by The city of Liverpool hosted several days of recognition for the families of the 97 people unlawfully killed at Hillsborough as their long and agonizing legal battle finally turned towards justice, but in recent years it has been bleak and difficult.
Since the government took six years to respond to the 2017 report it commissioned from James Jones, the former bishop of Liverpool, aimed at learning lessons from the Hillsborough scandal, the day of publication was always likely to fall in the series later of letdowns. rather than celebrating.
The family members who gathered at a Home Office building near Liverpool’s waterfront to inform them of the government’s actions responded with the resolution that was at the insurmountable core of their 34-year cause. Margaret Aspinall – whose 18-year-old son James was one of the 97 people killed at the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest on 15 April 1989 – called for the full implementation of the recommendations of a “law Hillsborough” of families.
“What do we have today?” she asked. “Ninety-seven innocent people were unlawfully killed and not a single person was held accountable. This is completely disappointing. We must [the] Hillsborough Law.”
Charlotte Hennessy, who was six when her father Jimmy, 27, died at Hillsborough, said: “We don’t want anyone to go through what we went through, and this is not the end.”
The Hillsborough law was developed after the 2016 verdict from the new inquest into how the horrific overcrowding and deadly crush at the stadium happened. The jury rejected a campaign of lies by South Yorkshire police, who tried to blame the victims for the disaster rather than take responsibility for their own significant failings.
Twenty-seven years after the disaster, and 25 after the first accidental death inquest verdict, the jury found that the victims were unlawfully killed by grossly negligent manslaughter by the South Yorkshire police officer in charge, Superintendent David Duckenfield, and that Mr. Liverpool supporters were faultless.
The Hillsborough law proposals would introduce a legally enforceable “duty of candor” for police and all public authorities to assist in major incident investigations, and equal public funding for legal representation of bereaved families at inquests and inquests.
The draft law is aimed at ensuring that others do not suffer police cover-up, disrespect and horrific abuse, as the Hillsborough families did, and they have continually impressed upon the government their commitment to this as a positive legacy of their struggle a nightmare
The government accepted the response to the Jones report with a slightly insulting apology for taking so long, and rejected the Hillsborough law proposals. His argument is that police officers’ codes of conduct now include a duty of honesty, and, on increasing legal aid funding for inquests, the government has only said it would consult.
The main takeaway is that the government has signed the “charter for families bereaved by public tragedy” proposed by Jones, taking it completely verbatim, with its promises that ministries will be open and transparent, fully supportive and honest with investigations after public tragedies, and “not knowingly misleading the public or the media”.
As the families grappled with this, Boris Johnson was giving evidence to the Covid inquiry.
Jones’ desire was to encourage real culture change, but it is unclear how government departments will follow through on the commitment to openness and transparency they have recently signed. The families have long argued that the duty of honesty needs legal force, and Elkan Abrahamson, who represented 22 families at the 2014-16 inquest, said the new measure merely provides for a meaningless code of conduct for police.
The wintry air of disappointment was another contrast to the triumphs Liverpool have seen since their breakthrough in 2009 at a packed Anfield commemoration on the 20th anniversary of the disaster. The crowd’s protests and chants for justice strengthened the resolve of the then Labor Minister, Andy Burnham, to try to address the legal impasse.
On 12 September 2012 the results of the process initiated by Burnham, the report of the Hillsborough Independent Panel (HIP), chaired by Jones, was published at Liverpool Anglican Cathedral. It is remembered as the “day of truth” by campaigners, and resulted in the termination of the first inquest. Following the birth of the inquiry in April 2016, a vigil was held in Liverpool, with the words “truth” and “justice” lit up on the front of St George’s Hall.
But since those highlights, and the 2017 Jones report, the families have once again become disillusioned with the justice system. Duckenfield was acquitted in 2019 of a criminal charge of grossly negligent manslaughter, and three former officers charged with perverting the public course of justice for altering police statements were acquitted in 2021 after the judge found the charges unfounded.
It left families wondering about the outcome of a 32-year legal process: no one was found guilty of any offense for the unlawful killing of 97 people at a football match, and no police officer was held accountable for the campaign of lies that followed.
Keir Starmer has said that Labor is committed to bringing in the Hillsborough law if elected, so the families are determined to continue to make their case and work towards another day of protection in Liverpool.
