The city of Liverpool hosted landmark days of cleansing for the families of the 97 people unlawfully murdered in Hillsborough, where a long and agonizing legal battle finally led to justice, but recent years have been bleak and difficult.
Given it took the government six years to respond to a 2017 report from Liverpool’s former bishop James Jones that sought to draw lessons from the Hillsborough scandal, publication day is always likely to coincide with a newer set of disappointments. rather than celebrations
Gathering at a Home Office building on the Liverpool waterfront to learn about the government’s measures, family members responded with the determination that forms the indomitable core of their 34-year-old case. Margaret Aspinall, whose 18-year-old son James was one of 97 people killed during the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest on April 15, 1989, called for the families’ “Hillsborough law” proposals to be fully implemented.
“What do we have today?” asked. “Ninety-seven innocent people were killed unlawfully and not a single person was held accountable. This is completely disappointing: we need [the] Hillsborough law.”
Charlotte Hennessy, who was six when her father Jimmy, 27, died in Hillsborough, said: “We never want anyone to go through what we went through and this can’t be the end.”
The Hillsborough law was developed following the decision in 2016 of the new investigation into how the horrific overcrowding and deadly crush at the stadium occurred. A jury has rejected a campaign of lies by South Yorkshire police, which sought to blame victims for the disaster rather than take responsibility for its own colossal failures.
Twenty-seven years after the disaster and 25 years after the initial verdict of an inquest into accidental death, a jury found that 97 people were unlawfully killed by South Yorkshire police officer Chief Supt David Duckenfield for gross negligence manslaughter. Liverpool fans were innocent.
The Hillsborough bills would introduce a legally enforceable, positive “duty of honesty” on the police and all public authorities to assist with investigations into a major incident and provide equal public funding for the legal representation of bereaved families at inquests and inquests.
The draft legislation aims to ensure that other people are not subjected to police cover-ups, disdain and appalling mistreatment as the Hillsborough families did, and they have relentlessly impressed upon the government their commitment to this as a positive legacy from their nightmare struggle.
The government accompanied its response to Jones’ report with a rather abject apology for taking so long and rejected the Hillsborough legislative proposals. Their claim is that a duty of honesty is now included in police officers’ codes of conduct and that the government will only consult on increasing legal aid funding for investigations.
The key measure is that the government has signed the “Charter for Families Bereaved by a Public Tragedy” proposed by Jones, adopting it fully and word for word, making commitments that ministries will be open and transparent, assisting fully and honestly with investigations following public tragedies, and “Public and not to knowingly mislead the media.”
While families were digesting this, Boris Johnson was giving evidence to the Covid investigation.
Jones’s wish was to encourage real culture change, but it is unclear how government departments will deliver on their newly signed commitment to openness and transparency. Families have long argued that the duty of honesty needs legal force, and Elkan Abrahamson, who represented 22 families in the 2014-2016 inquests, said the new measure “simply provides a meaningless code of conduct for the police”.
The mood of winter disappointment was a further contrast to the triumphs Liverpool have heralded since a packed Anfield commemoration in 2009 on the 20th anniversary of the disaster. The crowd’s protests and chants of justice strengthened then-Labour Minister Andy Burnham’s determination to find a solution to the legal impasse.
The fruits of the process initiated by Burnham were published at Liverpool Cathedral on 12 September 2012, when the report of the Hillsborough Independent Panel (HIP), chaired by Jones, was published. This incident, dubbed “the day of truth” by campaigners, led to the initial investigation being abandoned. Following the inquest verdict in April 2016, a memorial service was held outside St George’s Hall in Liverpool, where the words “truth” and “justice” were illuminated.
But since those summits and Jones’ 2017 report, families have begun to feel renewed frustration with the justice system. Duckenfield was acquitted of manslaughter by gross negligence in 2019, and three former police officers accused of perverting the course of public justice over altered police statements were acquitted in 2021 after a judge ruled the charges had no basis.
This left the families pondering the outcome of the 32-year legal process: No one was charged for the unlawful killing of 97 people at a football match, and no police officer was held responsible for the ensuing campaign of lies.
Keir Starmer said Labor was determined to enforce the Hillsborough law if elected and that is why the families have decided to continue their case and work for another day of exoneration in Liverpool.