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LIVERPOOL, England — Some 24,000 participated in the 25th anniversary memorial at the stadium here April 15 for the 96 football fans crushed to death at the Hillsborough football grounds in Sheffield in 1989.
A 1991 inquiry verdict of accidental death was overturned in 2012, following decades of campaigning by the Hillsborough Family Support Group and the Hillsborough Justice Campaign. A government-appointed panel then concluded that police had doctored statements, used criminal record checks to discredit victims and lacked evidence to support their claims that fans were drunk and aggressive. The panel also said nearly half might have been saved if cops hadn’t delayed access to ambulances. The government recently opened a new inquiry. “Now we want to know who was responsible,” said Kenny Derbyshire, a forklift driver here who was at the match in 1989 and today chairs the Hillsborough Justice Campaign. |
| — PAUL DAVIES |