0:00:02 > 0:00:05COMMENTATOR: And there are fans on the pitch here in the six yard area.
0:00:05 > 0:00:07The referee's going to have to stop the game.
0:00:07 > 0:00:11Tonight, new evidence about the cover-up over Hillsborough.
0:00:13 > 0:00:17It was decided very early on, this is the way it is going to go,
0:00:17 > 0:00:21we can't possibly be blamed, the police can't possibly be blamed.
0:00:23 > 0:00:25With a new inquest ordered,
0:00:25 > 0:00:28pictures never before broadcast reveal how Britain's
0:00:28 > 0:00:31worst sporting disaster was allowed to happen.
0:00:31 > 0:00:35- It's on yous boys.- It's not on. - It's all on yous now.
0:00:35 > 0:00:39You are the eyes of the world. You've got to show this to everybody.
0:00:40 > 0:00:43But the full story wasn't told,
0:00:43 > 0:00:46and the truth was buried for a generation.
0:00:47 > 0:00:50It was cut out by a public servant
0:00:50 > 0:00:53who didn't want the rest of the world to see that evidence.
0:00:53 > 0:00:55It is a disgrace.
0:00:55 > 0:00:58Some witnesses were leaned on.
0:00:58 > 0:01:00They've got their story straight.
0:01:00 > 0:01:05If you keep talking in this way it's not going to do you any good.
0:01:06 > 0:01:08Others were discredited.
0:01:10 > 0:01:13He'd never been described as naive before.
0:01:13 > 0:01:17In fact, he'd always been described as a very astute man
0:01:17 > 0:01:20with a great deal of integrity.
0:01:21 > 0:01:25It's a scandal that taints the political establishment...
0:01:26 > 0:01:28I didn't get this thing right.
0:01:28 > 0:01:31I got it wrong, and I can't turn the clock back.
0:01:32 > 0:01:37..and justice was denied for the families of 96 people who died.
0:01:38 > 0:01:40They used to say, "You're right, Anne,
0:01:40 > 0:01:42"but you'll not beat the system."
0:01:44 > 0:01:47How could anybody, as a decent human being,
0:01:47 > 0:01:53put people through nearly 24 years and they knew?
0:02:10 > 0:02:13I've been following Liverpool Football Club all my life.
0:02:13 > 0:02:17I've watched them grow to become one of the world's biggest clubs
0:02:17 > 0:02:18with an international following.
0:02:20 > 0:02:22As a fan, the excitement you get
0:02:22 > 0:02:25from being at the match is hard to beat.
0:02:25 > 0:02:28We were just as keen back in the 1980s
0:02:28 > 0:02:31on the day we all went over to Sheffield for another big match -
0:02:31 > 0:02:33an FA Cup semi-final.
0:02:35 > 0:02:39FANS CHANTING
0:02:40 > 0:02:44Hillsborough, Sheffield, April 15th, 1989.
0:02:46 > 0:02:50Liverpool had asked for more space at the ground because they had
0:02:50 > 0:02:54more supporters than the opposition, Nottingham Forest.
0:02:54 > 0:02:57But, on the advice of South Yorkshire Police,
0:02:57 > 0:02:59the FA turned them down.
0:02:59 > 0:03:03So, 24,000 of us were squeezed into the bottleneck
0:03:03 > 0:03:05which was our entrance on Leppings Lane.
0:03:07 > 0:03:09There was a mass of people outside the ground,
0:03:09 > 0:03:12couldn't see the turnstiles,
0:03:12 > 0:03:14and didn't really see any of the police,
0:03:14 > 0:03:16and I was quite shocked.
0:03:17 > 0:03:20Stephanie was 18, going to her first away game
0:03:20 > 0:03:24with her older brother, Richard, and his girlfriend, Tracey.
0:03:24 > 0:03:27I thought, maybe this is what it's like, maybe it's just
0:03:27 > 0:03:29good policing at Liverpool ground, I don't know,
0:03:29 > 0:03:31cos I'd not been away before.
0:03:33 > 0:03:36It wasn't only fans like Stephanie who were concerned.
0:03:37 > 0:03:40I was surprised at the lack of police officers
0:03:40 > 0:03:41at that end of the ground.
0:03:42 > 0:03:47PC Ray Powell was on plain clothes duty in the crowd that day.
0:03:47 > 0:03:50There'd normally be more policemen forming queues,
0:03:50 > 0:03:52making sure there was order?
0:03:52 > 0:03:54Normally there would be a little more
0:03:54 > 0:03:55of a police presence there.
0:03:58 > 0:04:01Inside, the ground was full behind the goals.
0:04:01 > 0:04:05The BBC's John Motson was rehearsing for that night's Match Of The Day.
0:04:05 > 0:04:07It was 2:41.
0:04:09 > 0:04:11JOHN MOTSON: Liverpool's faithful followers,
0:04:11 > 0:04:14fed on success for 25 years, are at the Leppings Lane end.
0:04:14 > 0:04:18They have 24,000 tickets and haven't seen their team lose
0:04:18 > 0:04:19since New Year's Day.
0:04:22 > 0:04:26The match commander was based in the police control box.
0:04:26 > 0:04:28Chief Superintendent David Duckenfield
0:04:28 > 0:04:31had never before handled a big game.
0:04:33 > 0:04:36He had a good view of the Leppings Lane end,
0:04:36 > 0:04:37and so did John Motson.
0:04:39 > 0:04:42There's gaps, you know, in parts of the ground.
0:04:42 > 0:04:46Well, you look at the Liverpool end, to the right of the goal.
0:04:46 > 0:04:48There's hardly anybody on those steps.
0:04:48 > 0:04:50No, to the right of there.
0:04:50 > 0:04:52That's it, look down there.
0:04:54 > 0:04:57Back then, supporters stood behind the goals,
0:04:57 > 0:05:01the terrace divided into pens for crowd control.
0:05:03 > 0:05:06But the police didn't direct fans into separate pens
0:05:06 > 0:05:09to avoid overcrowding - they were left to find their own level.
0:05:11 > 0:05:15It must have taken me 20 minutes to escape the crush outside,
0:05:15 > 0:05:18but once through the turnstiles I was safe,
0:05:18 > 0:05:21with a seat alongside the pitch in the North stand.
0:05:23 > 0:05:26Jenny Hicks was in that stand, too.
0:05:26 > 0:05:30She'd driven up from London with her husband and two daughters.
0:05:31 > 0:05:34They'd gone to stand on the Leppings Lane terrace.
0:05:36 > 0:05:39You can just glimpse the girls, Sarah and Vicky,
0:05:39 > 0:05:43right behind the goal as the Liverpool team's announced.
0:05:46 > 0:05:48It was getting more and more crowded.
0:05:50 > 0:05:54And I started to become quite uncomfortable about it.
0:05:54 > 0:05:56Knowing that my family could be there,
0:05:56 > 0:05:59because I couldn't see them on the sides.
0:06:01 > 0:06:04Her husband, Trevor, was in fact standing in a side pen.
0:06:06 > 0:06:10He, too, began to worry as the crush behind the goal got worse.
0:06:10 > 0:06:14I was looking over and starting to get anxious
0:06:14 > 0:06:16about Sarah and Vicky.
0:06:16 > 0:06:19I have a very vivid picture of an old-ish guy,
0:06:19 > 0:06:21my sort of age now
0:06:21 > 0:06:24in a grey suit with grey hair,
0:06:24 > 0:06:28pinned up against the radial fence, looking very distressed.
0:06:35 > 0:06:39After being told that lives were at risk outside,
0:06:39 > 0:06:43Chief Superintendent Duckenfield gave the order to open Gate C,
0:06:43 > 0:06:45a large exit gate.
0:06:52 > 0:06:54Stephanie Jones, her brother, Richard,
0:06:54 > 0:06:57and his girlfriend, Tracey, headed for Gate C.
0:06:59 > 0:07:02We can just pick them out on police CCTV.
0:07:05 > 0:07:07We were getting crushed outside.
0:07:08 > 0:07:13So, when it was opened, we went through it into the clearing.
0:07:14 > 0:07:17And then just proceeded at a normal walk
0:07:17 > 0:07:20down in front of us, the only way we could see.
0:07:22 > 0:07:23Down the tunnel.
0:07:26 > 0:07:29In the past, when the central pens were full,
0:07:29 > 0:07:30police had closed off the tunnel
0:07:30 > 0:07:33and diverted supporters to the side pens.
0:07:33 > 0:07:35Not today.
0:07:37 > 0:07:422,000 poured through the gate onto the already overcrowded terraces.
0:07:45 > 0:07:49The momentum took us forward, and in a very short space of time
0:07:49 > 0:07:54I found myself turned around and right at the very front.
0:07:54 > 0:07:59Tracey had lost her shoe, and I couldn't reach her.
0:07:59 > 0:08:03Somebody picked up her shoe and picked her up, as well,
0:08:03 > 0:08:06because she'd fallen, and that was the last time I saw either of them.
0:08:08 > 0:08:13Even before the game kicked off, people were dying on the terraces.
0:08:15 > 0:08:18The only way out for fans crushed against the wall
0:08:18 > 0:08:22and fencing at the front was through a small locked gate onto the pitch,
0:08:22 > 0:08:24one for each pen.
0:08:25 > 0:08:28I remember us shouting to the policeman by the gate.
0:08:28 > 0:08:31We were asking him to open the gate to take the pressure off.
0:08:31 > 0:08:34He was standing there looking and he's just basically ignoring us,
0:08:34 > 0:08:36and people are screaming at him to open the gate.
0:08:37 > 0:08:41People began climbing the fences in desperation.
0:08:41 > 0:08:45But the police, who could see it all from the control box,
0:08:45 > 0:08:47assumed it was crowd trouble.
0:08:47 > 0:08:50I saw people being pushed back over.
0:08:50 > 0:08:52- By the police?- By the police, yeah.
0:08:52 > 0:08:55People were trying to get out and they were being pushed back in.
0:08:59 > 0:09:02Hillsborough was a disaster like no other.
0:09:02 > 0:09:05It was recorded by eight BBC cameras.
0:09:05 > 0:09:08The police had CCTV and a mobile camera unit.
0:09:11 > 0:09:14The BBC footage was later released to the police
0:09:14 > 0:09:17and the families' lawyers, and then locked away,
0:09:17 > 0:09:20considered too distressing for broadcast.
0:09:21 > 0:09:2524 years on, we've been able to analyse it.
0:09:25 > 0:09:28It shows how things went wrong from the start at Hillsborough,
0:09:28 > 0:09:32and continued going wrong for longer than has ever been admitted.
0:09:36 > 0:09:39JOHN MOTSON: So, on a clear, sunny day at Hillsborough,
0:09:39 > 0:09:42the stage is set for a rerun of last year's classic.
0:09:42 > 0:09:44Liverpool in red, Forest all in white,
0:09:44 > 0:09:47Stuart Pearce gives away the first free-kick.
0:09:50 > 0:09:54By now, police officers at the Leppings Lane end had opened
0:09:54 > 0:09:57the gates behind the goal and were escorting fans to the sides.
0:09:59 > 0:10:02But the gates were too small to get people out quickly.
0:10:02 > 0:10:06Dozens were trapped at the front, many of them youngsters.
0:10:09 > 0:10:14I was very distressed at this stage because I couldn't move,
0:10:14 > 0:10:17I was face to face with a man
0:10:17 > 0:10:19who was obviously in trouble as well.
0:10:21 > 0:10:24- COMMENTATOR:- I think there may be a slight overflow in the crowd
0:10:24 > 0:10:28at the Liverpool end, at the Leppings Lane end of the ground.
0:10:28 > 0:10:30But there is room in the sections to either side
0:10:30 > 0:10:32if they can shift them over.
0:10:34 > 0:10:37But police control still feared a pitch invasion
0:10:37 > 0:10:40and ordered up reinforcements,
0:10:40 > 0:10:43even as the first injured fans spilled onto the pitch.
0:10:43 > 0:10:46And there are fans on the pitch here in the six-yard area.
0:10:46 > 0:10:49The referee is going to have to stop the game.
0:10:50 > 0:10:54Just before 3:06, the game is stopped.
0:10:56 > 0:10:59Fans ran onto the pitch, yelling for help.
0:11:01 > 0:11:04Some were in shock, like Stephanie Jones.
0:11:07 > 0:11:08Fortunately for me,
0:11:08 > 0:11:11I had found myself in front of the perimeter gate.
0:11:11 > 0:11:14Somebody said to me, "Through here."
0:11:14 > 0:11:19I have no idea how it happened, I don't know how they've hugged me up
0:11:19 > 0:11:24or pulled me up, but they pulled me through the perimeter gate and I was
0:11:24 > 0:11:27probably the first person they pulled out of the gate onto the pitch.
0:11:29 > 0:11:32- COMMENTATOR:- Steve Nicol is trying to urge the fans to go back
0:11:32 > 0:11:35and they are saying there's no room.
0:11:35 > 0:11:39Back on Merseyside, those with family at the game soon heard
0:11:39 > 0:11:44news of a problem at Hillsborough, among them Stephanie's mother.
0:11:44 > 0:11:47I had a look at the television, which was on.
0:11:47 > 0:11:50The commentator's voice was very, very serious
0:11:50 > 0:11:54and he thought there was injuries and maybe a fatality in there
0:11:54 > 0:11:58and I just started screaming right away, "My three are in there!"
0:11:58 > 0:12:00Open the gate!
0:12:00 > 0:12:03SHOUTING
0:12:06 > 0:12:08Police commanders were slow to react.
0:12:10 > 0:12:13The FA's head of communications, Glen Kirton,
0:12:13 > 0:12:16went to the control box to find out what was going on.
0:12:17 > 0:12:21Mr Duckenfield said there had been a break-in at one of the gates,
0:12:21 > 0:12:27- caused by an inrush of Liverpool supporters.- A break-in?- Yes.
0:12:28 > 0:12:32Already, the blame for Hillsborough was being shifted onto the fans.
0:12:32 > 0:12:35Within minutes of the game being stopped,
0:12:35 > 0:12:37John Motson heard the story.
0:12:39 > 0:12:42- MOTSON:- Yeah, I've got an explanation for what's happened here.
0:12:42 > 0:12:45I'm going to give you a line.
0:12:45 > 0:12:48And this story emerges that one of the outside gates
0:12:48 > 0:12:50leading into that terrace was broken.
0:12:50 > 0:12:55People without tickets got in, were therefore overcrowding
0:12:55 > 0:12:58the people with tickets and that's why the crush occurred.
0:13:00 > 0:13:02Supporters who had escaped the crush
0:13:02 > 0:13:05did what they could to help the others.
0:13:05 > 0:13:08I ended up getting pulled through the gate
0:13:08 > 0:13:11and I jumped up on the fence, trying to pull people up,
0:13:11 > 0:13:14but it was virtually impossible to pull them out
0:13:14 > 0:13:17because the fences were designed to keep you in, basically.
0:13:19 > 0:13:22Fans and police tore at the fence to get to the injured,
0:13:22 > 0:13:24trapped against the wall.
0:13:25 > 0:13:28In the seats above the Leppings Lane terrace,
0:13:28 > 0:13:31Dr John Ashton was with his two sons.
0:13:32 > 0:13:35I saw people being carried onto the pitch
0:13:35 > 0:13:38and I turned to one of my boys and I said,
0:13:38 > 0:13:41"I think that person is dead," and then there was another one
0:13:41 > 0:13:44and I said, "I think that one may be dead too, and that one."
0:13:45 > 0:13:48The police should have activated the major incident plan
0:13:48 > 0:13:52for all the emergency services to swing into action,
0:13:52 > 0:13:56but they didn't, so the first ambulance on the scene
0:13:56 > 0:13:59was from the St John's Ambulance volunteers.
0:14:02 > 0:14:05Its arrival time, 3:15, was significant.
0:14:06 > 0:14:10A coroner would later rule that all of those who died were by then
0:14:10 > 0:14:12either already dead or beyond saving.
0:14:15 > 0:14:17I went and made myself known to a policeman and said,
0:14:17 > 0:14:20"What should I do?" He had no idea
0:14:20 > 0:14:26and I realised that there was nobody actually taking charge.
0:14:26 > 0:14:27I did what I could,
0:14:27 > 0:14:31which was not really about applying first aid or anything, it was
0:14:31 > 0:14:35about trying to get the right people off to hospital in the right order.
0:14:37 > 0:14:40When a second ambulance arrived at the other end of the ground,
0:14:40 > 0:14:43Liverpool supporters carried victims across the pitch
0:14:43 > 0:14:45on advertising hoardings.
0:14:46 > 0:14:48Among them was an off-duty fireman.
0:14:50 > 0:14:52I just noticed people
0:14:52 > 0:14:55were putting people on the boards and trying to ferry them
0:14:55 > 0:14:57across the pitch as quick as they can
0:14:57 > 0:15:01and I think I done that two or three times.
0:15:01 > 0:15:06It was trying to look for people who needed help and basically
0:15:06 > 0:15:10going from one person to another, trying to do some basic first aid.
0:15:12 > 0:15:16Trevor Hicks was looking for his two daughters.
0:15:16 > 0:15:17I went onto the pitch.
0:15:17 > 0:15:21Very quickly and quite remarkably found Sarah and Vicky
0:15:21 > 0:15:26almost side by side, so suddenly I am with both daughters
0:15:26 > 0:15:28and we are fighting to save their lives.
0:15:28 > 0:15:32SIRENS WAIL
0:15:32 > 0:15:35Ambulances arrived outside the ground,
0:15:35 > 0:15:41but crews and emergency equipment weren't sent inside.
0:15:41 > 0:15:44Only one more ambulance drove onto the pitch.
0:15:44 > 0:15:49The ambulance man on board this third vehicle
0:15:49 > 0:15:51says the emergency response was chaotic.
0:15:51 > 0:15:54I always think in terms of a rail accident.
0:15:54 > 0:15:57Could you imagine the public outcry
0:15:57 > 0:16:00if all ambulance crews remained on an embankment simply because
0:16:00 > 0:16:04they couldn't get the ambulance down to the scene of the accident?
0:16:04 > 0:16:07That doesn't happen. They get out of their vehicles
0:16:07 > 0:16:10and if that's the length of a football pitch that they have to go,
0:16:10 > 0:16:11then they make their way there.
0:16:15 > 0:16:19Alongside the grief and the shock, there was already anger
0:16:19 > 0:16:22at what had been allowed to happen at Hillsborough.
0:16:22 > 0:16:26They opened the gates, never even took the stub,
0:16:26 > 0:16:28- just opened the gates. - They said, "All pile in."
0:16:28 > 0:16:31It's disgusting and there is at least 50 people dead tonight.
0:16:33 > 0:16:36COMMENTATOR: The fans who were mercifully not injured
0:16:36 > 0:16:38have left the ground, most of them,
0:16:38 > 0:16:43and the feeling here now is one of complete numbness.
0:16:45 > 0:16:48We were sitting on the coach and nobody was speaking.
0:16:48 > 0:16:54I couldn't stop shaking and then the driver put the radio on
0:16:54 > 0:17:00and then it come out that there was like...16 dead
0:17:00 > 0:17:04and then... Obviously we were waiting for people to come back
0:17:04 > 0:17:08and the numbers just kept going up and up and up.
0:17:12 > 0:17:16Much worse was to come for the relatives of those unaccounted for.
0:17:16 > 0:17:21The football club gym was now a temporary mortuary.
0:17:21 > 0:17:23Trevor and Jenny Hicks arrived
0:17:23 > 0:17:27knowing their 15-year-old daughter Vicky had died in hospital.
0:17:27 > 0:17:3019-year-old Sarah was still missing.
0:17:32 > 0:17:35Inside, were dozens of bodies to be identified.
0:17:36 > 0:17:40The police had taken pictures of them all.
0:17:40 > 0:17:43Trevor and Jenny were asked if their daughter were among them.
0:17:44 > 0:17:49There must have been 80-odd photographs, little Polaroid ones.
0:17:50 > 0:17:54And I looked and I couldn't see Sarah.
0:17:54 > 0:17:59I recognised Vicky, so the policeman just said to me,
0:17:59 > 0:18:00"Look again, love."
0:18:00 > 0:18:03And when I looked again, I saw her.
0:18:05 > 0:18:08And that was the point I knew it was both of them.
0:18:13 > 0:18:17Many families were now arriving from Merseyside.
0:18:17 > 0:18:21Doreen and Leslie Jones knew their daughter Steph was safe,
0:18:21 > 0:18:25but their son Richard and his girlfriend Tracey were missing.
0:18:27 > 0:18:29They wheeled the trolley in and Richard
0:18:29 > 0:18:33was the first one whose body they brought in
0:18:33 > 0:18:36and I identified him and then Tracey was wheeled in
0:18:36 > 0:18:38and I identified her.
0:18:39 > 0:18:47I wanted to touch my son, I wanted to hold him and I wasn't allowed to.
0:18:48 > 0:18:51We were told he was the property of the coroner
0:18:51 > 0:18:54and that I couldn't touch him.
0:18:57 > 0:19:01Among the officers helping to identify the dead at the gym
0:19:01 > 0:19:03was PC Ray Powell.
0:19:04 > 0:19:08That night, I cried. I went home and I cried.
0:19:10 > 0:19:13And I wasn't crying for myself, I was crying for
0:19:13 > 0:19:15the relatives of the people.
0:19:17 > 0:19:19The only thing I remember about
0:19:19 > 0:19:23the gymnasium part that was sectioned off,
0:19:23 > 0:19:27was a fellow punching a brick wall and it was like,
0:19:27 > 0:19:31you know, new brick, which is sharp
0:19:31 > 0:19:35and he was punching it and nobody took any bloody notice.
0:19:35 > 0:19:37TEARFULLY: It was disgraceful.
0:19:46 > 0:19:50That night at South Yorkshire Police headquarters, the chief constable,
0:19:50 > 0:19:55Peter Wright, was in no mood to accept any blame for the disaster.
0:19:56 > 0:19:59But he corrected the false story that Liverpool fans
0:19:59 > 0:20:01had caused it by forcing open a gate.
0:20:03 > 0:20:07The gate... The gate was opened at police direction.
0:20:07 > 0:20:11I am not aware of any connection between the opening of the gate
0:20:11 > 0:20:12and the surge on the terrace.
0:20:12 > 0:20:15- JOURNALIST:- Why was the gate opened, Chief Inspector?
0:20:15 > 0:20:18Because there was danger to life outside with crushing.
0:20:18 > 0:20:20- JOURNALIST: - How did it get that bad?
0:20:20 > 0:20:23By late arrival of large numbers of people.
0:20:26 > 0:20:29NEWSREADER: 93 football fans,
0:20:29 > 0:20:31most, if not all, Liverpool supporters
0:20:31 > 0:20:34have been crushed to death at the FA Cup semi-final at...
0:20:34 > 0:20:36'By 10 o'clock, it was clear to thousands of us
0:20:36 > 0:20:38'who had been there what was to blame.
0:20:40 > 0:20:44'Overcrowding and poor policing had caused the disaster, which is
0:20:44 > 0:20:46'what I reported that night.'
0:20:46 > 0:20:48Those of us who were trying to get into the Leppings Lane
0:20:48 > 0:20:51end of the ground, the Liverpool end, were quite perturbed
0:20:51 > 0:20:54and angered at the lack of adequate policing,
0:20:54 > 0:20:57which led to dreadful crushes outside, which, in turn,
0:20:57 > 0:20:59led to the police opening of the double gate.
0:21:06 > 0:21:08'What we didn't know back in 1989
0:21:08 > 0:21:11'was that a cover-up had already begun.
0:21:13 > 0:21:15'It lasted almost a quarter of a century.
0:21:17 > 0:21:21'Until last September, when the Hillsborough Independent Panel
0:21:21 > 0:21:24'published the results of years of research.'
0:21:25 > 0:21:31What we have here, 23 years of contemporaneous documents, stage
0:21:31 > 0:21:35by stage, which has gone through a forensic analysis at all levels.
0:21:40 > 0:21:42'The secrets of Hillsborough are contained
0:21:42 > 0:21:44'here in the Sheffield Archive.
0:21:45 > 0:21:49'There are nearly half a million pages from confidential police,
0:21:49 > 0:21:52'legal and government documents -
0:21:52 > 0:21:55'the records of inquiries, inquests and hearings.
0:21:57 > 0:22:02'They show the disaster was never properly investigated.'
0:22:02 > 0:22:05It has meant that those at fault have been able to shift
0:22:05 > 0:22:07the blame onto others.
0:22:07 > 0:22:10These documents are now the starting point
0:22:10 > 0:22:14for our investigation into how and why that was allowed to happen.
0:22:19 > 0:22:21'Before the victims were identified,
0:22:21 > 0:22:25'the coroner had ordered blood-alcohol tests on them all.
0:22:25 > 0:22:27'Including children.
0:22:27 > 0:22:31'False allegations of drunkenness would be used again and again.
0:22:35 > 0:22:36'The morning after.
0:22:37 > 0:22:41'The Prime Minister arrives to be briefed by officers, including
0:22:41 > 0:22:45'Chief Superintendent Duckenfield, the man who lied about the gate.
0:22:47 > 0:22:50'She was told a tanked-up mob had charged onto the terraces.
0:22:52 > 0:22:53'Chief Constable Wright
0:22:53 > 0:22:56'was privately calling the Liverpool fans animalistic.'
0:22:58 > 0:23:01We shall find all the facts through an inquiry
0:23:01 > 0:23:05and you mustn't make any judgement on partial facts.
0:23:08 > 0:23:10'That weekend, South Yorkshire Police
0:23:10 > 0:23:13'were developing plans to defend themselves.
0:23:13 > 0:23:17'Senior officers were then called to a meeting.
0:23:17 > 0:23:20'Among them was Inspector Clive Davis and his boss,
0:23:20 > 0:23:24'a man whose role was to become increasingly controversial
0:23:24 > 0:23:25'as the years went by.'
0:23:27 > 0:23:29I was working with a senior officer at that time,
0:23:29 > 0:23:34who was Chief Inspector Norman Bettison, I was working with.
0:23:34 > 0:23:37He said he was keen for us to go to a briefing.
0:23:38 > 0:23:41This was an opportunity for us to get ourselves recognised.
0:23:41 > 0:23:44Those were his words to me.
0:23:44 > 0:23:47'At the meeting, Clive Davis, Norman Bettison
0:23:47 > 0:23:50'and other officers heard the South Yorkshire Police
0:23:50 > 0:23:53'strategy spelt out.'
0:23:53 > 0:23:54I think the exact words,
0:23:54 > 0:23:58and they're almost indelibly stamped on my memory -
0:23:58 > 0:24:01"We are going to put the blame for this where it deserves to be -
0:24:01 > 0:24:05"or where it should be - on the drunken,
0:24:05 > 0:24:10"ticketless Liverpool supporters and we have to go now
0:24:10 > 0:24:14"and find the evidence to show that this is the case."
0:24:14 > 0:24:16CROWD ROAR
0:24:19 > 0:24:21'It was a message that could stick.
0:24:21 > 0:24:25'In the 1980s, there was regular violence among football crowds.
0:24:25 > 0:24:27CROWD CHANT
0:24:28 > 0:24:31'Liverpool's reputation hadn't been particularly bad.
0:24:33 > 0:24:38'But in 1985, 39 people were killed fleeing Liverpool fans
0:24:38 > 0:24:41'during fighting at the Heysel Stadium in Brussels.
0:24:44 > 0:24:48'Now Sheffield's Police Federation, backed by their chief constable,
0:24:48 > 0:24:51'were blaming Liverpool fans for Hillsborough.'
0:24:51 > 0:24:54When you have got great big police horses there,
0:24:54 > 0:24:57and I don't know about you but they frighten me to death, and they're
0:24:57 > 0:25:00diving under the belly and between its legs,
0:25:00 > 0:25:04now, anybody who does that, I don't care what other people say,
0:25:04 > 0:25:06they're either mental or they're drunk.
0:25:08 > 0:25:09'The Police Federation
0:25:09 > 0:25:14'and senior officers were feeding these lines to journalists.
0:25:14 > 0:25:16'The lie became the truth,
0:25:16 > 0:25:19'with parts of the press ready to swallow it whole.'
0:25:21 > 0:25:24You have no idea how much that has followed me over the years
0:25:24 > 0:25:28and how much that has deeply, deeply hurt me
0:25:28 > 0:25:31over the years that people could think...
0:25:31 > 0:25:33They are virtually blaming me for killing my own brother
0:25:33 > 0:25:35and his girlfriend.
0:25:35 > 0:25:39It was decided very early on, "This is the way it's going to go,
0:25:39 > 0:25:43"we can't possibly be blamed, the police can't possibly be blamed."
0:25:44 > 0:25:46'According to the Police Federation today,
0:25:46 > 0:25:51'their role in spreading those stories was understandable.'
0:25:51 > 0:25:53I think what the Federation rep did was report what had been told
0:25:53 > 0:25:57to him in the immediate aftermath of a tragedy.
0:25:57 > 0:26:00A lot of the people there will see and will have seen
0:26:00 > 0:26:05and heard bad things and they report them, either exaggerated,
0:26:05 > 0:26:08over exaggerated, whatever it may be, and it becomes their truth.
0:26:08 > 0:26:11- Is that reasonable?- It may have been reasonable at the time.
0:26:11 > 0:26:13Whether it looks reasonable
0:26:13 > 0:26:16looking back at it over a distance of time is a different story.
0:26:25 > 0:26:27'The week after the disaster,
0:26:27 > 0:26:30'Liverpool's Anfield Stadium had become a shrine.
0:26:32 > 0:26:35'Among the thousands paying their respects was the man
0:26:35 > 0:26:38'chosen to find out what had gone wrong at Hillsborough.'
0:26:40 > 0:26:44This scene is a most poignant and moving one,
0:26:44 > 0:26:48which makes one realise how deeply this community has been
0:26:48 > 0:26:51afflicted and how deeply it feels its loss.
0:26:53 > 0:26:57'Lord Justice Taylor was to lead an independent inquiry.
0:26:57 > 0:27:00'The government had asked for an urgent report.
0:27:02 > 0:27:07'Alongside him was the West Midlands Chief Constable Geoffrey Dear.
0:27:07 > 0:27:10'His force was to investigate where the blame lay.
0:27:12 > 0:27:15'But South Yorkshire Police, who were under investigation,
0:27:15 > 0:27:18'were handed a trump card.
0:27:18 > 0:27:20'Lord Justice Taylor allowed them
0:27:20 > 0:27:23'to take their own officers' statements.'
0:27:24 > 0:27:26He decided, and I fully supported him,
0:27:26 > 0:27:30that one way to move through quickly was to ask the police witnesses,
0:27:30 > 0:27:33not those who were likely to be in the frame for criminal
0:27:33 > 0:27:36prosecution but the police witnesses, to write their own statements.
0:27:36 > 0:27:38The ordinary officers on the ground, basically.
0:27:38 > 0:27:41That's right, yeah. Yeah. And that's what they did.
0:27:41 > 0:27:44He wanted it done that way. He saw that was the quick way through.
0:27:44 > 0:27:47His decision. I'll take responsibility for it
0:27:47 > 0:27:48because he is dead.
0:27:48 > 0:27:51But that was his responsibility at the time.
0:27:51 > 0:27:54And here is a man who's going to become the Lord Chief Justice.
0:27:54 > 0:27:58I mean, it is not for you or I to query that, I would suggest.
0:28:00 > 0:28:03'South Yorkshire Police officers on duty that day were
0:28:03 > 0:28:07'instructed not to make witness statements in the usual way.
0:28:07 > 0:28:09'Instead, they were told
0:28:09 > 0:28:13'to write down their recollections on plain paper.'
0:28:13 > 0:28:16There is absolutely no reason at all
0:28:16 > 0:28:19why all those police officers shouldn't have been told,
0:28:19 > 0:28:22"Write witness statements in the conventional way," about this.
0:28:22 > 0:28:25In the same way that all the Liverpool supporters who were
0:28:25 > 0:28:28interviewed by the West Midlands Police did.
0:28:30 > 0:28:34'The police officers' first accounts were then vetted
0:28:34 > 0:28:39'and many were altered and edited by senior officers before being signed.
0:28:39 > 0:28:42'PC Brian Huckstepp had originally written...'
0:28:42 > 0:28:45"It might possibly have been better to direct the fans
0:28:45 > 0:28:50"into the flank areas, which I saw were by no means full."
0:28:50 > 0:28:52'That was cut out.
0:28:52 > 0:28:55'PC Andrew Brookes had a question.'
0:28:55 > 0:28:58"Why were the sliding doors at the back of the tunnel not
0:28:58 > 0:29:03"closed at 2:45 when those sections of the ground were full?"
0:29:03 > 0:29:04'That went.
0:29:06 > 0:29:11'Critical comments were deleted from no fewer than 116 police statements.
0:29:11 > 0:29:16'The process was to contaminate all future legal proceedings.'
0:29:16 > 0:29:19There was a clear pattern right from the outset that any
0:29:19 > 0:29:20criticisms of senior officers,
0:29:20 > 0:29:22any criticisms of the policing operation
0:29:22 > 0:29:24were removed in their entirety.
0:29:24 > 0:29:27Any criticisms of the fans were left in.
0:29:29 > 0:29:33'PC Ray Powell had expressed concerns at how few police
0:29:33 > 0:29:36'he had seen at the turnstiles outside Leppings Lane.'
0:29:38 > 0:29:39"The first thing I said was,
0:29:39 > 0:29:42"Where are all the bobbies? There's hardly anybody there.
0:29:42 > 0:29:46"There was usually a large police presence on this part of the ground,
0:29:46 > 0:29:48"usually forming some sort of cordon."
0:29:50 > 0:29:52'That and more was erased.'
0:29:53 > 0:29:56You didn't realise what they had done.
0:29:56 > 0:29:59No, as such. I...
0:29:59 > 0:30:02I wasn't aware of what they had taken out because you basically
0:30:02 > 0:30:09trust your prosecution services or your legal advice or whatever.
0:30:09 > 0:30:13You know, I browsed through my statement. The contents were there.
0:30:13 > 0:30:16Nothing was added that I didn't disagree with.
0:30:17 > 0:30:19And I therefore signed the statement.
0:30:19 > 0:30:21What do you think now?
0:30:21 > 0:30:24In hindsight,
0:30:24 > 0:30:26the statements...
0:30:28 > 0:30:30..should have been left intact.
0:30:33 > 0:30:37'The amended statements were sent to the West Midlands force who
0:30:37 > 0:30:40'were investigating the South Yorkshire Police.
0:30:40 > 0:30:44'They knew they had been altered, but didn't know how much.
0:30:44 > 0:30:46'And didn't ask.'
0:30:46 > 0:30:50There was a degree of trust in this. Was that naive or not?
0:30:50 > 0:30:52I think it was a perfectly natural reaction that you could trust
0:30:52 > 0:30:57the force, even if it hurt them, to come forward with the truth
0:30:57 > 0:31:02and not to expect what is now being suggested that there was a huge,
0:31:02 > 0:31:06if not conspiracy, certainly attempt to move the whole evidence
0:31:06 > 0:31:09away from South Yorkshire and load it on to the fans.
0:31:09 > 0:31:13But the point is, shouldn't a police officer worth his salt
0:31:13 > 0:31:16investigating another police force have found out what was going on?
0:31:16 > 0:31:17I think you're looking at it
0:31:17 > 0:31:20with the wisdom of 20/20 hindsight, aren't you?
0:31:23 > 0:31:24'A month after the disaster,
0:31:24 > 0:31:27'Lord Justice Taylor's inquiry began in Sheffield.
0:31:30 > 0:31:33'Chief Inspector Norman Bettison ran a liaison team,
0:31:33 > 0:31:36'briefing South Yorkshire Police witnesses.
0:31:37 > 0:31:41'But the judge wasn't convinced by some police evidence.
0:31:41 > 0:31:43'Particularly from the most senior officers.'
0:31:46 > 0:31:49NEWSREADER: The official inquiry into the Hillsborough disaster says
0:31:49 > 0:31:52that police and Sheffield Wednesday Football Club must shoulder
0:31:52 > 0:31:55most of the blame for the tragedy.
0:31:55 > 0:31:58'Lord Justice Taylor's report was damning.
0:31:58 > 0:32:02'He found that the main cause of the disaster was overcrowding
0:32:02 > 0:32:06'and the main reason for that was a failure of police control.
0:32:08 > 0:32:11'Failing to block off the tunnel after opening gate C had been,
0:32:11 > 0:32:14' "a blunder of the first magnitude." '
0:32:16 > 0:32:19My reaction was that I cried.
0:32:19 > 0:32:21I'd heard so much about
0:32:21 > 0:32:25drunken hooligans and
0:32:25 > 0:32:27I tried to defend my son.
0:32:27 > 0:32:28He wasn't like that.
0:32:28 > 0:32:31So I just thought, "Well, perhaps it'll all end now.
0:32:31 > 0:32:33"Perhaps they'd stop."
0:32:36 > 0:32:37But, of course, they didn't.
0:32:42 > 0:32:46'Prosecutions of senior police officers were expected to follow.
0:32:47 > 0:32:51'At this crucial point, South Yorkshire Police produced
0:32:51 > 0:32:55'an allegation with the potential to destroy any case against them.
0:32:57 > 0:33:01'It came from this first visit to the Hillsborough stadium,
0:33:01 > 0:33:02'three days on from the disaster,
0:33:02 > 0:33:05'by Lord Justice Taylor and Chief Constable Dear.
0:33:07 > 0:33:10'Their driver was a PC from South Yorkshire.
0:33:10 > 0:33:13'He told colleagues he had heard that the two in his car agreeing,
0:33:13 > 0:33:17'right at the start, about blaming his force for what had happened.
0:33:20 > 0:33:22'We have identified that driver.
0:33:22 > 0:33:28'He is former constable Mark Lewis, seen here on traffic duty in 1990.
0:33:29 > 0:33:32'About this time, senior officers began hearing
0:33:32 > 0:33:35'rumours about a conversation he had overheard a year earlier.'
0:33:38 > 0:33:40Mark Lewis has told Panorama that
0:33:40 > 0:33:44while he felt at the time what he had heard was inappropriate,
0:33:44 > 0:33:47he didn't think it was worth taking any further.
0:33:47 > 0:33:49But then, a full year on, it was suggested he go
0:33:49 > 0:33:52and talk to his boss, Norman Bettison.
0:33:54 > 0:33:58'After speaking to the recently promoted Superintendent Bettison,
0:33:58 > 0:34:04'Constable Lewis felt it, "Only right the record be put straight."
0:34:04 > 0:34:06'He made an official report.
0:34:08 > 0:34:12'Mark Lewis alleged Lord Justice Taylor had said...'
0:34:12 > 0:34:16"I suppose you realise that to give this inquiry any credibility
0:34:16 > 0:34:20"we have to apportion the majority of the blame on the police?"
0:34:21 > 0:34:24'Chief Constable Dear allegedly replied...'
0:34:24 > 0:34:26"I suppose we do."
0:34:31 > 0:34:35'A year later, that overheard conversation had become
0:34:35 > 0:34:36'a serious allegation.
0:34:38 > 0:34:41'It landed on the desk of South Yorkshire's new chief constable,
0:34:41 > 0:34:47'Richard Wells, who just replaced the recently retired Peter Wright.'
0:34:47 > 0:34:50How many times in your career have you seen a Law Lord
0:34:50 > 0:34:53and a chief constable accused of conspiring together?
0:34:53 > 0:34:57One. This case. And that's why I reacted so seriously to it.
0:34:57 > 0:35:00It didn't cross your mind that the police in South Yorkshire,
0:35:00 > 0:35:02under pressure, may be up to something here?
0:35:02 > 0:35:05No, it didn't. No, it really didn't. No.
0:35:05 > 0:35:09The thought was, "This is a significant allegation, which
0:35:09 > 0:35:13"needs looking into and I am not the person to look into this."
0:35:16 > 0:35:19'Chief Constable Wells sent the allegation to
0:35:19 > 0:35:23'the Director of Public Prosecutions just as he was deciding
0:35:23 > 0:35:27'whether to prosecute, following the Taylor Report.
0:35:27 > 0:35:30'Now the DPP had a serious allegation
0:35:30 > 0:35:32'against the judge himself.
0:35:32 > 0:35:36'Lord Justice Taylor and Geoffrey Dear were interviewed.'
0:35:36 > 0:35:38What was Lord Taylor's response?
0:35:40 > 0:35:43As he told me, his response was one word and pretty colourful.
0:35:44 > 0:35:46As was mine.
0:35:46 > 0:35:48The suggestion that two people,
0:35:48 > 0:35:51one a chief constable of the biggest police force in the UK
0:35:51 > 0:35:52outside London,
0:35:52 > 0:35:55the other the man that's shortly to become Lord Chief Justice,
0:35:55 > 0:35:57who had never met before, get into a car
0:35:57 > 0:35:59and, in front of a witness, say they're going to cook the books
0:35:59 > 0:36:02is utterly ridiculous and, actually, very annoying.
0:36:05 > 0:36:08'Mark Lewis declined to take part in this programme.
0:36:08 > 0:36:11'He told us he stands by his statement.
0:36:12 > 0:36:15'But the DPP decided it wouldn't, in any event, have been
0:36:15 > 0:36:18'grounds for action against Lord Justice Taylor
0:36:18 > 0:36:19'and Geoffrey Dear.
0:36:22 > 0:36:23'Six weeks later,
0:36:23 > 0:36:27'the DPP made a much bigger decision on Hillsborough.'
0:36:27 > 0:36:29NEWSREADER: The Director of Public Prosecutions
0:36:29 > 0:36:31has decided not to bring any criminal charges against
0:36:31 > 0:36:33the police or officials
0:36:33 > 0:36:37in connection with the Hillsborough football stadium disaster.
0:36:38 > 0:36:41'Chief Superintendent Duckenfield was allowed to retire
0:36:41 > 0:36:43'on medical grounds.
0:36:43 > 0:36:47'Neither he nor anyone else would be prosecuted for their part
0:36:47 > 0:36:49'in causing the disaster at Hillsborough.'
0:36:52 > 0:36:55Allowing those extra 2,000 people
0:36:55 > 0:36:59into those already overcrowded pens, for me,
0:36:59 > 0:37:02that is gross negligence.
0:37:02 > 0:37:08So how on earth prosecutions didn't follow from that, I'll never know.
0:37:18 > 0:37:21'The Hillsborough cover-up went wider than the police.
0:37:23 > 0:37:27'If, like me, you had been there, you would have seen the chaos,
0:37:27 > 0:37:30'the lack of a proper emergency response.
0:37:34 > 0:37:37'But those who pointed it out would find themselves ignored or
0:37:37 > 0:37:39'disbelieved or slapped down.
0:37:44 > 0:37:47'Liverpool fan Dr John Ashton was one of them.
0:37:48 > 0:37:51'The morning after the disaster, he went on television.'
0:37:52 > 0:37:56The whole thing, from beginning to end, had incompetence
0:37:56 > 0:37:59running right through it, the organisational arrangements.
0:37:59 > 0:38:01And I think that it is time we started to ask
0:38:01 > 0:38:03questions about accountability.
0:38:03 > 0:38:05Thank you very much for joining us, Dr Ashton,
0:38:05 > 0:38:06on a very distressing morning.
0:38:06 > 0:38:09'Dr Ashton was an inconvenient witness -
0:38:09 > 0:38:13'a qualified doctor who would be taken seriously.
0:38:13 > 0:38:17'Behind the scenes, he says, attempts were made to shut him up.
0:38:17 > 0:38:21'In public, at the Taylor Inquiry, his reputation was attacked.'
0:38:22 > 0:38:26'Lord Justice Taylor asked me, when I went back to Liverpool,'
0:38:26 > 0:38:29did the media contact me or did I contact the media?
0:38:29 > 0:38:34The implication of that was that I was seeking publicity for myself.
0:38:34 > 0:38:37'Lord Justice Taylor tried to imply that I wasn't a proper doctor,
0:38:37 > 0:38:39'I was a public health doctor,'
0:38:39 > 0:38:42I didn't see patients, didn't know what I was talking about.
0:38:43 > 0:38:47'Lord Justice Taylor's report damned police failings
0:38:47 > 0:38:49'but praised the other emergency services.
0:38:51 > 0:38:53'Yet there were claims the ambulance service
0:38:53 > 0:38:57'had almost completely failed to provide emergency treatment.
0:39:08 > 0:39:12'An inquest should have been the best chance of finding the truth.
0:39:13 > 0:39:17'But the coroner, Stefan Popper, made a decision which would leave
0:39:17 > 0:39:21'the performance of the emergency services largely unquestioned.
0:39:22 > 0:39:26'He accepted medical opinion that all who died that day
0:39:26 > 0:39:29'were beyond help by 3:15.
0:39:29 > 0:39:31'But could lives have been saved?'
0:39:34 > 0:39:36They weren't all pulled out of the pens dead.
0:39:37 > 0:39:40So what then happens is...
0:39:40 > 0:39:42nobody kills them after that
0:39:42 > 0:39:44but what can kill them
0:39:44 > 0:39:45is the failure to actually
0:39:45 > 0:39:49address their injuries quickly and appropriately.
0:39:51 > 0:39:55'The mother of one young victim always maintained her son,
0:39:55 > 0:39:57'15-year-old Kevin Williams,
0:39:57 > 0:40:00'was alive well after the coroner's 3:15 cut-off.'
0:40:02 > 0:40:04He imposed the 3:15 cut-off point
0:40:04 > 0:40:06because when the surge came,
0:40:06 > 0:40:08it was meant to have took them all.
0:40:08 > 0:40:10You know, passed out within a minute,
0:40:10 > 0:40:12dead and brain dead within so many minutes.
0:40:12 > 0:40:15So he said, by 3:15, they would all be dead.
0:40:16 > 0:40:20And it didn't matter what time any medical people arrived.
0:40:24 > 0:40:28'West Midlands Police were assisting the coroner.
0:40:28 > 0:40:31'They had all the pictures we are now looking at.
0:40:32 > 0:40:36'And they showed Kevin Williams wasn't pulled out of gate three
0:40:36 > 0:40:40'until long after 3:15, at 3:28.
0:40:41 > 0:40:43'Kevin was laid on the pitch,
0:40:43 > 0:40:46'police officers immediately trying to revive him.
0:40:50 > 0:40:53'Soon after, Kevin was carried across the pitch.
0:40:54 > 0:40:59'And there is a photograph, taken after 3:30.
0:40:59 > 0:41:01'But was he alive?'
0:41:02 > 0:41:05I remember shouting to everyone to pick him up
0:41:05 > 0:41:07and get down there with him.
0:41:07 > 0:41:10You know, you're looking at people everywhere and you're thinking,
0:41:10 > 0:41:12obviously, my instinct was, "This lad needs help."
0:41:14 > 0:41:17I have seen people dead before and I know that there would have
0:41:17 > 0:41:19been a colour change.
0:41:19 > 0:41:21His colour looked OK.
0:41:21 > 0:41:25He was pale but, you know, I could see that he was alive.
0:41:27 > 0:41:31'The West Midlands Police also had a photograph of an off-duty
0:41:31 > 0:41:36'Merseyside policeman, Derek Bruder, trying to resuscitate Kevin.'
0:41:36 > 0:41:39He told me what he had done for Kevin
0:41:39 > 0:41:42and I said, "Was my son alive?"
0:41:42 > 0:41:44He said, "Well, if you say finding
0:41:44 > 0:41:46"a pulse with the first two fingers..."
0:41:46 > 0:41:48And he lifted his hand up like that.
0:41:48 > 0:41:53"..with your right hand, if that means he was alive
0:41:53 > 0:41:54"then he was alive."
0:41:57 > 0:41:59'But this photograph wasn't timed
0:41:59 > 0:42:03'and PC Bruder couldn't be certain when it was taken.
0:42:04 > 0:42:06'What he did remember was an ambulance
0:42:06 > 0:42:09'arrived at the ground as he tried to save Kevin's life.
0:42:15 > 0:42:18'Derek Bruder wasn't called to give evidence at the inquest.
0:42:19 > 0:42:23'Instead, his evidence was outlined to the coroner
0:42:23 > 0:42:25'by a West Midlands Police officer.
0:42:25 > 0:42:28'He only mentioned two ambulances coming onto the pitch.
0:42:30 > 0:42:31'And he said both of them
0:42:31 > 0:42:35'had arrived before Kevin Williams was carried across the ground.
0:42:35 > 0:42:39'This seemed to undermine PC Bruder's entire account.'
0:42:40 > 0:42:43There were a number of anomalies in his evidence,
0:42:43 > 0:42:47including a problem with the entry and exit of the ambulances.
0:42:47 > 0:42:49It didn't quite tie in.
0:42:49 > 0:42:51Nobody has actually picked that point up
0:42:51 > 0:42:52but there is a difficulty
0:42:52 > 0:42:55with his evidence, as far as I remember,
0:42:55 > 0:42:57with regard to the timing.
0:42:58 > 0:43:01'But there was no problem of timing.
0:43:03 > 0:43:06'There weren't two ambulances at Hillsborough, there were three.
0:43:08 > 0:43:10'And West Midlands Police knew that.
0:43:12 > 0:43:15'They had the third ambulance on video
0:43:15 > 0:43:19'and they had taken the pictures to the crew, to Tony Edwards.'
0:43:19 > 0:43:21They had a video set up,
0:43:21 > 0:43:26they had photographs and they had laid out photographs as well
0:43:26 > 0:43:29and it was them who said to me, "I want to show you
0:43:29 > 0:43:32"your vehicle coming on the pitch at 3:35."
0:43:32 > 0:43:37- And they showed you it was 3:35? They told you?- Oh, no, absolutely.
0:43:37 > 0:43:39They had all the information.
0:43:41 > 0:43:45'But that information wasn't given at Kevin Williams' inquest.
0:43:45 > 0:43:49'The third ambulance wasn't mentioned at all.
0:43:52 > 0:43:57'Now, we can confirm Derek Bruder was right all along.
0:43:57 > 0:44:00'We have found footage shot moments after Kevin had been
0:44:00 > 0:44:02'carried down the pitch.
0:44:02 > 0:44:05'Those nearby see Kevin needs help.
0:44:08 > 0:44:13'And then we just see PC Bruder rushing towards Kevin,
0:44:13 > 0:44:15'exactly as he described.
0:44:15 > 0:44:17'It is after 3:30.
0:44:22 > 0:44:25'We can reveal Derek Bruder has now complained
0:44:25 > 0:44:27'to the Independent Police Complaints Commission
0:44:27 > 0:44:30'about the way his evidence was dealt with.'
0:44:37 > 0:44:40NEWSREADER: Long before the families arrived for this,
0:44:40 > 0:44:43the final day of Britain's longest inquest,
0:44:43 > 0:44:46it was clear that there was going to be an emotional conclusion.
0:44:48 > 0:44:52'The Hillsborough inquest came to an end in March 1991.
0:44:52 > 0:44:56'The verdict on all of the victims was the same - accidental death.
0:44:59 > 0:45:01'The Hillsborough families were shattered.'
0:45:03 > 0:45:05We will continue.
0:45:05 > 0:45:08We, fortunately, have had a lot of sympathy from the nation.
0:45:08 > 0:45:10It is an uphill struggle, as you can appreciate.
0:45:10 > 0:45:14We have had to take on every part of the establishment.
0:45:14 > 0:45:20I was utterly devastated. I really thought we stood a chance.
0:45:20 > 0:45:23I thought maybe we would get somewhere.
0:45:23 > 0:45:27But... And I was absolutely... It was despair for me.
0:45:29 > 0:45:34'Anne Williams never collected her son's death certificate.
0:45:34 > 0:45:37'She always refused to accept the verdict of accidental death.'
0:45:39 > 0:45:41They used to say, "You're right, Anne.
0:45:41 > 0:45:43"But you'll not beat the system."
0:45:43 > 0:45:45And I used to say, "Well..." And they'd say,
0:45:45 > 0:45:49"They're wearing you down." And I can always remember saying,
0:45:49 > 0:45:52"Well, I'll wear them down before they wear me down."
0:45:54 > 0:45:56'Despite all the inquiries,
0:45:56 > 0:45:59'the truth about Hillsborough remained buried.'
0:46:01 > 0:46:05I think, at that point, there was a sort of consensus
0:46:05 > 0:46:07in the English legal system that,
0:46:07 > 0:46:11"That's your lot, Liverpool families.
0:46:11 > 0:46:13"You have had three very powerful inquiries here,
0:46:13 > 0:46:15"you've had the Taylor Inquiry,
0:46:15 > 0:46:18"you've had a year's long investigation by the DPP,
0:46:18 > 0:46:21"you've had the longest inquest in criminal history.
0:46:21 > 0:46:25"That's your lot. Time to put those papers away and let's move on."
0:46:32 > 0:46:34'The Liverpool families wouldn't move on.
0:46:37 > 0:46:41'They had been let down by the law, now they turned to politicians.
0:46:43 > 0:46:47'After the Labour election victory in 1997, over 40 of them
0:46:47 > 0:46:51'travelled from Merseyside to meet the new Home Secretary.
0:46:52 > 0:46:54'He made a promise.'
0:46:54 > 0:46:56We owe it to everyone touched by this tragedy
0:46:56 > 0:47:00and, above all, to the families of those who died
0:47:00 > 0:47:04to get to the bottom of this matter once and for all.
0:47:04 > 0:47:06Hear, hear.
0:47:06 > 0:47:10'Jack Straw, the Home Secretary, saw no need for a new inquiry
0:47:10 > 0:47:13'but he believed that wouldn't be publicly acceptable
0:47:13 > 0:47:17'unless it came from an independent source.
0:47:17 > 0:47:20'So Mr Straw proposed a limited review
0:47:20 > 0:47:22'of any fresh evidence by a judge.
0:47:24 > 0:47:27'In what he now says was a purely factual query,
0:47:27 > 0:47:30'the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, asked,
0:47:30 > 0:47:32' "Why? What's the point?" '
0:47:34 > 0:47:38The documents reveal that neither the Home Secretary, Jack Straw,
0:47:38 > 0:47:42nor the Prime Minister thought anything would come out of it
0:47:42 > 0:47:46and that they didn't really expect the inquiry to produce
0:47:46 > 0:47:49anything other than that which had already been
0:47:49 > 0:47:51produced by inquiries which had produced nothing.
0:47:51 > 0:47:54- There's a bit of hypocrisy there, isn't there?- Yes, I think there was.
0:47:54 > 0:47:56- How does that make you feel?- Bad.
0:48:00 > 0:48:03'Jack Straw appointed Lord Justice Stuart-Smith
0:48:03 > 0:48:06'to carry out a scrutiny of the evidence.
0:48:06 > 0:48:09'He also told the judge the Home Office had seen nothing
0:48:09 > 0:48:12'to justify a full-scale inquiry.'
0:48:12 > 0:48:14The families feel
0:48:14 > 0:48:16you marked Stuart-Smith's card from the beginning.
0:48:16 > 0:48:18Well, that's not the marking his card,
0:48:18 > 0:48:21that's just telling the chap the truth and explaining to him
0:48:21 > 0:48:24why I wasn't establishing a full-blown inquiry.
0:48:24 > 0:48:27There was no secret about this.
0:48:27 > 0:48:29You tell him your view in advance. You tell him, "Well, look..."
0:48:29 > 0:48:31I wasn't telling him my view in advance,
0:48:31 > 0:48:34I was asking him to conduct an inquiry.
0:48:34 > 0:48:37But I was telling him of the scepticism of officials.
0:48:41 > 0:48:43'So, eight years after Hillsborough,
0:48:43 > 0:48:46'South Yorkshire Police were again in the spotlight.
0:48:48 > 0:48:52'Many of their officers who had been there had been badly affected.
0:48:53 > 0:48:55'Inspector Clive Calvert was one of them.'
0:48:57 > 0:49:00I picked him up and, as far as I remember,
0:49:00 > 0:49:02he cried on the way back.
0:49:02 > 0:49:08I do remember him coming in, sitting in the chair, he had a drink
0:49:08 > 0:49:11but he went to bed very early and he didn't talk about it.
0:49:11 > 0:49:13He looked absolutely devastated.
0:49:16 > 0:49:20'In preparation for the Stuart-Smith scrutiny, Inspector Calvert
0:49:20 > 0:49:23'was asked to brief his chief constable at the ground.
0:49:24 > 0:49:27'The inspector took the chance to speak out.
0:49:27 > 0:49:30'He said he had worried for years that police witnesses to
0:49:30 > 0:49:34'the Taylor Inquiry had been coached and officers' statements altered.'
0:49:34 > 0:49:38Inspector Clive Calvert said very clearly that he
0:49:38 > 0:49:41felt that there has been an element about the changing of statements
0:49:41 > 0:49:43which had not been as innocent
0:49:43 > 0:49:45as I had believed to have been.
0:49:48 > 0:49:51'Inspector Calvert retired after 38 years' service
0:49:51 > 0:49:53'and has since died.
0:49:53 > 0:49:56'Breaking ranks on Hillsborough had been difficult.'
0:49:57 > 0:50:02He did say to me, "I've had a word with the chief constable."
0:50:02 > 0:50:06And he also said, "I think that'll be the end of my career.
0:50:06 > 0:50:10"I don't think I'll go any further with the police."
0:50:10 > 0:50:11Something to that effect.
0:50:15 > 0:50:19After investigating Inspector Calvert's concerns, an assistant
0:50:19 > 0:50:23chief constable from South Yorkshire reported to Judge Stuart-Smith.
0:50:23 > 0:50:27He said Clive Calvert had been wrong about police witnesses being
0:50:27 > 0:50:31coached and he had misunderstood the process around which
0:50:31 > 0:50:33statements had been taken.
0:50:33 > 0:50:36Inspector Calvert, he said, had been naive.
0:50:39 > 0:50:42I can't explain that.
0:50:42 > 0:50:45It's not something that I would immediately agree
0:50:45 > 0:50:47with either saying or doing.
0:50:47 > 0:50:52He was an experienced inspector, both operationally and in football.
0:50:52 > 0:50:55- Mr Calvert?- Yes. Absolutely. - He wasn't naive?
0:50:55 > 0:51:00As you put that to me, I can't understand why it was said.
0:51:02 > 0:51:06He had never been described as naive before.
0:51:06 > 0:51:11In fact, he had always been described as a very astute man
0:51:11 > 0:51:13with a great deal of integrity.
0:51:13 > 0:51:19So for that letter to say that is quite upsetting for the family
0:51:19 > 0:51:21and, to be honest, ridiculous.
0:51:26 > 0:51:29'When he published his report in February 1998,
0:51:29 > 0:51:33'Lord Justice Stuart-Smith ruled that altering police
0:51:33 > 0:51:37'statements did not amount to irregularity and malpractice.
0:51:39 > 0:51:40'The Home Secretary agreed.'
0:51:42 > 0:51:46The overall conclusion which Lord Justice Stuart-Smith reaches is
0:51:46 > 0:51:50that there is no basis on which there should be a further public inquiry.
0:51:52 > 0:51:56Les and I did everything that was expected of us.
0:51:56 > 0:51:58We played their game.
0:51:58 > 0:52:00We put in police complaints,
0:52:00 > 0:52:02we wrote to the coroner,
0:52:02 > 0:52:04we asked him questions,
0:52:04 > 0:52:08we did a judicial review, it was all nice,
0:52:08 > 0:52:12we wrote to all the prime ministers and, at the end of the day,
0:52:12 > 0:52:14it got us nowhere.
0:52:16 > 0:52:19'Yet again, the truth about Hillsborough was buried.'
0:52:21 > 0:52:22You describe it as a thorough inquiry.
0:52:22 > 0:52:25You were entirely satisfied with his conclusions.
0:52:25 > 0:52:27Yes, and I thought it was a thorough inquiry
0:52:27 > 0:52:30and that I was satisfied with his conclusions. You learn.
0:52:30 > 0:52:32If I had known then what I know now,
0:52:32 > 0:52:35I would have come to different conclusions but I didn't.
0:52:35 > 0:52:38You could have known then, couldn't you? If you had looked harder.
0:52:38 > 0:52:39I might have been able to.
0:52:39 > 0:52:42It is a matter of great regret that I didn't look harder
0:52:42 > 0:52:44and I'm sorry that I got it wrong.
0:52:44 > 0:52:45And I can't turn the clock back.
0:52:47 > 0:52:53'That makes me so sad because that's another 14 years'
0:52:53 > 0:52:55of my life
0:52:55 > 0:52:58that I have been made to look for the truth
0:52:58 > 0:53:00when it was already there.
0:53:03 > 0:53:05I mean, that is a national disgrace.
0:53:12 > 0:53:15'The 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster was
0:53:15 > 0:53:19'marked by a memorial service at Anfield. It was a turning point.
0:53:21 > 0:53:23'The culture secretary Andy Burnham came to express
0:53:23 > 0:53:25'the Government's sympathy.'
0:53:25 > 0:53:30We can at least pledge that 96 fellow football supporters who died
0:53:30 > 0:53:31will never be forgotten.
0:53:33 > 0:53:37'The crowd of 30,000 made it clear that was no longer enough.'
0:53:37 > 0:53:42CHANTING: Justice for the 96.
0:53:42 > 0:53:45'Under pressure, the minister made a big commitment -
0:53:45 > 0:53:49'the Government would break the rule that official documents
0:53:49 > 0:53:51'have to remain secret for 30 years.'
0:53:53 > 0:53:55People kind of thought, "Is this possible?"
0:53:55 > 0:53:58I didn't think it was possible but I think that he knew that
0:53:58 > 0:54:01whether he was bouncing his Government into it or it was
0:54:01 > 0:54:05done with agreement, his Government was going to have to respond to this.
0:54:07 > 0:54:10'The Hillsborough families had lost confidence
0:54:10 > 0:54:11'in government and the law.
0:54:11 > 0:54:14'They insisted on choosing people they could trust to
0:54:14 > 0:54:16'look at the official records.
0:54:17 > 0:54:21'By the time the independent panel published their report last
0:54:21 > 0:54:24'September, it was a new government that finally said sorry.'
0:54:24 > 0:54:32# You'll never walk alone. #
0:54:32 > 0:54:35- DAVID CAMERON:- These families have suffered a double injustice.
0:54:35 > 0:54:37The injustice of the appalling events,
0:54:37 > 0:54:40the failure of the state to protect their loved ones
0:54:40 > 0:54:43and their indefensible wait to get to the truth
0:54:43 > 0:54:46and then the injustice of the denigration of the deceased,
0:54:46 > 0:54:49that they were somehow at fault for their own deaths.
0:54:56 > 0:54:59'The Hillsborough report showed the 3:15 cut-off
0:54:59 > 0:55:02'imposed by the coroner was wrong.
0:55:02 > 0:55:05'An analysis of medical evidence revealed that,
0:55:05 > 0:55:06'given proper treatment,
0:55:06 > 0:55:08'more than half the 96 who died
0:55:08 > 0:55:11'might have had a chance of survival.'
0:55:11 > 0:55:17My son and 95 innocent Liverpool fans did not die in an accident,
0:55:17 > 0:55:20they were unlawfully killed at the least.
0:55:20 > 0:55:22CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:55:25 > 0:55:29'In December, the accidental death verdicts were overturned
0:55:29 > 0:55:31'and the High Court ordered a new inquest.
0:55:33 > 0:55:38'The original coroner Stefan Popper told Panorama it was not
0:55:38 > 0:55:39'appropriate for him to comment.
0:55:42 > 0:55:45'Anne Williams was now gravely ill.'
0:55:45 > 0:55:47- You might not see the end of this now.- No.
0:55:49 > 0:55:52- But you have won your victory. - That's what I thought.
0:55:54 > 0:55:56My son did not die in an accident
0:55:56 > 0:55:58and neither did 95 with him.
0:55:59 > 0:56:02So at least we have got rid of that.
0:56:02 > 0:56:06Cos the accidental death verdicts used to really, really upset me
0:56:06 > 0:56:08cos it let them off the hook, didn't it?
0:56:10 > 0:56:12'Anne Williams died last month.'
0:56:23 > 0:56:26'Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust
0:56:26 > 0:56:28'wouldn't be interviewed by Panorama.
0:56:28 > 0:56:32'They say they will cooperate with any new legal inquiries.'
0:56:34 > 0:56:37My involvement in Hillsborough has always been a torture.
0:56:37 > 0:56:39It has been life changing and
0:56:39 > 0:56:42'I always find these interviews difficult.
0:56:42 > 0:56:46'I feel they are necessary so we get the true story out.'
0:56:46 > 0:56:47And I'm unshakeable on that.
0:56:47 > 0:56:49I know what the situation was,
0:56:49 > 0:56:51how we dealt with this badly.
0:56:56 > 0:56:59'There are two new investigations into Hillsborough.
0:56:59 > 0:57:02'One into who might have caused the disaster,
0:57:02 > 0:57:05'the other into allegations of a police cover-up.
0:57:05 > 0:57:08'Both South Yorkshire and West Midlands Police say
0:57:08 > 0:57:10'they will cooperate with these inquiries.'
0:57:15 > 0:57:18'The match commander David Duckenfield declined to be
0:57:18 > 0:57:24'interviewed by Panorama while the new investigations were going on.
0:57:24 > 0:57:27'Sir Norman Bettison became chief constable of Merseyside
0:57:27 > 0:57:29'and then of West Yorkshire.
0:57:29 > 0:57:33'He resigned last year, saying the Hillsborough investigation
0:57:33 > 0:57:35'had become a distraction.
0:57:35 > 0:57:37'He declined to be interviewed.
0:57:40 > 0:57:44'For the Hillsborough families, it is not over yet.'
0:57:44 > 0:57:46People don't want to be fighting this cause any more,
0:57:46 > 0:57:51nearly 24 years later. It's taken its toll on a lot of families.
0:57:51 > 0:57:55A lot of people aren't here any more to see it through to the end.
0:57:57 > 0:58:00If people are proved ultimately responsible,
0:58:00 > 0:58:03I'd like to see them charged with it.
0:58:03 > 0:58:06Cos everyone else in the country is subject to the law
0:58:06 > 0:58:08and they should be as well.
0:58:08 > 0:58:11- Do you think that's going to happen?- No.
0:58:13 > 0:58:16'Hillsborough was an avoidable disaster.
0:58:17 > 0:58:19'What happened here was obvious.
0:58:21 > 0:58:24'But some of our most important institutions - the police,
0:58:24 > 0:58:28'the judiciary and government - allowed it to be covered up.
0:58:30 > 0:58:32'That's the truth about Hillsborough -
0:58:32 > 0:58:35'a dark truth buried for a generation.'
0:58:44 > 0:58:47Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd