The Hillsborough disaster was a fatal crowd crush at a foot...

On April 15, 1989, a tragic crush of people occurred during a football game at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield,

South Yorkshire, England. It happened in the two standing-only central pens of the Leppings Lane stand reserved for

Liverpool fans during an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest.

In an effort to reduce crowding, police match commander David Duckenfield ordered exit gate C to be opened just

prior to kickoff, which resulted in a surge of fans into the pens.This led to the catastrophic crush and overcrowding of

those pens; the incident is the bloodiest in British athletic history, with 766 injuries and 97 fatalities.Ninety-four

people passed away that day;

Tony Bland passed away in 1993, another person passed away in the hospital a few days after, and a 97th person

passed away in 2021. On that day, Bland and the 97th victim both had irreparable brain injury.In May 1989, the

game was postponed and rescheduled at Old Trafford in Manchester; Liverpool prevailed and won the FA Cup that

season.

In the days and weeks that followed, South Yorkshire Police (SYP) gave the media misleading information implying

that the catastrophe was brought on by Liverpool fans’ intoxication and football hooliganism. Even after the Taylor

Report of 1990 concluded that SYP’s inability to regulate crowds was the primary cause, accusations against

Liverpool supporters continued.

The Director of Public Prosecutions declared after the Taylor Report that there was insufficient evidence to support

the prosecution of any people or organisations.The tragedy prompted several safety upgrades at the biggest English

football stadiums, most notably the switch from caged standing terraces to all-seater stadiums in the top two

divisions.

The 1991 completion of the first coroner’s inquest into the Hillsborough tragedy resulted in “accidental death”

verdicts for each and every deceased person.Families contested the results and campaigned for the case to be

reopened. In 1997, Lord Justice Stuart-Smith came to the conclusion that a further investigation was not warranted.

In 2000, the Hillsborough Family Support Group’s private prosecutions of Duckenfield and his deputy Bernard

Murray were unsuccessful.

In 2009 a Hillsborough Independent Panel was formed to review the evidence.Reporting in 2012, it confirmed

Taylor’s 1990 criticisms and revealed details about the extent of police efforts to shift blame onto fans, the role of

other emergency services and the error of the first coroner’s inquests.

The prior conclusions of accidental death were overturned as a result of the panel’s report, and new coroner’s

inquests were established. Additionally, it resulted in two police-led criminal investigations in 2012: Operation

Resolve, which looked into the disaster’s origins, and the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), which

examined the police’s post-disaster activities.

The second coroner’s inquiry took place between April 1, 2014, and April 26, 2016.They determined that the

supporters were unlawfully killed as a result of the police and paramedic services’ egregiously careless failing to

uphold their duty of care.The inquests also concluded that the stadium’s layout played a role in the crush and that

the hazardous conditions were not the fault of the fans.

Following the judgement, SYP chief constable David Crompton was suspended due to public outrage at the force’s

activities during the second inquests.Six individuals faced charges in June 2017 for their activities during and after

the tragedy, including manslaughter by gross negligence, misconduct in public office, and perverting the course of

justice. One of the defendants was later exonerated of all allegations by the Crown Prosecution Service.

The Hillsborough disaster was a fatal crowd crush at a football match at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, South Yorkshire,