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NEWS STREAM
Hillsborough Inquest Calls 1989 Stadium Deaths Unlawful. Aired 8-9a ET
Aired April 26, 2016 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[08:00:23] I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong and welcome to News Stream.
We begin with the fight for answers in Britain 27 years in the making. A jury has found that 96
Liverpool fans killed at a 1989 football match were killed unlawfully and that police error was partly to blame for their deaths. Now, they died
when they were crushed in fenced in pens at Hillsborough Stadium after an exit gate was opened, allowing thousands of fans to rush into an already
crowded area. And apart from the 96 deaths, 400 people were injured.
Now, Hillsborough remains Britain's deadliest sporting disaster.
Now CNN's Don Riddell has been covering the story for quite some time. He is live at CNN Center. But first I'd like to go to CNN's Christina
Macfarlane. She joins us outside the court in Warrington, England. And Christina, an incredible day. We have vindication for the fans. We have
finally justice for the families after 27 years , a very emotional day there. Could you walk us through the ruling and the reaction.
CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. An emotional and extremely important day here today, Kristie, for the families of the victims. It's a
very movable day today. We heard the findings of the 14 key questions that were put to the jurors in, throughout the course of this inquest. Just a
little bit earlier today, some crucial answers to that I'll bring you shortly.
But just now we're seeing, I think, some of the first families who may be emerging from the
courtroom after having sat through and heard the cause of death for the individual 96 fans who were killed on that day, and we believe that almost
all of the verdicts have now been given and the cause is death is not compression asphyxia, which of course, means that many of these fans were
squeezed to death on the 15th of April, 1989, the oldest victim being 67, the youngest being 10 years old.
Now, one important update to bring you in the last few minutes is that the South Yorkshire police have announced that they will issue a statement on
the verdicts that will be heard here in the next few minutes And as I mentioned earlier, we heard the findings of the 14
questions. Now two crucial findings that came out of that, one was the finding on the unlawful killing verdicts.
The jury here found that, yes, the 96 fans of Hillsborough were unlawfully killed on that day. And the second crucial finding was that the fans was
not held culpable for the events that happened that day. that is to say that they did not cause and they did not contribute to the events of that
day, which is the opposite to the inquiry that was first held here on the Hillsborough disaster back in 1989, which suggested that the fans were
responsible for the events that happened that day.
And we can see behind us now, Kristie, the families beginning to emerge here. We dd see them around about an hour ago when they emerged after the
14 findings. They were jubilant, they were upbeat. They were incredibly pleased at the outcomes of what's happened here today. It's been a long,
long fight for them, 27 years. But today they are finally getting to the truth of what happened at Hillsborough.
LU STOUT: And we are awaiting a press conference for the families to speak through a lawyer who's been resting them.
And Christina, tell us more about the persistence of this campaign by the families, by the Liverpool Football Club, what have they endured? What
have they done the last 27 years to bring them to this stage to get the jury to come to this decision?
MACFARLANE: Yeah, it's a huge day for Liverpool Football Club, but for the families of the victims who were involved who have said all along that they
felt the truth of what happened on the that day was never known, and that, in fact, there was a cover-up that took place after the disaster in the
weeks and months that followed.
We're seeing the families now coming down beside us here. It is -- you know, Kristie, the longest running inquest in Britishs history. It's been
running for more than two years and has cost over $20 million during that time. The jurors here in the court have heard from over 400 witnesses, and
have read 4,000 documents pertaining to the event that actually happened on that day back in -- back in
April 15, 1989.
And behind me here are not just the families of the bereaved, but there are members from Liverpool Football Club. The chief executive Ian Ayre is
amongst them. And we've seen many fans coming down here and holding banners aloft. This is not just an issue for
the families of the victims but for the football club as a whole who have consistently over the past 27 years kept this issue front and center of the
media, and it is because of those efforts that we've reached the point we're at today, whereby the truth is finally coming out in a flood of
results that we saw with the 14 findings earlier, just an hour ago.
As you say, we're expecting to hear from, a statement from the lawyer from the families in the next few minutes.
LU STOUT: OK. Christina Macfarlane reporting live for us. Many thanks indeed.
We're also joined by Don Ridell. He's following this story closely for us. I don't know if he's available right now at the moment.
We also have Phil Black at Liverpool headquarters. And let's bring Phil up now. And, Phil, we
know that as we're waiting for the press conference to take place, for the families to speak out, that after, immediately after the ruling was
announced the families and relatives outside the courtroom, they sang that song You'll Never Walk Alone.
Can you tell us more about the significance, the symbolism of that song, what it means to the families, what it means to Liverpool?
PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's the song of the Liverpool Football Club, Kristie. And it's an idea that has been embraced
through, especially through their struggle to determine what they say is the truth and justice behind
what happened that day. Those two words are important.
Look, you can see them coming up behind me on this civic building here in central Liverpool. These banners were already flying with the names of the
96 victims. Since the determination of the jury has been read out, they have been replaced with new banners that also
carry those big red letters spelling out those two words, truth and justice.
The final one is just going into place right now.
The flags here at half-mast. We see 96 candles on the steps here, one for each of the victims. And here on the other side of the square, there's
something of a crowd that have been watching, cheering. They're applauding right now as the events at the court have unfolded here this morning.
What all of this shows is that what's being said and what has been said in that court isn't just important to the families, to the people who survived
the disaster that day, but to an entire community indeed an entire city.
Liverpool as a whole has been very much caught up and to a considerable degree over the
last few decades defined by the idea that there was a great injustice, not just on that day, but in the
days, months and years since as people have struggled to reveal, to have examined in a very cold, public fair and just way what exactly happened
that day.
Here, there is today a sense that that is finally happening. There is great emotion, no doubt. I was talking to a man here in the square a
little earlier who was at Hillsborough on the day of the disaster as a teenager and a different part of the stadium, he wasn't caught up in the
crush itself, but he spoke about the chaos, the terror that he as a young teenager experienced. talked about what it was like to be in the makeshift
morgue that was established near the ground to deal with all of those victims.
The point is that this is living history. It is history that has defined the club, its fans and to a
considerable degree, this city as well -- Kristie.
LU STOUT: The entire city is rallying behind the ruling that was given earlier today. Justice for the families, the fans finally exonerated after
27years since the Hillsborough disaster took place in 1989.
And Phil, on social media, we've seen messages of support from Liverpool football players, even from former manager Roy Evans, all expressing
support for the families. What have you heard? What kind of messages have you been seeing?
BLACK: Yeah,the British prime minister as well, Kristie, he talked about this being a landmark day as the inquest delivers justice for the 96
victims. And he paid tribute to the campaigners and what he described as their great courage in their search for truth. And that's really the other
part of this story, is the great human effort that it has taken to get to this point, the people who believe that they
were the victims of an enormous injustice that began to be perpetuated very, very quickly in the moments after the disaster itself.
That was when they first started to hear comments from police and officials alleging that it was
fans themselves, drunk without tickets, behaving as hooligans that in some way had created the circumstance that led to the charge, the crush, and the
deaths that followed.
We've heard a lot of evidence in the decades since, a lot of it through the course of these inquests pointing to that not being the case, pointing to
police reports that were doctored. The commanding officer on the day admitting that at the time he had claimed it was fans who forced the gate
that created the surge. He now admits that was not true.
So there is still stuff to be examined here, certainly, and there is an ongoing investigation to look at the alleged cover-up. This is by the
independent police complaints commission. That is another arm of what is going on here. But, again, it goes back to show just how great this
struggle for truth and justice as the fans here, the families, refer to it, has been over such a long time now.
This is a landmark day, as the British prime minister has said. But what is clear is there is
still a criminal investigation ongoing. There is still this separate investigations into the conduct of the police after the disaster as well.
So all of this matters, and all of this is not yet over, but what people here today are marking is really a key event.
The event that has exonerated the fans, that's what a lot of the people here are talking about and they believe is so important, and, of course,
that other key issue, question six in the questionnaire that the jury was asked to fill out, that determined that these death was in fact not lawful.
So a key event. And what we are seeing here today is the city of Liverpool responding to that and they're going to continue to do so. Tonight, we are
told that a number of civic buildings will be bathed in red lights to mark this. There are plans for other memorials through the course of the week,
and what we're seeing here today so far is something more spontaneous, a little bit more organic as the people of this city come out to watch the
proceedings, and come together to express their feelings about what's been going on in court today, Kristie?
[08:11:30] LU SOTUT: A landmark day. Long overdue justice for the 96 victims of the disaster. Phil Black reporting for us live from Liverpool.
Thank you.
Now for more I'm joined now on the line by Simon Kuper in Paris. He is the columnist for The Financial times co-author of the book "Soccernomics."
Simon and thank you so much for joining us.
More than 25 years after the Hillsborough disaster, a jury has concluded today that the fans were unlawfully killed. What is your feeling of the
enormity of this moment?
SIMON KUPER, THE FINANCIAL TIMES: It's really a recognition of these families whose suffering is not going to go away, and who have been through
the most terrible 27 years, but it's also recognition that football is a worthwhile thing. It's a beautiful part of English culture, and in 1989,
strange to say, people didn't think that.
Football fans on the day of Hillsborough were as still regarded as dangerous and stupid people. All of them as potential hooligans. And that
in large part is why Hillsborough happened, because the police treated the fans as a danger, and they were to be locked up in these pens. I mean,
that was the norm in English football then.
And when the pens was obviously fallen, people were suffocated and asked to be let out. The police didn't open the gates to let them out, because the
police thought these people are hooligans we can't let them on to the field. And so the police stood by while these people dies because of their
perceptions of football fans. And the media of the day, too, slammed the fans. That was completely the norm response at the time. Well, the fans
must have been to blame.
It wasn't just the Sun Newspaper said that, most newspapers presumed these people are drunk, they're dangerous, they're ticketless, so in some ways
they must have contributed to it.
So, the disdain and, indeed, hatred for football in 1989, which was shared by the prime minister then, Margaret Thatcher, has transformed. And you
see that in this ruling in a recognition that football is really a lovely part of Britain.
LU STOUT: and that's the legacy of the Hillsborough disaster of 1989, isn't it? It's in addition to the tragedy of the 96 lives lost that day,
it fundamentally changed British football?
KUPER: It changed football and the way football was perceived, and you see that most in the
stadiums. After Hillsborough it was decided that never again should a 19th Century stadium that was really tumbling down, as Hillsborough Stadium was
that day, and as most stadiums at the time were, but never again would these stadiums be allowed to endanger fans' lives.
And from the start of the 90s, English football stadiums were transformed. The governments insisted on that. They've been transformed, the government
insisted on that. They became all seater, they became much safer places, and that contributed to a boom in numbers of people going to watch football
and into being this league becoming the richest in the world.
Now, that had a couple of bad side effects. You know, ticket prices rose and some poor were forced out.
But The country was also becoming richer and so far more people were willing to pay those higher prices to able to sit and watch in safety and
comfort. the tickets and sit in safety and comfort and watch.
So, the stadiums transformed and with it the football did.
LU STOUT: Now, the jury, as you know, had to answer 14 questions. Through those questions we learned that the fans were not at fault. Question
number eight was interesting. It was about the design and the layout of the stadium. Question number eight said -- it asked the question, were
there features in the design of this stadium that caused or contributed to the disaster? And the jury answered, with a definitive, yes.
Could you remind you us, as we look at the graphic on our screen right now, how did the design of the stadium bring about this disaster?
[08:15:18] KUPER: Well, it was the fact that people were locked up, was the key thing. And the fans had to enter this stand for an underground
tunnel. Nobody knew quite how many people there were, because withstanding it was -- you know, you could fit more or fewer people depending on how --
whether people breathed in.
And then they were locked in. So, people were let in from the back and the ones up front were pushed into the fence. And the fence could not open.
These were like cattle pens rather than like the sports stadiums that we know today.
So -- and it -- you know, we blamed the Hillsborough stadium, and rightly so, but this could have happened in almost any stadium in England. And
there had been multiple cases of these kinds of people pressed in and people having to be taken to a hospital. In other such events and in the
stadiums before, this as the first time that there were multiple casualties. But, really, Hillsborough was an accident that was waiting to
happen. This is what English stadiums were like then.
LU STOUT: Now, because of the findings, the ruling reached by the jury, we can blame the design of the stadium, we can blame the errors made by the
police, but for so many years, the fans andt heir behavior were blamed.
You know, just help us understand just -- the families of the fans of the victims what had to go through for over almost three decades, to end this
fight for truth and to clear the names of their loved ones.
KUPER: Well, the most infamous newspaper headline, arguably, the last 50 or 60 years in
England was The Sun newspaper, which after the disaster ran the front page headline "Animals" with a story that was based on a self-exculpating
policeman who wanted to blame the fans, that the fans were at fault, that they had been drunk, that they had been aggressive, that they had robbed
the pockets of the dead, and so the police hadn't been at fault, the fans were.
After that day The Sun newspaper was boycotted widely across Liverpool, and to this day it barely sells any copies in Liverpool.
But, you know, as I said, a lot of British newspapers took the line that the fans were the
problem. Now, that began to shift in the 90s as football became much more socially acceptable, as politicians started to talk about how they loved
football, which in Margaret Thatcher's day was unthinkable.
So from the '90s, the families of the dead have really had most of the public opinion on their
side, but at the time the tragedy happened in 1989, that was definitely not the case. They were seen at representatives of the rabble that football
fans were seen as them.
LU STOUT: And so now we have the inquest that has reached a conclusion, and probably the
most significant question that was answered by the jury, the answer was, that the fans were, indeed, unlawfully killed.
Simon, on the back of that, what happens next? What does that mean? Will there be more prosecutions?
KUPER: There is talk of possibly prosecuting the police commander David Duckenfeld who resigned soon after Hillsborough and who has said that he is
very sorry for what happened, which, of course, will not bring those 96 dead people back. There's some -- he was -- there was a private case
brought by the families against him, which was unresolved, and it's not clear whether he can be prosecuted again. But he would be a man in line,
and I suppose that there will also be more demands for the financial damages now that the jury has ruled this way.
LU STOUT: All right. Simon Kuper of the Financial Times, thank you so much for joining us, and take care.
Now for more, let's go to CNN's Don Riddell. He joins us from the CNN Center. And, Don, I mean, this terrible disaster took place over 25 years
ago. We have this verdict. We are now awaiting the families and a lawyer representing the families to speak in Warrington, England outside the
courtroom.
I mean, this is a moment that has been long in the making. Vindication finally for the fans, for the victims. Your thoughts on this moment?
DON RIDDELL, CNN WORLD SPORT: Well, you say it's a moment long in the making. To
be honest, I'm not sure the families ever really believed they were going to get to this day, even though they knew the truth all along. They knew
the truth from the immediate days after the disaster of what had happened. But it has taken them 27 years and 11 days to finally get to the bottom of
it.
This inquest, which has lasted more than two years. A thousand witnesses have been present at
these proceedings, 267 days of evidence. This is the first time, would you believe, where all of the
cards have been on the table. Previous inquests and inquiries, there was always something held back. And the families always believed that this was
to basically prevent these from getting to the real truth and learning who was really responsible for this disaster.
So this is a hugely significant day for the families. It has not been an easy struggle by any means. I've met and spent time with several of the
campaigners who lost their children in this disaster. And this has haunted them for every day since. And it's interesting some of them, like Trevor
Hicks, who lost both of his daughters, Sarah and Vicky, both teenaged girls at the game, he said, you know, what if they'd come out in the days afterwards and
admitted responsibility, we would have accepted that. But they never did. And so it forced them to walk down this very long and painful road.
And it has been a process that has taken a significant toll on many of these campaigners. And we are talking about a significant amount of people
here, remember. 96 victims. Think how many family members are affected by that, by the trauma of that, by the heartbreak and the devastation.
What about the other hundreds of fans who were involved in the crush and who were injured and who were traumatized and for so long had to live with
the notion perhaps they were somewhat responsible for the deaths of their fellow supporters?
And so finally, here we are, after 27 years. And this is by no means the end of it, but this is
the first day where the campaigners really believe that something might actually change.
I'm not sure they really believed until they heard those findings read out in the court today that they were ever going to get the verdicts they were
looking for. But finally they have. And this will enable them, if they and their lawyers so choose, to push further through the judicial process
and press criminal cases against some of those responsible.
LU STOUT: And is that what's going to happen next? Because if we have the case here that 96 Hillsborough fans were unlawfully killed, then who was
responsible for their manslaughter?
RIDDEL: Well, one of the problems up until this point was there are so many reasons and so many organizations responsible for what happened on
that day, that it was very easy, if you were to prosecute anyone to say, well, it wouldn't have been my fault if these other three things hadn't
been in play before it came to be my turn.
And so they called it the chain of causation. And that was very, very difficult.
What we've seen today is a number of organizations held responsible for their role. Clearly, the police -- I mean, in major way, the policing and
the actions of chief superintendent David Duckenfeld are very key here.
But also Sheffield Wednesday who owned the Hillsborough Stadium, the Sheffield City Council who gave the safety certificate for the stadium,
which by the way, was ten years out of date. The actions of the ambulance service on the day, the structural engineers who were responsible for the
fencing and the crush barriers. The crush barriers, some of them were too short.
The way in which the football fans entered the stadium. I mean, some 24,000 supporters had to go through just 23 narrow turnstiles, single file.
No wonder there was a bottleneck in the road outside. The fans just couldn't get through the gates fast enough. So we have now learned that
all of these people bear some kind of responsibility for what happened that day.
We don't know what's going to happen from this point on. We don't know if there will be criminal cases pressed against these individuals and
organizations. We will hear more on that, and it may well be the case.
We're looking at an illustrated graphic here of what exactly happened on that day. I mentioned that the supporters had to go through these
individual turnstiles.
Well, it got to a point eight minutes before kickoff, where there was such a huge bottleneck outside, that the police radioed through to the main
control box and said, if you don't let these fans in through a large exit gate, there are going to be deaths outside. And David
Duckenfeld gave the order to open a large exit gate allowing 2,000 people to go in en masse at once. And you can see from the arrows that they
headed through this dark tunnel.
Now, what had happened in previous games at Hillsborough was that when those pens at the other end of that tunnel were full, the police would
erect some kind of human barrier or barricade over that tunnel to indicate to supporters that they needed to go to some of the other pens to the side.
But you have to remember, that these fans are not familiar with the layout of the stadium. This was a neutral venue. They would only go there
occasionally. They couldn't be expected to know that there were other alternatives. And by failing to redirect the fans elsewhere caused the
disaster, because those 2,000 supporters went down that tunnel, into tight pens that were already dangerously overfull and once those people were in
and down that tunnel, the disaster was almost inevitable, and the way it happened was just absolutely horrendous.
We've heard that many of these supporters literally had the life squeezed out of them, compression asphyxia, the cause of death for many of those
supporters today.
And we're looking at the video now from the day. This is BBC footage of just this desperate scramble to try and save lives on the day.
This unfolded in front of a stunned stadium, but also a live television audience. Many people of my generation watched this live. They can
remember these scenes.
You're looking at a man there who's clearly indicating that there are supporters below his
feet who are in very, very serious trouble.
We have been awaiting comment today from some of the people, and organizations involved. This is the current head of the South Yorkshire
police. This is what he has to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[11:25:55] DAVID CROMPTON, CHIEF SUPERINTENDENT, SOUTH YORKSHIRE POLICE: But these have been lengthy and difficult proceedings. They have once and
for all provided a fresh opportunity to explore all of the available evidence about what happened. This has enabled the jury to reach the
verdicts that they have today.
The Hillsborough disaster changed the way in which major sporting events are policed, and
many lessons have been learned as a result. Today, with improvements in training, communications and technology, it's almost impossible to imagine
how the same set of circumstances could arise again.
We will now take time to carefully reflect on the implications of the verdicts. We recognize that this is an important day for the families of
those who died, the Hillsborough disaster and for everyone affected by what happened. They have waited 27 years for this outcome. Our thoughts are
with them.
Thank you.
QUESTION: South Yorkshire police...
QUESTION: Constable, was there a cover-up?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RIDDELL: Well, that was the chief superintendent David Crompton of South Yorkshire police
addressing journalists outside the courtroom in Warrington. We missed the start of his statement, but it sounded like a pre-prepared statement that
lessons have been learned and we will see what happens from this point.
The families, I think, would have been hoping for an apology from South Yorkshire police, although I'm not sure we heard it there, Kristie.
LU STOUT: No. I did not hear an apology there. He did acknowledge this was an important day for the families, the South Yorkshire police chief
also said that the disaster changed the way major sporting events had been policed.
Now, he pointed out that there have been improvements with communication, with technology, with training. And in his words he said it's nearly
impossible to imagine how the same set of circumstances could ever happen again.
That was him commenting on how the disaster of 27 years ago has fundamentally changed spectator sports, football, and how these events are
policed. But he did not address how today's inquest and the verdict will change things going forward.
RIDDELL: Well, the South Yorkshire police clearly have a case to answer now as families
will argue they have should been answering 27 years ago. Of course, the South Yorkshire police force change so much since that time.
I think it will be interesting to see what's going to happen to them in the coming hours.
Also, in the UK, the West Midlands police force who were charged with investigating the South Yorkshire police force in the months and years
following HIllsborough. And it may well be that they also have a case to answer. But we must wait and see.
I mean, the game has changed so much in the United Kingdom. I mean, of course, it's policed in a different way. Back in 1989, the police were
really on the lookout for hooliganism and they were trying to prevent crowd violence. What they weren't looking for was how to promote crowd
safety and look after the tens of thousands of supporters who ultimately were in
their care. They were kind of looking the wrong way. And when the Hillsborough tragedy began unfolding before their very eyes, it was
obviously that many of the policemen and women on duty completely failed to recognize what
was actually happening right there in front of them.
So, yes, times have changed. Football has changed. And for the families, finally, they have the answers and the validation of the truth that they
always knew delivered in a British court.
But clearly, this is not the end of the story.
LU STOUT: Yeah. And as we heard today from that courtroom it is the police not the supporters or fans to blame.
Don Riddell reporting for us. Thank you.
You're watching News Stream. We'll be back after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[11:32:17] LU STOUT: And we return to breaking news in Britain's Hillsborough inquest. A jury has just found that 96 Liverpool fans crushed
to death by a crowd at a football match in 1989 were killed unlawfully, and that police error was partly to blame for their
deaths.
Now, families of the victims celebrated the verdict outside the court. Now, the jury absolved Liverpool fans of any responsibility for the deaths.
96 people were killed and hundreds were injured after an exit gate was opened at Hillsborough stadium allowing thousands of fans to rush into an
already crowded, already fenced in area.
Now CNN's Don Riddell has been covering this story for quite some time. He is live at CNN Center.
But first I'd like to go to CNN's Christina Macfarlane. She joins us outside the court in Warrington, England. And Christina, it has been a
very describe the reaction to the ruling.
MACFARLANE: Absolutely right, Kristie, it's been a highly emotional day here. And for the past half an hour, we've been watching the families of
the victims emerge from the courtroom behind me, and I have two key people alongside me here who have been in the court hearing, who have been
following this case for 27 years.
Margaret Aspinall (ph), whose son died in the Hillsborough disaster and Sue Roberts of the Hillsborough family support group. I wanted to speak to
them now.
And Margarat, can you just tell me, how are you feeling after everything you heard the past few days?
MARGARET ASPINALL, SON DIED IN HILSSBOROUGH STADIUM DISASTER: (inaudible) maybe an hour ago (inaudible) everybody was so (inaudible) up to 27 years
for this fight.
I just can't (inaudible) a thing like this would ever, never happen again. We've got to (inaudible) so many of the families (inaudible) and to me it's
so tragic (inaudible) to see, justice and (inaudible) we've been fighting to overturn these verdicts. We knew they were wrong in the first place.
We (inaudible). It was a great, great, hard, hard job to actually get your unlawfully killed.
And, you know, I'm -- 20-odd years ago I wrote the then Stephen Pauper (ph) who was the coroner of the inquest and said, please, don't sign my son's
death certificate until the right verdict is up.
I don't mind truth and I don't mind justice and I don't mind the words, but give me the truth on my son's death certificate. and people said, you've
had the truth. A lot of people saying then you've had the truth. No, we nerve her the truth. And we've proved now. I can get my son's death
certificate with the right verdict.
MACFARLANE: A very important day for you, Margaret.
And Sue, as we look forward now, what comes next? We've been hearing some apologies from the authorities involved in the incident and we've had some
statements. It -- has justice been done for you, or is there much more to come?
SUE ROBERTS, HILLSBOROUGH FAMILY SUPPORT GROUP: Well, we've not seen or heard any apologies yet. So I can't really comment on as for what comes
next when we need to hand over to the CPS and see what they're going to do.
MACFARLANE: And Margaret, will you still be still be -- obviously you'll still be following this, and do you want to see criminal prosecutions come
out of this?
ASPINALL: Well, I think of what the families have gone through for 27 years and also the fans and the survivors, and the city as well as a whole,
you know. For what we've gone through, somebody's got to be held accountable.
If I say prosecution, yes, I think they do need to be prosecuted, for what they put us through. The truth was there for 27 years. We never got that
truth. A lot of that has come out in the court over these past two years, it's things that we've never seen -- we hadn't seen before and that's what
shocked me.
And I thought, that has been there. Why wasn't that handed over? And I think now it's most
important to let people know you must fight for your rights. You must fight what you're entitled to, and everybody's entitled to freedom of
information, freedom of documentation. And if they don't hand it over, then why not and that was one of our big questions, why not? What's there that you don't
want us to see? Well, we've seen it now. The world's seen it, and now we realize why these families have been fighting for all of these years.
MACFARLANE: Margaret and Sue, thank you so much for speaking to us. And I'm so pleased today that you have come some way to finding out the truth
of what happened that day. Thank you.
As you hear there, Kristie, two key people, Margaret Aspinall herself, whose son died in the Hillsborough disaster telling us that she felt
justice has been done to some degree today, but they can't obviously bring back the victims of April 15, 1989. It is an incredibly emotional day
here. Everyone who is milling around is wanting to talk about their experiences and wanting to talk about their relief of
what they've heard here in the court case, as you just heard.
LU STOUT: And also, as we just heard, these family members, they want an apology and they also accountability.
So after this inquest, after what we heard earlier today, what will happen next?
MACFARLANE: Well, as we've been saying today, of course, Kristie, this is not just a criminal proceedings proceedings that will come out of this.
There will be no criminal proceedings that come out of this, but the families of the victims do want to see something happen in the wake of
this, and we have heard over the past years that the UK crown prosecution service have announced that they will look into the possibility of
launching a criminal prosecution as a result of the inquest that we've heard
here today, and the apology that I was referring to just then with the ladies was from the engineering firm who have issued a statement in the
past few minutes saying on behalf of the company at the time of the incident we add our deepest sympathies to the families of the victims.
So, there is becoming now this drip feed of reaction to the inquest here, and as i say, I think we
are beginning to realize that criminal prosecutions will come out of this and the groundwork of what has been done here has basically laid the
foundations for -- for those criminal proceedings which we expect to see in the next few weeks.
LU STOUT: Yeah, and as the family members consider what their next move is, and mull on the fact that they do want accountability for the deaths of
their loved ones, could you take us back to a couple hours ago when the verdict was being read out in the courtroom, and
just the spontaneous display of joy that erupted in the courtroom and outside the building. What happened? What was that like?
MACFARALNE: That's right, Kristie. We spoke to one lady who said she was sitting in the courtroom at the time when verdicts for question six and
seven read out.
Now, these were the crucial verdicts pertaining to two very important questions. The first was that of unlawful killing. Were the 96 people,
were the 96 victims on that day unlawfully killed? Well, the answer to that was yes. She said that when they was read out, the courtroom was
filled with people people cheering. There were people in floods of tears, a huge relief that that had gone that way.
The second question that also elicited shouts from the courtroom was to do with the fans themselves and whether or not the fans were culpable to the
events that happened that day, whether they were responsible. The jury ruled they were not, in fact, in any way culpable for what happened that
day. That is in opposite -- that is the opposite result of what happened, or what was ruled during the first inquest in 1989 when it was found that
fans were partly to blame for the incidents of that day.
So, that was a huge relief to everyone sitting here in the courtroom. And you could feel when all of the families emerged here that half an hour
later, that they were so relieved by the findings that have basically placed the blame, the emerging blame, on the authorities and the police as
the inquiry went on.
And that is what many people have wanted to hear today. It is the number of the truth of
what happened on that day, April 15, 1989, and it has subsequently been covered up.
So jubilation, really, here from the fans and the families of the victims.
[11:41:05] :LU STOUT: Yeah, extraordinary and emotional scenes outside the courtroom there. You know, our heart really goes out for the families who
have waited for this moment for so long.
Christina Macfarlane reporting, thank you.
It was a tragedy that happened in minutes but it's taken almost 40 years to uncover the truth about what happened at Hillsborough football stadium in
1989, that's when 96 people died in Britain's worst sporting disaster.
And CNN World Wport's Don Riddell examines howevents unfolded on a day that changed the face of football forever.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RIDDELL: The Premiere League is promoted at the best in the world. Every week its games broadcast all over the globe taking viewers inside England's
state-of-the-art all theater stadiums.
But 27 years ago it was a different story. Stadiums were decrepit. Many fans stood, the scourge of hooligans that meant that rival supporters were
kept apart by fencing. They were penned in on all sides.
PHIL SCRATON, AUTHOR: The conditions of the stadia, we took them for granted. We would cheer when people were handed down who had fainted in
the cup and they were handed down no the to the front, passed over to the ambulance people. We cheered, because it was just part of the way it was.
RIDDELL: But in 1989, one game changed everything. It was April 15. The semifinal of the FA cup between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. More than
50,000 fans of both teams had traveled to a neutral venue in Sheffield, Hillsborough Stadium.
Usually fans accessed the stadium one at a time, but a crush outside prompted the local police in charge of crowd safety to open a large exit
gate. In that instant, some 2,000 fans streamed down a tunnel into a section behind the goal, an enclosed section that was already too full.
And then, as the game kicked off in full view of the stadium and the live television cameras, hundreds of people were crushed.
WENDY WHITE, HILLSBOROUGH SURVIVOR: I felt it was like -- imagine hell to be, where people are dying people are dead, other people don't know what to
do.
RIDDELL: The game was stopped after just six minutes.
Back in the dressing room, Liverpool's manager Kenny Dalglish tried to counsel his players.
BRUCE GRUBBELAAR, FORMER LIVERPOOL GOALKEEPER: All of a sudden the fan came in with tears in his eyes, and shouting -- there's ten people dead.
What do you mean?
He said, it's like a war zone over there.
RIDDELL: Hundreds of people had been injured, and for 96 Liverpool fans, those injuries proved fatal.
GRUBBELAAR: And you see them pressed up against the fence, for them to get -- the air sucked out of them like that must be the most horrific way to
go.
RIDDELL: It was an unspeakable nightmare, and one that would only get worse. As the disaster was still unfolding, police pinned the blame on the
fans saying they had arrived late, drunk and without tickets.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People initially were stunned that the truth could be so quickly fabricated. And within days, they were being held responsible
for the deaths of their loved ones, or their friends.
So -- it hit people at their most traumatized, and I think that it united the city and the region immediately around a search for what they
considered to be the real truth.
RIDDELL: Professor Phil Scraton himself was a Liverpool fan and he worked doggedly to uncover the real truth. What he found was a shocking cover-up
at official levels.
SCRATON: What I'm illustrating in these two statements is where they overlap word for word.
RIDDELL: But his dedicated research and the fans tireless campaigning took decades to force the British establishment to change the narrative.
Finally, the longest running inquest in British legal history determined the real story. The whole world now knows what the victims' families and
survivors have known all along, it was never their fault.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LU STOUT; And today the Hillsborough inquest has finally come to an end, one of the many conclusions reached, that the Hillsborough fans were
unlawfully killed and errors made by the police.
Now, let's dig into that angle now with CNN's Don Riddell. He returns. Of course, he's live for us at CNN Center.
And Don, what more have you learned about the police reaction, how the police are reacting to
the inquest and the ruling that was reached today?
RIDDELL: Well, a few minutes ago we did hear a brief statement that was presented by
David Crompton, the current chief superintendent of South Yorkshire police. He says that he accepts the findings of the jury here today, not the
apology just yet that the families were hoping for, of course, as Yorkshire police face a very uncertainly fut future with proceedings that could stem from
today's findings.
There are several investigations that have been running sort of alongside this inquest, which has been going on for the last two years. The
independent police complaints commission has been looking into what was going on that day, and in the months and years afterwards. The names of
some 1,500 police officers have been handed to the independent police complaints commission And of course it
remains to be seen what action the legal teams representing the families of the victims are going to take from this point.
But it's not just the police who have been held responsible by this jury of nine people in Warrington, it's also the Sheffield Football Club, which
owned the Hillsborough Stadium, it's the South Yorkshire ambulance service. It's the structural engineers who designed many of the safety features on
the terracing that the (inaudible) Hillsborough Stadium, it's Ssheffield City Ccouncil, who gave the safety certificate to the football club, a
safety certificate which was ten years out of date.
So, the legal teams representing the families have many more avenues to explore after the findings of today.
LU STOUT: All right. Don Riddell, many thanks indeed for that.
Now, joining me now from Warwick, England is David Webber. He is a lecturer at the University of Warwick and an experts on the politics of
football and he joins us now live.
And thank you for joining us. This was a wait, it took over 25 years, practically a full generation. This is vindication for the families
affected by the tragedy. Your thoughts on this. What does this day mean for the families?
DAVID WEBBER, UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK: I think it's a hugely momentous day and I would dare to suggest this is a day that I think many families never
thought that they would actually see.
So this is a day, I think in which the struggle of the families over 27 years now, like you say, a full generation, where they've been struggling
against the (inaudible), the coverup at the highest levels, within British politics, British police, and the truth has been uncovered. It's been
bared for all to see.
LU STOUT: The truth has finally been uncovered. We've learned that the Hillsborough fans were, as the court declared, unlawfully killed. We've
heard from family members who have told our Christina Macfarlane there outside the courtroom, they want an apology. They want accountability.
Will they get that?
WEBBER: I certainly hope that they will. I mean, the -- the declaration of an unlawful killing decision, I think that's hugely, hugely significant.
They deserve an apology. Why did they have to wait for such a long time, when all of this information, it was there. It was just hidden. It was
covered up. Why for so long was this information pertaining to their loved ones denied to them? So at the very least they deserve an apology and I
really hope that that will be forthcoming soon.
Secondly, that there should be accountability now. Several organizations have been held responsible for the deaths of the 96, for the injuries
suffered by hundreds of Liverpool supporters who attended that cup semifinal. And it's important, then, that the
appropriate proceedings are brought against those authorities and those who failed in their duty of care to those supporters on that fateful afternoon.
LU STOUT: Now, and if the fans were indeed unlawfully killed, that was the decision reached today, who ultimately is guilty for their manslaughter,
and do you think criminal charges will be brought next?
[11:50:05] WEBBER: Well, the CPS at the moment, the cases has been handed...
LU STOUT: OK. Unfortunately we just lost that connection there with our guest.
I was speaking earlier with David Webber who is a lecturer at the University of Warwick.
Now, let's go straight to our Phil Black, who joins us live from Liverpool. And Phil has been there looking at tributes that have been popping up
around him in the city to the families, to the fans, to what happened in Hillsborough and of course to the ruling that was issued earlier today.
What have you seen, Phil?
BLACK: Kristie, there was a crowd here in Central Lliverpool earlier watching the events of the court unfold. They cheered, they clapped.
There was a lot of emotion.
As it became clear that the jury was determining the facts in a way that they had long believed them to be true. And you can see on the civic
building behind me, the big words, "truth and justice," they have been hung there today in response to the words that have been spoken in the court.
And those words are important, because they were adopted long ago, not just by
the families of the victims, but by Liverpool Football Club itself, its fans, and many of the people within this city, they were adopted as a
cause, as a goal, because it became pretty clear, really, on the same day as the disaster itself, more than 27 years ago, that people were putting
forward a version of the truth that day that people in this city simply did not believe in.
They did not accept, that the 96 people died that day accidentally, nor did they accept that the fans behavior that day contributed to those deaths.
And now today that view has been vindicated by the jury that has sat through two years' worth of evidence examining all the facts finally.
And so it's all very significant in that sense. There is no doubt that not just the disaster itself, but that pursuit for truth and justice have
become defining struggles that have really shaped the character of the football club, its fans and to a significant degree the city itself,
Kristie?
LU STOUT: And even the British prime minister has paid tribute, saluting the extraordinary
courage of the Hillsborough campaigners. What did David Cameron say?
BLACK: He has. He talked about this being a landmark day as the inquest delivers justice to the 96 victims, and he paid tribute to the campaigners
and their extraordinary courage, as you say, for getting us to this point.
And that's what's really being marked, that's why it is such an emotional day in this city. It's because people who remember the Hillsborough
disaster, people who were there, and we've spoken to some of them here this morning, people who experience the chaos, the fear, who witnessed the death
themselves, they are now here 27 years later as finally what they have always considered to be true is now on the public record, is now
established fact beyond any sort of argument.
They now accept, they believe the country and the world can accept, that what happened that
day was unlawful, that those people should not have died, and that the people who were gathered that day to watch a football match, they did not
contribute, they did not behave in a way that was claimed -- it was from the police and other official sources in the moments after the disaster
that we first started to hear that drunken, late ticketholders were responsible for forcing a gate that led to the crush, the surge, that
killed those 96 people. That has now been struck from the record as fact and that is why people here today are emotion, it's why those words hanging
on that building mean so much, Kristie?
LU STOUT: All right, Phil Black reporting live from Liverpool, England on the tribute for the fans and families of Hillsborough.
Now, let's bring up CNN's Don Riddell at CNN Center who has been taking the news ever since it broke earlier today. A landmark day and it really
represents the end of a struggle for the truth. Finally justice for these families. Your thoughts, Don?
RIDDELL: Yes. It's been an extraordinary journey. So many aspects of this entire saga, Kristie, really do defy belief. I mean, the fact that 96
supporters could go to a football game and never come home is extraordinary in itself. The drama and the horror that unfolded in the hours after that
for the families were absolutely terrible. I've spoken to some of the lead campaigners who lost their
children at Hillsborough, and for some of them, it was many, many hours of misinformation and false hope before they actually finally realized in some
cases, it was 6:00 a.m. the next day, where they were finally given the most terrible news, that their loved one had perished. And at that point
the way they were treated was absolutely disgraceful.
Margaret Aspinall, who was on this show earlier on talking to Christina Macfarlane was told by an unknown voice behind her that she wasn't allowed
to cuddle her son when he lay there on the gurney. She was told he is now the property of the South Yorkshire coroner. Just absolutely terrible, and
they've had to live this so much for the last 27 years. They never thought they'd really get to the bottom of it, but finally they have and it's a
great credit to them.
LU STOUT: Yeah. His heartbreaking details just continue to emerge 27 years on. Don Riddell, thank you.
And let's go to Christina Macfarland who joins us from Warrington, England. And she has been talking to the families of the victims and the families of
the fans who were there. And what have they been telling you?
MACFARLANE: That's right, Kristie. I've just spoke to three sisters whose brother died in the Hillsborough disaster. And they were extremely tearful
as you can imagine, but they told me that they felt they could now rest easy, that they did had some closure to the events that happened that day
and can close the chapter on this awful ongoing nightmare that they've been in 27 years. One sister told me she finally feels she can sleep easy at
night, that's how much it has tormented her for nearly a quarter century.
We also spoke to Margaret Aspinall, as Don was mentioning there. She has been very key in driving this and keeping this legal case alive. She's
saying that, you know, justice has been done, but she will be looking and expecting this to be taken further by the criminal courts and by criminal
prosecutors.
Of course, today is not a criminal proceeding, it's an inquiry.
We have heard in the past few minutes some responses to the authorities who were in place that day from the engineering firm who issued an apology
saying on behalf of the company at the time, they add their deepest sympathies and we've heard from the South Yorkshire police who issued a
statement, but not exactly giving an apology for what occurred that day.
So responses coming thick and fast here as the inquest wraps the families behind us and heading back into court, but at the moment, everything that
we expected to hear, the 14 findings, plus the -- the cause of death for the -- for the 96 who died, we've heard everything that we thought we'd
hear up to now and we are now expecting to hear from the lawyer of the families who
will be issues a statement shortly.
LU STOUT: Christina Macfarlane reporting from outside the courtroom, thank you.
Family members, as Christina was reporting there, still waiting for an apology, still yearning for accountability for the 96 people who died.
And that is it for this special edition of News Stream. We will have much more on the Hillsborough inquest and verdict. It is vindication for the
fans, justice for the families of 96 people who were killed, waiting 27 years for answers.
You're watching CNN.
END
