“Many of the 96 died within feet of me. I survived, but, unable to move any part of my body from the neck down in the crush, I could do no more for these people than watch them die.”
These words of helpless sorrow were penned by Adrian Tempany, describing the demise of people in the crush of the Hillsborough football disaster on April 15, 1989.
Tempany’s description for The Guardian is filled with morbid and moving accounts about an event which took place 27 years ago at the neutral venue of Sheffield Wednesday, featuring an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. The Leppings Lane stand, accessible only via one of seven turnstiles, became a death trap for Liverpool fans.
Last week’s proceedings at Warrington, the offspring of the Hillsborough Independent Panel of 2012 which found that Liverpool fans were in no way responsible for the carnage, were witnessed by some 200 people, numbered among the survivors, the grieving, and activists.
They witnessed coronial proceedings that found that spectators at the match had died of compression asphyxia, a situation compounded by a catastrophically inadequate response from the South Yorkshire metropolitan ambulance service and police personnel.
The most vital of the questions to be submitted to the jury involved whether members were satisfied “that those who died in the disaster were unlawfully killed”. The answer was an affirming yes.
The seventh question was also vital to proceedings. “Was there any behaviour on the part of football supporters which caused or contributed to the dangerous situation at the Leppings Lane turnstiles?” The answer to the coroner: No.
This was not the end of it. “Was there any behaviour on the part of supporters that may have caused or contributed to the dangerous situation at the Leppings Lane turnstiles?,” directed the coroner to the jury. “Is your answer no?” With some dread, supporters and activists waited. Then came the reassuring answer: “It is.”
The question was significant given suggestions, made at stages after the lethal event, that the deaths had been the consequence of the fans themselves, self-inflicted acts of suicidal, mob-directed horror. European football, and certainly English football, had developed a deep reputation for savage mob violence. It became the central point of reference for shoddy reaction on the part of authorities, an apologia for miscalculation, ineptitude and near criminal negligence.
Those who had made complaints to the unsympathetic police in the aftermath of the disaster were treated with varying degrees of contempt. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, for one, always felt there were enough police on duty.
The papers waged a concerted campaign in describing the event as one inflicted by villains and sporting brigands who had stemmed from a doomed second-class city. Eight years prior, chancellor Geoffrey Howe had suggested to the PM on financing Liverpool that “the option of managed decline is one we should not forget altogether. We must not expend our limited resources in trying to make water flow uphill.”
Rupert Murdoch’s The Sun was, as was to be expected, the most colourful. The editor at the time, Kelvin MacKenzie, made it his personal mission to smear and condemn the supporters, claiming that hooligan Liverpudlians had urinated in glee on brave police, pilfered from the dead and obstructed those keen to resuscitate the dying.
With the bodies still warm, he juggled two options of headline: “You Scum” or “The Truth.” Eventually, he went for the latter, despite warnings within the paper about the potential inaccuracy of the message. “Drunken Liverpool fans,” went the story, “viciously attacked rescue workers as they tried to revive victims of the Hillsborough soccer disaster, it was revealed last night.” To this day, most Liverpool shops boycott the intemperate rag.
The authorities also chipped in. A “pale and inarticulate” Chief Constable Peter Wright, to use a description of then home secretary Douglas Hurd, dug into the treasure trove of primordial themes – the fans at Hillsborough had been “animalistic” in their behaviour.
Sir Bernard Ingham, Margaret Thatcher’s press secretary, went for the more conventional line in a 1996 letter to Liverpool fan Graham Skinner that “there would have been no Hillsborough disaster if tanked up yobs had not turned up in large numbers to force their way in the ground.”
This manifest loathing of the yob of Liverpool, the primitive Scouse, persisted eight years later with the current mayor of London, Boris Johnson, who decided to weigh in with a few clumsy swipes when editor of the Spectator. “They see themselves whenever possible as victims, and resent their victim status; yet at the same time they wallow in it.”
On Hillsborough, Johnson could not resist noting that the deaths of 1989, while “a greater tragedy than any single death” did not “excuse Liverpool’s failure to acknowledge, even to this day, the part played in the disaster by drunken fans at the back of the crowd who mindlessly tried to fight their way into the ground that Saturday afternoon.” Rubbishing the Liverpudlian remained de rigeur.
This was class and attitude: the dead and the survivors were thugs who got what they deserved, and were irresponsibly shirking reality. Not even Johnson’s penitential journey to Liverpool, urged on by then Tory leader Michael Howard, could dispel that reality.
The inquest, however, found otherwise. It had taken years, a vale of tears, and the incessant presence of trauma, but the findings were indisputable. The next step, if it is to be taken, will occur in the criminal realm.
Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne. Email: bkampmark@gmail.com
Vas Venkatramani
Roar Guru
It was Jimmy - I should have pointed that out, but the perception caused by both Heysel and Hillsborough gave the impression hooliganism was far more rampant in England than on the continent.
JimmyB
Guest
Wtf? Why did you say that it could have happened to any club because of the hooligan culture rampant in English football? Hooligan culture was rampant in European football back then btw.
clipper
Guest
Not to mention 164 witness statements that were altered, plus the Suns involvement.
clipper
Guest
This is turning into a political debate - I'm well aware that the ends justify the means (although I think you've overestimated her accomplishments), but she was a very divisive PM. This atmosphere of 'them against us' is the very atmosphere that gave air to the way this incident was handled. It is to the supporters credit that they hung on until the real truth was uncovered.
Vas Venkatramani
Roar Guru
Do you think any one of those people wish they could hold onto their bitterness? They would rather have their loved ones back, and never have to go through it. But this happened, and you can't begrudge their desire these last 27 years to bring out the truth, and get some justice. The British legal system has failed them only until recently, and until those truly responsible are brought to trial for their crimes, the Hillsborough families deserve to feel aggrieved. There was plenty of criminal negligence going on, such as the decision by Duckenfield to order the opening of Gate C that lead straight to the already overcrowded Leppings Lane central pen, which he later claimed in testimony was forced open by Liverpool fans.Then there was the deliberate attempt by West Midlands Police to edit the original testimonies provided by the duty officers that day, meaning the original coronial inquest and Lord Justice Stuart Smith's Report found no fault with the police on that day. Then there was the lack of a clear emergency response, which meant only one ambulance out of 14 were able to enter the ground. Then for the final count, that despite holding 44% of all the available tickets for the game, Liverpool fans only had 28% of the turnstile access to the ground, and that too centering around the Leppings Lane end, where all those fans could only go through several turnstile, which was the catalyst for the disaster. The Hillsborough disaster, while personal to Liverpool FC, and to a large extent, Everton, is hardly a tragedy exclusive to them. This could have happened to any English club in the 80s, and any football fan who does not acknowledge this either does not have sufficient knowledge of the hooligan culture rampant in English football back then, or is living with preconceived bias against Liverpool Football Club.
Vas Venkatramani
Roar Guru
Hysteria Kaks? Can I ask what is hysterical about a group of families trying to clear baseless allegations of thuggery levelled at their dead loved ones? Justice has not been served yet, only the truth has. The truth is now that policing negligence, and a systemic process of cover-up, and media smearing all colluded together to create the wider disaster beyond what happened to 96 people on that day in Sheffield. Justice will be when the likes of David Duckenfield and others from South Yorkshire Police face criminal charges for manslaughter, plus for obstruction of justice, to name but two charges that could be levelled. Once these people serve the appropriate jail time, only then will justice be served. In the meantime, the Hillsborough Family Support Group have every right to continue their campaign.
Paul D
Roar Guru
I'd say that the Baroness wouldn't have given two hoots that a bunch of lefties and embittered unionists made a pathetic token gesture in buying an old Hollywood song to mock her. "If you set out to be liked, you will accomplish nothing." She had more guts and accomplished more than almost any Prime Minister in the 20th Century. Love her or hate her, she was by any measure an extraordinarily successful politician and Prime Minister.
clipper
Guest
Never said I was a socialist, but Thatcher was so hated that when she died 'Ding Dong the Witch is dead" almost topped the charts - don't think that would've happened if she was a fair and loved ruler.
cindy waters
Guest
I would not know this story if it was not still talked about. I was 24 in 89 and I live in the United States. It is a story that should be told and remembered for MANY reasons.
JimmyB
Guest
In your haste to have a pop at Poms, you appear to have lost the ability to form coherent sentences...if indeed you had that ability in the first place.
Waz
Guest
Criminal charges should be brought against anyone that lied or fabricated evidence to the various enquiry's that followed, 27 years was spent chasing the truth because people in authority behaved inappropriately. That at least is needed, otherwise any future incidents may well follow the same path.
Simoc
Guest
Its a complete nonsense. Trying to apportion blame 26years ago to be seen to be politically correct is just so typical of the Poms and here. It was a disaster and there were lies told. The lies were told after the disaster to avoid blame. Nothing new there. Next we will see grubs trying to cash in on someone elses misfortune. It's a human being weakness.
Tyrell Gains
Guest
The "mood"? Lol. You must be seriously deluded, even for a socialist, to be believe that.
Mark
Guest
I suggest you read the report The SOLE cause was INCOMPETENCE by the Police Who then attempted to Cover that up
clipper
Guest
She can be held accountable for the mood which allowed the scapegoating and hold up of justice which has only now occurred.
Paul D
Roar Guru
Agreed. “They see themselves whenever possible as victims, and resent their victim status; yet at the same time they wallow in it.” Never a truer word was spoken about Liverpool fans who still talk of Hillsborough. And as always, the truth hurts. But plenty will go to their grave having lived entire lives of aggrieved bitterness, and for what? It won't have brought back any of the 96 people who died. This farcical notion of justice and criminal charges is very dangerous in my view. Justice in this instance is the fact that Liverpool fans present on that day did not contribute to what unfolded. What it was caused by, was numerous and wide-ranging factors – of past knowledge of hooliganism, the culture at the time, outdated and prehistoric stadium infrastructure that was tolerated by clubs the length and breadth of the football landscape, the fear the authorities had of hooliganistic behaviour, and an inability for anyone to understand in time what was happening in those few brief brutal minutes when the tragedy was unfolding. Going back to that now, and attempting to lay criminal charges against an individual or organisation would be like trying to go back to Bradford stadium in 1985 and prosecute anyone who dropped rubbish or flicked a cigarette under the grandstands. Criminal charges requires the proving of malice of forethought, or criminal negligence. I doubt very much either can be proven beyond reasonable doubt, and therefore the best course would be for this to remain a tragic accident, a product of its time.
Kaks
Roar Guru
For the love of god can we stop with the hysteria about the 96. Justice has now been served and the people behind the cover up will soon be punished. Let's move on now shall we.
Worlds Biggest
Guest
Terrible indictment on the British Justice system. Fortunately closure has been sought for the aggrieved families. I will never forget the awful footage watching that game as a teenager. YNWA
Stadia Cooperoz
Guest
Regardless of the outcome the whole saga does not reflect well on the integrity of several groups. This is not like a case where DNA has come into play after the event. If we give credence to the final inquiry then t only confirms what the LFC fans and families said all along and by association condemns the integrity of police and public office holders. If the view is that give the LFC group what tthey want and wind it up because enough time has passed then that is totally unacceptable. The real lesson is that these matters should be dealt with properly without fear or favor in the first place. The tragedy of losing 96 people has been magnified by ruining the rest of so many people's lives because of the system failed to deal with it in the first place.
Tyrell Gains
Guest
The Orwellian mods at work again. My post said another PATHETIC attempt. Either allow it in full or just delete the post entirely. Don't twist my words.