Earlier today at the new Hillsborough Inquests, the police officer in charge of the match, David Duckenfield, admitted that his failure to close a tunnel that lead directly to the Leppings Lane End of the stadium directly caused the death of 96 people.
On his sixth day of cross examination the former South Yorkshire Police chief superintendent, under a line of direct questioning by Paul Greaney QC of the Police Federation, admitted that he “froze” as the crisis unfolded around him despite dismissing those suggestions earlier. This revelation follows Duckenfield finally dispelling the myth of drunk, ticket-less fans being the main cause of the disaster along with him admitting that he was “not the best man for the job”.
96 Liverpool fans died after crushing in the Leppings Lane End of the Hillsborough Stadium back in April, 1989 and the families of the deceased have kept up a long campaign for justice after the Taylor Report — commissioned to investigate the root causes of the deaths — included a number of glaring omissions, falsifications of the facts and distorted views based on the misleading information provided in the wake of the disaster.
With the terraces already packed, the decision to open a side gate that was designated as an exit to relive the build-up of fans outside the ground, which Duckenfield confirmed was his call, ended with graves consequences. Ending his cross-examination by proposing a series of questions, the former police officer admitted that the tragedy would not have happened had he not made the decision to open the gate that allowed fans to reach the central pens and had he used his knowledge of the lay-out of the stadium that 96-people would not have died.
“That failure was the direct cause of the deaths of 96 persons in the Hillsborough tragedy?” asked Mr Greaney, to which Duckenfield replied, “Yes, sir.”
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