After 13 years, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) investigation into the police’s conduct around the Hillsborough disaster has been partially released.
The IOPC had planned to publish the full report, which BBC News understands runs to several thousand pages, but has instead repleased a ‘more focused’ 366-page version.
Among the findings is the information that at least 12 police officers would have faced gross misconduct hearings, but they now cannot because they all retired before the investigation began in 2012 and one, Peter Wright, has died.
Ten were from South Yorkshire Police (SYP) while two were from the force supposed to be investigating, West Midlands Police (WMP).
Their names are: Chief Constable Peter Wright, Assistant Ch Constable Walter Jackson, Ch Superintendent David Duckenfield, Supt Bernard Murray, Supt Roger Marshall, Ch Inspector Norman Bettison, Detective Ch Insp Alan Foster, Insp Harry White, Sergeant John Morgan, PC David Scott, Asst Ch Constable Mervyn Jones, Det Ch Supt Michael Foster
Among them is David Duckenfield, the match commander who faces 10 allegations around failing to plan appropriately, failing to respond events and lying that fans had broken through Gate C.
Also revealed were over 100 more altered police statements, taking the number of amended statements to 327. Many were edited to remove criticisms of the police.
• The IPOC’s released report can be found here and you can read more details here
The IOPC deputy director general Kathie Cashell said: “The 97 people who were unlawfully killed, their families, survivors of the disaster and all those so deeply affected, have been repeatedly let down—before, during and after the horrific events of that day.
“First by the deep complacency of South Yorkshire Police in its preparation for the match, followed by its fundamental failure to grip the disaster as it unfolded, and then through the force’s concerted efforts to deflect the blame onto the Liverpool supporters, which caused enormous distress to bereaved families and survivors for nearly four decades.
“They were let down again by the inexplicably narrow investigation into the disaster conducted by West Midlands Police, which was a missed opportunity to bring these failings to light much sooner.
“What they have had to endure over more than 36 years is a source of national shame.”
Many of the key facts in the IOPC’s new report was already known by fans, but there are some fresh points of information:
Investigation into missing Hillsborough video tapes
After the disaster, CCTV tapes that should have been used as evident went missing, leading to allegations they had been stolen. This was subsequently investigated
The IOPC report said:
• There appear to have been multiple shortcomings in WMP investigation into the disappearance of the tapes, or at least the records it made of the investigation. These included the fact that there was no evidence to suggest that WMP made efforts to question SWFC officials who had access to the room
• There is some evidence that SYP officers were critical of WMP’s approach to the matter
Lying to the press
After the disaster, disgusting lies about the behaviour of Liverpool supporters were shared by the British press, most infamously in The Sun newspaper.
• The allegation that supporters burned a police horse with cigarettes is not supported by evidence. In fact, the evidence gathered by the IOPC shows that this claim was not only improbable, but implausible
• Though it has long been assumed that The Sun was the first newspaper to print stories which painted the supporters in a negative light, the IOPC confirmed that similar allegations had been reported by local news outlets the Sheffield Star and White’s News Agency the day before they were published in The Sun
• The available evidence suggested that a key source of information for the White’s news feed—and possibly the Sheffield Star article—was Irvine Patnick, the then Conservative MP for Sheffield Hallam. Mr Patnick’s own notes from the time show that he spoke to several police officers on the evening after the disaster; they told him various stories about supporters, which he then repeated to the media
• No officer admitted being the source of the anonymous comments published in The Sun or any of the other media coverage. With just one exception—the probable identification of a chief inspector quoted in one article—the IOPC was not able to identify the officers who spoke to journalists
327 statements were amended
• Some 327 officers’ accounts were amended before they were submitted to WMP and the Taylor Inquiry. This figure was more than 100 higher than previous reviews of the evidence had found.
• Accounts were sometimes amended without the officers that had written them being told. Some of those who noticed changes that they were not comfortable with were pressured to accept the amended version. Only one officer has stated that he continually resisted that pressure and did not sign an amended version
• There was a consistent pattern across all reviewers, including the officers as well as Mr Metcalf, of removing or rewording evidence that appeared to criticise senior officers or suggested there had been chaos or a lack of control
Most strikingly, every reference to SYP officers monitoring the crowd in the pens at previous games or taking action to close the tunnel which led to the centre pens once they were full, was removed from officers’ accounts.
These were potentially key points of criticism of SYP’s operation on the day of the disaster.
No police officer has ever been convicted over Hillsborough
No police officer has been convicted of any criminal offences in relation to the Hillsborough and none faced disciplinary proceedings at the time.
In 2019, former Duckenfield, who ordered and subsequently lied about the opening of exit gate C – the gate opposite the tunnel to the overfilled pens – was found not guilty of manslaughter by gross negligence.
Duckenfield, who was match commander at the fatal semi-final, was found to have been grossly negligent by the jury at the 2016 inquest.
However, this wasn’t decided a criminal court case and, when he was prosecuted for gross negligence manslaughter, the 2019 jury acquitted him of criminal charges.
In addition, solicitor Peter Metcalf and retired police officers Donald Denton and Alan Foster were accused of altering police statements and helping to cover up police failings.
Their trials collapsed on a technicality.
Only one individual has ever been successfully prosecuted for what happened at Hillsborough; the stadium safety officer, Graham Mackrell, was fined £6,500.
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