David Leonard Thomas - 23
Peter Andrew Burkett - 24
Derrick George Godwin - 24
Graham John Roberts - 24
David Steven Brown - 25
Richard Jones - 25
Barry Sidney Bennett - 26
Andrew Mark Brookes - 26
Paul Anthony Hewitson - 26
Paula Ann Smith - 26
Christopher James Traynor - 26
Barry Glover - 27
Gary Harrison - 27
Christine Anne Jones - 27
Nicholas Peter Joynes - 27
Francis Joseph McAllister - 27
Alan McGlone - 28
Joseph Clark - 29
Christopher Edwards - 29
James Robert Hennessy - 29
Alan Johnston - 29
Anthony Peter Kelly - 29
Martin Kenneth Wild - 29
Peter Reuben Thompson - 30
Stephen Francis Harrison - 31
Eric Hankin - 33 
Vincent Michael Fitzsimmons - 34
Roy Harry Hamilton - 34 
Patrick John Thompson - 35
Michael David Kelly - 38 
Brian Christopher Mathews - 38
David George Rimmer - 38
Inger Shah - 38
David Hawley - 39
Thomas Howard - 39
Arthur Horrocks - 41
Eric George Hughes - 42
Henry Thomas Burke - 47
Raymond Thomas Chapman - 50
John Alfred Anderson - 62
Gerard Bernard Patrick Baron - 67 
Andrew Devine - 55




Unlawfully Killed @ 33rd Anniversary

Caoimhin O’Muraile ⚽ on soccer stadia disasters.

Some weeks ago, I wrote an article for TPQ titled Those Were The Days My Friend We Were The Stretford End in which it may have appeared to some readers to be iconising football hooliganism during the 1970s. This was not, and is not my intention, but in that article I made reference to an incident which occurred at Ayresome Park, then home of Middlesbrough Football Club resulting in the tragic deaths of two home supporters. 

The game was against Manchester United whose fans had a reputation for violence back in those days. The game took place before a bumper crowd of 30,387 on 12th January 1980 and a large contingent of United fans were present. The United fans were held back by the police after the game to allow the home supporters to go home, but as the visiting supporters made a charge  - myself included, I had no choice as the pushing came from my rear - a wall collapsed killing Norman and Irene Roxby, two lifelong Middlesbrough supporters and season ticket holders. The club had no safety certificate at the time and eye witnesses outside said they could ‘see the wall bulging’ as the United fans pushed to get out to the home supporters who were taunting them from the outside. The club maintain they were in the process of obtaining a safety certificate but at the time did not yet have one. 

Does the decrepit state of the ground and the goading from the Middlesbrough supporters excuse the rampaging behaviour of the Man Utd fans resulting in the deaths of two home fans? No, it does not though the state of the ground could be a contributing factor as could the behaviour of some Middlesbrough supporters in goading the United fans but the hard fact remains if the charge at the wall had not occurred the Roxby’s would not have been killed.

Five years later prior to the 1985 European Cup Final between Liverpool and Juventus played at the Heysel stadium, Brussels, a similar incident on a larger scale happened resulting in the deaths of 39 Juventus fans. Liverpool supporters charged at the Italian supporters forcing them against a wall crushing them as, similar to Ayresome Park, the wall collapsed. The media, ever friendly towards the “Kop” fans from Merseyside, blamed to a large extent the poor condition of the stadium and some people even blamed the Juventus fans for “sparking” the trouble. This excuse was not afforded to the Stretford Enders at Ayresome Park five years previous and frankly neither should it have been, but the ”Kop” could do no wrong in those days according to the media. The saintly Liverpool fans were given, by some, the benefit of the doubt which was wrong. They were as guilty as were the United fans five years previous at Middlesbrough because irrespective of the state of the ground if the Liverpool fans had not made their charge 39 Juventus fans would not have been killed, and that is the fact of the matter! Like Ayresome Park the condition of the stadium was a contributing factor but not the cause, as some Liverpool fans boasted of their exploits at Heysel. 

Fourteen Scousers were charged with manslaughter, probably the wrong ones, and given prison sentences. English clubs supporters were, not for the first time, banned from attending European games away from home [though this did not prevent us at Man Utd from attending European away games, much to the clubs annoyance and UEFAs enragement] and some, a tiny minority of Liverpool fans were heard to boast it was them, and not “United” who got everybody banned.

In 1989 Liverpool played Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup Semi-Final of that year at Sheffield Wednesdays Hillsborough stadium. As has been well documented 96 Liverpool fans were crushed to death due to incompetent policing, even, arguably, murder. The press this time, in order to save the reputation of South Yorkshire police blamed the fans themselves for the tragedy. This was not the case as the police allowed the two centre pens of the Leppings Lane end to overfill leaving the adjacent pens half empty. This incompetence cost 96 supporters their lives. 

However, it was the events at Heysel four years previous which led to only tepid support for the deceased coming from many fans of other clubs around the country. I was at Old Trafford that day and at first the attitude was “fucking scousers at it again” which shortly after it became clear this was not the case. Disagreements began among the United fans, traditional enemies of Liverpool supporters, between those of us who could see plainly something was seriously wrong here and those who showed little sympathy due to the events at Heysel. Our attitude was two wrongs do not make a right until it became clear the only wrong at Hillsborough lay with the police. The media, usually friendly towards Liverpool’s fans, and hostile towards those of Man Utd, this time in order to protect the police and, no doubt their masters turned on their former darlings from “the Kop”.

It was only when it became apparent that there was one big cover up going on here that support for the deceased Liverpool fans and their families began to galvanise. Former sceptics came on board with their condemnation of the police and the obvious cover up which ensued. Some of those who once said “what about them poor bastards at Heysel killed when the scousers rioted” began to let that argument go as the corruption of the British state and, in particular the Home Office, became increasingly apparent in defending their policemen. It took years for the families to get some form of justice and it is not over yet, though a jury found the victims were killed “unlawfully” and West Midlands and South Yorkshire police forces agreed to pay six hundred injured and families of the deceased some compensation. 

It is my opinion, and only an opinion, the Hillsborough disaster was in some way planned by a state determined to get rid of standing areas at football grounds and impose all seater stadium with huge increases in profits. I think it was intended an incident would happen that day which got well out of hand and ultimately control but that again is just an opinion. It costs a lot more to sit at a match than it does to stand up and profits for the greedy club owners have soared on the backs of 96 Liverpool supporters.

Perhaps it is time to take a moment to remember all football fans who have lost their lives in various disasters from the Burden Park, former home of Bolton Wanderers, disaster in 1946 killing 33 and injuring 400 to Ibrox Park in 1971. We must remember the forgotten tragedy at Ayresome Park in 1980 involving my own fans, Manchester United, to Heysel in 1985 (and lets not forget the Bradford fire again in 1985) through to Hillsborough 1989. 

What are the possibilities of another disaster happening now that stadia are all seated? In my experience quite high because if a sway ever happens by supporters standing up to celebrate a goal in these seated enclosures there are no crush barriers to stop the sway. The result would be unimaginable as tibia leg bones would break like match stalks! There was nothing wrong with standing accommodation at football grounds and even the Taylor Report into Hillsborough exonerated terracing as not been in any way to blame for the deaths. The terracing has now been replaced by plastic buckets, seats, and the atmosphere at grounds once generated by the fans is now stage managed, not least at Anfield home of Liverpool FC. The grounds are soulless Americanised theatres of the rich man’s profits as working-class culture has been replaced by bourgeois bores. The ruling classes once again got what they wanted!

Caoimhin O’Muraile is a Dublin 
based Marxist and author. 

From Ayresome Park ➖ Heysel To Hillsborough

Anthony McIntyre ✒ considers the latest judicial verdict in the Hillsborough disaster case. 

The injustices that have sought to puncture the quest for truth surrounding the events of the Hillsborough Stadium disaster 32 years ago continue to pop up like a police stinger.

This week in a Salford Court two former senior police officers along with the South Yorkshire Police's erstwhile solicitor were told by a judge that they had no case to answer. Justice William Davies himself prevented the case going before a jury for deliberation: "I have concluded that there is no case fit for the jury's consideration." Alarmed. perhaps, by what the 2016 inquest verdict had demonstrated - that a jury can return a damning indictment of the state's apparatuses and operatives - the judge was determined that no jury was to get sight of the evidence in this case.  

Standing in the dock were then Chief Superintendent Donald Denton and Detective Chief Inspector Alan Foster, accompanied by Peter Metcalfe. The men were charged with two counts of perverting the course of justice by amending officers’ statements taken in the wake of the disaster. In all, it was alleged that they were responsible for changing 68 police statements, 58 of which the prosecution claimed were amended for the purpose of removing "references to failings on the part of SYP.”

The three defendants were obviously culpable of the wrongdoing of which they were accused but according to the judge, wrongdoing in this instance did not amount to guilt of law breaking. Witness statements taken for Lord Justice Taylor's 1989 inquiry were held to be inadmissible as evidence in a court of law.  Judge Davies ruled that at the time of Taylor there was no duty of candour required from police officers or solicitors: basically they were free to go along and lie as much as they liked. They have been doing it ever since.

The original statements had been taken in the days following the mass police unlawful killing. As the statements were being procured the Police Federation on the direction of the chief constable began briefing the press with scurrilous and mendacious smearing of the fans. Against that backdrop, there was no way police witness statements implicating their own force were going to escape being tampered with. There was only ever one goal in mind - cover up. The relatives have always known it. And so, Margaret Aspinall, whose teenage son James died at Leppings Lane, described the Salford outcome as a “cover-up of the cover-up of the cover-up.”

After 32 years of campaigning the relatives of those unlawfully killed are faced with what is for them the crushing reality of the legal fiction that there were 96 deaths yet no one caused their death in so far as everyone involved and the role they played, are known, yet no one has or will be made legally accountable. Everybody thus far brought before the courts has had the case against them thrown out with the sole exception of Sheffield Wednesday’s former secretary, Graham Mackrell, convicted of a turnstile safety breach that did not directly contribute to the crush. Not one of the police officers who unlawfully killed the fans has ever been convicted. 

I am not surprised at the verdict, even less so at its injustice. It has been the story all along. Truth has come in spite of the police, the state, the judiciary and not because of them. It was my view that the inquest verdict following on the heels of the Independent Hillsborough Panel Report was likely as good as it was going to get for the Justice campaign. While the temptation is there to press forward there is always the potential to lose ground with verdicts that push back against the damning logic of police culpability as the state fights a rearguard action aimed at retrieving lost ground. 

The Salford case allowed the barrister for Metcalfe, Jonathan Goldberg, to launch the first salvo in a post-trial battle of falsification through revising the narrative. In an act of despicable mendacity Goldberg took to Radio 5 live to repeat the well refuted lie of Hillsborough:

Of course my client who’s accused of covering up criticism of the police. What he in fact did was cut out criticism of the Liverpool fans whose behaviour was perfectly appalling on the day, causing a riot that led to the gate having to be opened, that unfortunately let the people in who crushed to death the innocents as they were. Complete innocents who were at the front of the pens who had arrived early and were not drunk and were behaving perfectly well. But as always it’s the innocents who suffer unfortunately. But these families have been wound up with just these awful political statements that had no basis in reality. And over 32 years there’s never been anything like it, it’s a complete conspiracy theory that’s a nonsense. This was cock up, not conspiracy.

Appalled, 22 MPs wrote to the BBC Director General alleging a failure of duty on the part of the interviewer by allowing the smear to go unchallenged. The interviewer, Adrian Chiles, later apologised for failing in real time to refute the “evil nonsense” spouted by Goldberg. There was no riot. There was no appalling behaviour by Liverpool fans. Goldberg is a malodorous piece of silk made from a sow's ear.

Margaret Aspinall, describing the verdict as an "absolute mockery" went onto claim that, "we’re always the losers no matter what the outcome today.”

Truth is, they are not the losers. They have made their case and won outright in the court of public opinion. Everybody knows that South Yorkshire Police unlawfully killed the fans. They got away with it in the courts but nowhere else. 

 ⏩Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.

96 Unlawfully Killed … Yet Nobody Killed Them

Anthony McIntyre was less than impressed by a former police chief's book on the Hillsborough disaster. 


Thursday past marked the 32nd anniversary of 96 Liverpool fans who were unlawfully killed by South Yorkshire Police at Sheffield's Hillsborough Stadium during the course of the 1989 FA Cup semi-final. 

It was sunny in Drogheda on Thursday as I stopped to talk with a neighbour and fellow Liverpool fan. We swopped memories of how we had learned of the news three decades ago. Liverpool fans of a mature age always remember exactly what they were doing when the news broke. My neighbour had been watching the game on television: I had been listening to it on the radio in my prison cell, thirteen years into a life sentence. 

The week that is in it prompted me to share some thoughts on one of the range of books written about the tragedy. It would feel much better to discuss a book that had been written to tell the truth rather than one written to chop it to pieces. By the time I had put the book down, I was in no doubt: Norman Bettison is a machete man. 

It is not possible to claim to enjoy any book about the events of Hillsborough Stadium on 15 April, 1989. This one, I derived absolutely no pleasure from although for different reasons than usual. The others exuded humility and authenticity. This oozed narcissism and disingenuousness. 

It is a work that is well written but not well told. It is not the untold story of Hillsborough but in the untelling of what really happened on the day and after, a fundamental truth is revealed: the police are so crooked they can't possibly lie in bed straight. The book prompted such revulsion that one observer said ‘Book burning is a terrible thing, but if Bettison could move publication forward to November 5, we might make an exception.’ Neil Welby has forensically demolished both Hillsborough Untold and its author. What can be added here is of minimal value compared to that. 
 
Norman Bettison was an Inspector with South Yorkshire Police in 1989. Off duty on the day, he attended the match as a spectator. He claims to have been a life long Liverpool supporter but oddly stood in the Nottingham Forest end of the ground. 

His dark arts were not practiced at the match but in its wake. He sought to extend his "peripheral" role at the game and inject it into the characterisation of his very central role in the months and years that followed. 

In the aftermath of the disaster Bettison helped amend officers’ statements to lessen the deleterious effect that the original raw statements would have caused. Much of the Wain Report which was submitted to the Taylor Inquiry had been written by Bettison. It was a strategic attempt to influence Lord Justice Taylor's Inquiry and was laced with police accounts of drunken, tickletless and aggressive fans. Bettison sat through every day of the Taylor inquiry as the South Yorkshire Police chief constable's plenipotentiary. Later he would lobby against Taylor, making a video for MPs showing crowd violence at soccer games, none of it in any way related to Hillsborough.

Many years later evidence would be given against Bettison to the Hillsborough Independent Panel by two fellow students on a business course he was attending not long after the crush. Their claim was that he had told them that the strategy of the South Yorkshire Police was to blame the fans. When he applied for the role of Chief Constable of Merseyside in 1998 he failed to mention Hillsborough in his application. 

All of this is tackled in the book but in a way that would earn a red card in today's game. 

The narrative sounded like bad plastic surgery looks - false. It was an exercise in evasion and self exculpation. Bettison loved the fans and only wanted to help them. He was critical of colleagues but only it seemed when there was no where else to go and if the bus was to be kept on the road those extra passengers weighing it down had to be thrown under it. He got rid of dead weight but solely for the purpose of keeping the South Yorkshire Police ship afloat. Everything was packaged just too neatly, betraying the fact that the script had been well rehearsed. It sounded like a case for the Defence, the author in the dock.  

Whereas match commander on the day David Duckenfield’s cover up seemed incompetent, Bettison's appeared much more sinister: as a cover up operative he was special forces and Duckenfield a grunt.

In ways Bettison conveyed the demeanour of Gerry Adams when the latter cynically lined up with the McCartney women after their loved one, Robert had been stabbed to death by IRA members. Adams sought to present himself as their friend while all the time undermining them. Bettison, frequency labelled a narcissist, does likewise.

He insidiously sought to cast relatives like Trevor Hicks, whose two teenage daughters died, and Margaret Aspinall, whose teenage son also lost his life, in a tinged light. He had to apply more subtlety than he wanted: besmirching the relatives head on was a losing strategy. He was more forceful when tackling Maria Eagle whom he blamed for being responsible for much of the serious reputational damage sustained by South Yorkshire Police. She had accused him under parliamentary privilege in 1998 of being part of a police black propaganda unit out to smear the fans.

Reading Hillsborough Untold chills in the way that reading Pet Sematary does. There is a dark malevolence in the pages working incessantly to corrupt wholesomeness. There is no doubting its commitment, which is not to the fans or their families but to the crooked baton of South Yorkshire Police. It is a dedicated effort to to refute the alleged existence of a plot within the South Yorkshire Police force to cover up the events of the day, despite the police lying from the get go. For Bettison the use of the term Salem shows essentially the overriding thought informing Hillsborough Untold: there was no cover up, just a witch hunt against South Yorkshire Police.

 ⏩Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.

Hillsborough Untold

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