Hillsborough: The Fight for Justice

special, Judith Moritz looks at their continuing fight for justice.

afternoon in 1989. For many, it is a disaster which has lasted for 23

years. There has been a problem on the gates of the turnstiles at that

end. There are too many people. football fans went to watch

Liverpool i Liverpool iCup semi-final - they never came back. We drove up

there that morning as a family and we drove home as a couple. Crush on

the terraces, the survivors was like a vice. It was getting

tighter. You felt you would pass out. The ne out. The nes

been damned. The Sun caused outrage. The seeds were sown earlier.

have seen it. I cannot deny that. My name was on it. Now we know

senior poli senior poliruth. Some officers say they were

affected, too. Marriages have fallen apart. Officers have

attempted suicide. They're on a concoction of medication. They have

had inquests, inquiries and investigations but the Hillsborough

families just wanted the truth. The Hillsborough families have had

enough of the law. They have had a bellyful. They have not had justice.

Hillsborough Independent Panel have been provided. The resignation of

one of the top police officers in this week in a historic moment in

the High Court the original verdict was quashed and a new inquest was

ordered and criminal charges were also being considered. Now, more

than two decades since the worst ever sporting disaster, campaigners

feel that the wheels of justice are moving for them. It was a glorious

day. It was a big game. I went with three mates in a car, full of

expectancy. It had been a comparatively stuttering season.

They best way I can describe it was remembering remembering man with a big

haversack of sunglasses seeing "�1 a pair to keep out the glare."

Everything felt as it should. Wembley or bust. These are the best

matches to win and the worst to lose. What is at stake? It is the

chance of a cup and league double On the 15th of April, 1989, 24,000

Liverpool fans made the journey across the Pennines to watch their

team play Nottingham Forest at Sheffield Wednesday's neutral

Hillsborough stadium. The same two teams met at the same stage of the

FA Cup competition here the year before as well. On both occasions,

the Liverpool were allocated this, the Leppings Lane portion of the

ground. Many were quite angry about that. Many thought it was too small

for the amount of fans. The match was due to kick off at 3pm. With 30

minutes to go, some of the fans in the stadium began to feel

uncomfortable. It was a nice, sunny day. Everything was fine until

around 2:30pm. Then we just started to think it was getting really

tight. It was getting tighter and tighter. By about 25 to three,

the game and were starting to get anxious. Outside the ground, things

were getting worse. With just 23 turnstiles for the Liverpool fans

build. It was here that the crowd of more than 5,000 fans had built

up when the police decided to open a wide exit gate just after 2:50pm.

The now infamous Gate C was open for just over ten minutes. Over

2000 people poured through it and then to the already full pens.

Colin Moneypenny was caught in the crash. When the gate opened, he

followed the crowd in and was heading down the tunnel towards the

pen. The were no policeman in the whole area or of the concourse.

Nobody told us after the year before, what had happened then,

don't go down there. The only thing we could see was the tunnel taking

you down to the terrace. There was nobody there telling us anything

otherwise. We were like lemmings. We just went down the tunnel. I was

lifted off my feet carried about 40 feet into the pen number three.

There was a barrier there and we later found out it had collapsed. I

was taken off my feet. A clear, sunny day at Hillsborough. The

year's classic. The match had kicked off on time. The players and

officials on the pitch not realising what was happening on the

terraces. Ray Lewis was the referee. It was just a normal game. There

was movement behind the goal. I thought there may be too many

people in one of the areas and the police were moving them. No one

took much notice that there was a problem. Beardsley. He has hit the

bar. Then a policeman came onto the field of play, which is most

unusual. He tapped me on the shoulders and told me there were

some problems. He wanted me to take the players from the field. There

is an overflow. The police inspector is on the pitch. They

have come through the barriers. I can only think it is the crowd. It

cannot see any misbehaviour. Peter Carney and others were on the

since. They realised that, that afternoon, they were about 100

crush. the crush. It was like a vice that

slowly turned. It was not something at the police in front of us. They

"Openk us. "Open the gates." I remember making

eye-contact with one of the constables. He just said "Get

back." I could not get my arms up by my side. I was losing my breath.

I was screaming at the coppers and they were blanking us. They were

completely blank. There was no room for them to fall. It became a fatal

crash and the fans started using the billboards to carry the dead

so many bodies. Somebody picked There were so many bodies on the

pitch, you didn't have to move 10 yards to pick someone up. We pick

someone up and he was just about alive when we picked him up. We

towards the Forest end. We thought the ambulances and medics would be

there. By the time we got there, he was dead. The death toll rose

end of that day, 95 fans had been killed with the final total later

reaching 96. The match had been stopped at 3:06pm. It was later

ruled that all the victims were fatalved

panel proved that the coroner, Stefan Popper, was wrong to have

made that assessment. For the first time, the full inadequacy of the

ambulance service response has been exposed. Those were parked outside

and only one made it onto the pitch. Tony Edwards was the paramedic on

board. People were carrying on us. They wanted us to stop. They

were carrying a body. I had no idea what we were going into. People

were asking for oxygen. And at that point, we were the only South

Yorkshire ambulance at the epicentre of the disaster. That is

when most people died. At no other point were there ambulance crews

sent on to the epicentre. They just did not go there. 15-year-old Kevin

Williams died at Hillsborough. He may have been saved. His family

believe at 4pm. He is mother wants always

always there. Three Attorney- General's have let me down. I knew

I was biting the British legal system. If Kevin had got through

and the gates had been open, there was so much evidence in that case.

After being refused at every legal turn in the past and now with

failing health, this week, she travelled to the High Court for the

moment she thought they never arrive, in that historic decision,

the Lord Chief Justice quashed the inquest verdict of accidental death

and ordered that genuine quest to be held. It's a good feeling

because it's just bouncing off the walls and we knew what we were

doing. They were wearing me down but I would wear them down before

they could wear me down. I actually did it. Once the new inquest gets

underway, the witnesses, whose stories have never been heard in

the courts, will be cold to give I don't care if you want to take

let's let's investigate everything as if

people have the potential to be rescued. Tony Edwards's ambulance

to hospital but she was found to have died. Her mother later found

out that her other teenage daughter, Sarah, had also been killed. Also,

this couple's son was killed, too. He was 27. They started to feel

that the fans were being set up to take the blame for what had

happened. What made it more difficult for us was trying to get

to the truth. We are fighting the establishment. That, to me, made it

so much more difficult for us. felt they needed a common voice to

represent their interests. The Hillsborough Family Support Group

was born. It was the first of three formal groups to help those

affected by the disaster. I was introduced to Margaret Thatcher.

She gave her sympathies to myself and my wife. She asked if I had

anything to say about it and I said it seemed as though there was a

of the tragedy. She said in that role for us, "I can assure you

there will be no cover-up." I am thereing

Much later, her press secretary blamed the tragedy on the mob. The

1981 riots in Brixton, Toxteth and the miners' strike in 1984 were

recent history when Hillsborough happened. The police had been

pitched against protesters and picketers. Football fans were known

for fighting as well. Football supporters were looked at

differently in the 70s and 80s. They did not have the profile that

we have now. They had terribly bad reputations. The supporters were

prime targets. The Hillsborough Panel has uncovered the extent to

which South Yorkshire Police tried to avoid criticism. It has found a

unit of five senior officers worked to build the police case. 116

officer's witness statements were changed. Words like panic and

useless were removed or changed. He has always denied any wrongdoing

but is now being investigated by the police watchdog. This man was a

South Yorkshire Police inspector. He went to police headquarters on

the afternoon of the disaster. have never have never on an

afternoon. But there was a real sinister mood around the

headquarters. There were officers huddled in groups, talking. Patrick

says that at the time he believed his fellow senior officers were

honourable. But he now feels cheated. Every one of us, our

hearts bleed for the Hillsborough families. Like many other people, I

pray for them. I also pray for the police families. Patrick does

remember some of the junior ranks worrying about the statement

amendments. There was a lot of concern amongst officers, more than

one occasion a group of officers went before their chief

superintendent to have a discussion about the statements. Supporters

say they were also put under pressure to give statements that

after the disaster, some newspapers directed heavy criticism towards

the plans. The truth is we urinated on the deed. We attacked people who

died. We stole from the dead. Kelly says he will never buy the

newspaper t newspaper tgain. There was a bad perception of Liverpool fan

a e was scum.

scum. A British newspaper will never again print utter lies about

the dying and the dead. The reason it will not is because the

financial cost is ongoing. The Sun and the Murdoch empire still paying

for that gross lie. The Hillsborough panel found that the

sons and sentry article was written Sheffield news Bree agency. But the

similar report was printed in the Sheffield Star. The sum was

following what had already been reported locally. John Highfield

was one of the local reporters who wrote the Sheffield Star peace.

cannot deny it. I see my name on it. I reported what we were told. I put

We were asking people what happened to you. We were told there was some

drunkenness and rowdiness. We presented a balanced version. There

were many truths in a story like truth and that is what they did

balance. Despite years of legal proceedings, the feeling that

justice had not been done was growing ever more intense when

three years ago, it seems to anniversary memorial service. The

crowd demanded justice for the 96, wanting its message to reach the

government. I sat with them and agonised about what I would say and

the words I the words Ie. Andy Burnham chose to speak at the service

snowing emotions were running high. After the passion of chanting, he

pledged that all information would be released. It was essential we

had a process independent of government and the police and other

public authorities to oversee the disclosure of all documents to the

full truth could be told and people could have confidence and that

truth, because the story of Hillsborough has been collusion

between the public authorities, the establishment and parts of the

media to tell a certain version of events that has not proven to be

true. That is what is so wrong and people here shouted at me when I

stood up th stood up thnt minister. I have always said if I

was not the government minister, I would have been up there shouting

at the minister. Into 2010, the Hillsborough independent panel was

created, this professor is an established expert on a disaster.

He served on the plan will and the research, he wrote parts of the

report at his kitchen table in Belfast. We established something

once and for all, is that you can reach full access to Seriously

detailed documents and associated Material and come to very strong

accountability and therefore that September, the panel presented its

report, first to the bereaved families and then to the public. It

made an immediate and enormous impact. I realised something had

happened here that was beyond Hillsborough. That this was a

moment in which institutional deceit and denial over a long

period time was being exposed. The real workings of constitutions work

together to protect their own interests. The panel report

contained enough new evidence to form the basis of a whole raft of

new investigations and legal proceedings. Criminal charges and

disciplinary action are now a possibility and a new police

investigation was launched this week. The former Justice Secretary

is now acting as legal adviser to some of the bereaved families.

burst in a way that I did not think for families expected. It has had

the most transforming effect on the landscape. For the first time,

maybe half or more of the families are now and only now discovering

the precise circumstances in which those they loved died. This is an

indication of the scale, not just of the failure of the legal

institutions previously, but to -- the extent to which there was a

driven and vigorous cover-up. There could his decision to be made on

the back of the panel port is this week's High Court ruling.

Hillsborough families and supporters could not have known

when the panels report was published in September that within

three months they would be having the day in court, seeing the

inquest verdict quashed here was both a victory and a vindication

for them. On the day the Hillsborough report was published,

Liverpool city centre to stand in solidarity with the families. The

feeling was one of relief and emotion as emotion as st of the

country believes what they have been saying for years. It has been

a long struggle for 23 years. There has been a very difficult journey.

Very tiring Very tiringhave wanted to give up. But the strength

you get from all these people, keeps you going. They keep you

guying and look where we have got. We have a little more up hill to go.

Remember, when these people died, 96 people died, the South Yorkshire

said to themselves, they are scum. They are the families of scum. They

will not kick up a fuss for a while. They will soon go away. 24 years

later, they have not gone away. They are still bat wing. Every

minute that passes is a demonstration of naff. Every person