Victims’ relatives again left to face claims that
Liverpool fans contributed to tragedy at 1989 FA Cup semi-final
For the Hillsborough families whose 96 loved ones were killed so horrifically at a football match on a sunny spring day in 1989, a 30-year battle for the truth and accountability has culminated in another outcome they find impossible to accept. They fought for 21 years against the first inquest verdict of accidental death in 1991, finally seeing it quashed in 2012. Then in April 2016, the jury at the new inquests determined that the 96 people were unlawfully killed by the gross negligence manslaughter of the South Yorkshire
police officer in command, Ch Supt David Duckenfield, to a criminal standard of proof.
Yet now, following a grim, painful trial and retrial at Preston crown court, in which the families accused the judge of not being impartial, the jury at his prosecution has found him not guilty of, in effect, the same offence: gross negligence manslaughter.