Hillsborough - facts you may not know

Today marks the 26th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster (15 April 1989) at the 1988–89 FA Cup semi-final match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at Hillsborough Stadium, Sheffield, England.

A crush resulted in the deaths of 96 people and injuries to 766 others. 

It remains the worst stadium-related disaster in British history and one of the world's worst football disasters.

Below are some facts on the Hillsborough disaster of which you may not be aware. These facts were found via research and inquiry and were substantiated before publication. These are written on the premise that you have a basic knowledge of what happened that fateful day. I implore you to research this topic yourself, to discover the true horror of that day and to delve into the darkest day in football history. I haven't even scratched the surface.

 

Some of the lies -

The report

The possibility of fans attempting to gain entry without tickets or with forged tickets was suggested as a contributing factor. South Yorkshire Police suggested the late arrival of fans amounted to a conspiracy to gain entry without tickets. However, the total number of people who entered the Leppings Lane end was below the official capacity of the stand.

Accusations that the behaviour of Liverpool fans contributed to the disaster centred around consumption of alcohol before the game and attempts to enter the ground without a ticket. Although it was clear many fans had been drinking, Lord Taylor unequivocally stated that most of them were: "not drunk, nor even the worse for drink". He concluded that they formed an exacerbating factor and that police, seeking to rationalise their loss of control, overestimated the element of drunkenness in the crowd.

The findings concluded that 164 witness statements had been altered. Of those statements, 116 were amended to remove or change negative comments about South Yorkshire Police. South Yorkshire Police had performed blood alcohol tests on the victims, some of them children, and ran computer checks on the national police database in an attempt to "impugn their reputation". The report concluded that the then Conservative MP for Sheffield Hallam, Irvine Patnick, passed inaccurate and untrue information from the police to the press.

  

Margaret Thatcher

Papers released by the Hillsborough Independent Panel show the then PM Margaret Thatcher ordered the Government’s response to the Taylor report in August 1989 to be toned down so it would not appear to attack South Yorkshire Police.

Paul Middup

Following the disaster, a rumour spread that there were fans urinating on the bodies of the victims. Former Secretary of the South Yorkshire Police Federation Paul Middup, when pressed on this rumour by The Sun newspaper, confirmed these rumours as fact, claiming them to indeed be true. Mr Middup did not check if these rumours were true and verified the story regardless, blaming other football fans. 

He said: “I didn’t take steps to confirm it, I accepted what people told me.” The Sun printed the story. Mr Middup claims that fellow officer Ben Fiddler gave him the information. Mr Fiddler has since passed away. 

Mr Middup also declared that he witnessed "drunken" Liverpool fans outside the Leppings Lane turnstiles “stampeding” in when the gate was opened. Footage showed that as many as 30 of the fans whose lives came to an end that day came through Gate C eight minutes before kick off and not the "stampeded" Leppings Lane after the game had kicked off - almost one third of victims. 

Mr Middup told the court he had read the interim Taylor report into the disaster after it was published. But Michael Mansfield QC, representing 75 of the families, said: “I am going to suggest to you, if you read the report and were interested in a balanced approach, you would have noted that, wouldn’t you.” 

Mr Middup said: “Whether I didn’t take proper notice of that particular part, I don’t know."

The effects you never hear about - 

Broken marriage

Angela Woolfall's husband Michael survived the disaster due to the CPR of fellow football fans. Crushed in the crowds, he suffered severe nerve damage in his leg and broken ribs from the resuscitation. His life and marriage spiralled out of control for years before he and his wife divorced in 1998. 

"None of us blames Michael for what happened, and we're all still friends. The most important thing is that he's alive. But I lost my husband at Hillsborough, and that gets overlooked", said Angela.

Suicide

'Ian' was caught in the crush but managed to survive that day. He attended the game with his best friend 'Joe'. 'Joe' never made it home.

'Ian's' wife 'Joan' spoke of the aftermath of the disaster.

"'Ian' was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder just a few weeks after the disaster. He wasn't seriously injured, but he was a wreck. He was a man's man and he said he didn't need help, so he went straight back to work. Two weeks later he came home from his night shift, went upstairs and smashed the bathroom up. He wasn't an aggressive person, but he couldn't handle the emotions. 

"'Ian' was never the same after Hillsborough. He was like a coiled spring. The least thing, he would get worked up. He was always on edge. He's been gone two years now. We had his funeral in the church we got married in, and it was lovely, really comforting. Nothing will ever be the same again."  

 

How the players were effected - 

Peter Beardsley

"I went to a funeral of one of the victims, in Burnley. The family were magnificent with me, but I found it really hard. 

"I'd only been to one funeral before that, but this one was for a teenage boy. I can go to funerals now, of young children who I've met in hospital and who've died. And as sad as it is, I can cope with it now. But I couldn't then. It was terrible. 

"The likes of John Barnes, Alan Hansen and Kenny Dalglish were better men than I was. They went to so many funerals. Kenny and his wife Marina went to over half of the funerals. They went to three in one day on more than one occasion. From the moment the disaster began, right to the end, Kenny was unbelievable." 

Kenny Dalglish

“I don’t know how many funerals I went to in total but Marina and I went to four in one day. We got a police escort between them.

“They were all harrowing. All those families mourning the loss of their loved ones. Most of the church services finished with ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’. I couldn’t sing through any of it, I was too choked up.

"I just stood in a daze, trying to come to terms with what had happened.”

 John Aldridge

“If I hadn’t become a footballer it is almost certain I would have been in the Leppings Lane terrace on Saturday, April 15, 1989. But fate decreed I was not there as a fan but as a player, oblivious to what was going on.

“When the full extent of the disaster unfolded, my emotions were of great sadness for the victims whose only mistake was choosing the wrong day to watch a football match. Yes, time does heal, but if I am still alive on April 15, 2039, the 50th anniversary of Hillsborough, I will shed tears.

“That is because I shed tears every year on April 15. Not out of ritual, obligation or duty but out of a deep sense of grief for the lost and a genuine feeling for the loved ones they left behind.”

Steven Gerrard

“Tears, anger and confusion tore through all of us. We hadn’t known Jon-Paul was at the game. He went to Anfield all the time but an FA Cup semi-final was a special treat.

“His mum, Jackie, had somehow managed to get a ticket. But Jon-Paul never returned from the match – those words will haunt me forever. Every time I see Jon-Paul’s name cut into the marble outside the Shankly Gates, I fill with sadness and anger.

"I have never let anyone know this before but it’s true, I play for Jon-Paul.”
 

John Barnes

“People wept all the way home. All the wives were crying. I was crying. Kenny was crying. Bruce said he was considering quitting.

“Although I never thought about giving up football I understood what Bruce meant. Those fans went there to watch us and there we were on to a luxury coach going home as they were being laid out in a mortuary.

"As we travelled back across the Pennines, their mums and dads were making the reverse journey to identify their children’s bodies.”

True tragedy brings out the worst in people

The vitriol of Steven Cohen

In April 2009, football fan and World Soccer Daily host Steven Cohen horrified the football world when he gave his opinions on the events of that day. It must be pointed out that his figures and "facts" are pulled out of the air.

“People showing up without ticket, hell bent in getting into somewhere where they shouldn’t be going because they don’t have tickets, is the root cause of [the Hillsborough Disaster].

“I’m yet to read anybody write in this weekend’s Sunday papers in England, where they’re all doing big commemorations about the 96, and why we should never forget and how it’s changed the game, nobody discusses the 6-8,000 who showed up without tickets and my argument has always been, if those people don’t show up, this never happens."
 

Other facts -

The original inquests in Sheffield, which concluded on March 28 1991, were the longest running in British legal history.

It was later estimated that more than 3,000 supporters were admitted to the central pens - almost double the "safe" capacity.

At 15:06, a policeman ran on to the pitch and ordered the referee to stop the game. In the chaotic aftermath, supporters tore up advertising hoardings to use as makeshift stretchers and tried to administer first aid to the injured.

 Of the 96 people who died, only 14 were ever admitted to hospital.

The youngest fan to die was Jon-Paul Gilhooley, aged 10.

The eldest fan was Gerard Baron, aged 67.

Four days after the disaster, the Sun newspaper published a story under the headline The Truth, and claimed that fans had picked the pockets of victims, and attacked and urinated on police and rescue workers.

In 2006, Anne Williams, the mother of 15-year-old victim Kevin Williams, took a case to the European Court of Human Rights challenging the verdict of the original inquest. She claims her son was still alive at 16:00 on the day of the disaster and did not die from traumatic asphyxia. The court rejected the case in March 2009 on the grounds that the time period for her challenge had expired.

In September 2012, the Hillsborough Independent Panel panel found that police had deliberately altered more than 160 witness statements in an attempt to blame Liverpool fans for the fatal crush.

A report revealed "multiple failures" by other emergency services and public bodies that contributed to the death toll.

41 of the 96 who died could have survived.

Never accept the world with which you are presented.

Never stop asking questions.

Justice for the 96.