With the publishing of the Hillsborough Independent Panel Report over 10 years ago and the subsequent fresh inquests into the disaster, which finished nearly 7 years ago with blame for the disaster squarely on the shoulders of South Yorkshire police, South Yorkshire Metropolitan Ambulance Service and Sheffield Wednesday Football Club, and Liverpool supporters exonerated of any blame, many in Britain and around the world considered the matter closed.
Many others, however, did not. The families of the dead, and survivors of the disaster, were determined to see those responsible for the disaster brought to justice. Other football supporters, and many not interested in the game of football at all were determined to continue to perpetuate the many hurtful and dangerous Lies around the disaster for a number of reasons: scoring political points, hurting supporters of an opposition team, prejudice and hate for the people of Liverpool generally, and that most pernicious of British constructs: “banter”.
What follows is a cheat-sheet for use in dispelling the Lies surrounding the disaster which have been used to hurt the bereaved and survivors directly, to disparage the city and people of Liverpool, and supporters of Liverpool Football Club, and to defend the indefensible institution of policing.
Background
The Hillsborough disaster was a football stadium disaster which occurred at the FA Cup semi-final at Hillsborough stadium in Sheffield, England on 15th April 1989. 97 Liverpool supporters were killed. In the aftermath of the disaster, South Yorkshire police constructed a narrative blaming Liverpool supporters for the disaster in order to deflect from their own failings following criticism of their role in the disaster in the hours and days after the event.
The day after the disaster, senior officers briefed Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her press secretary Bernard Ingham that, in the words of Ingham, a “tanked-up mob” had caused the deaths.
Some days later, South Yorkshire police officers, a South Yorkshire Police Federation spokesman and a local MP briefed a local news agency with allegations of widespread drunkenness, violence, theft and more against Liverpool supporters.
This culminated in several newspapers running these allegations on their front pages, most famously The Sun, which printed the allegations under the headline “THE TRUTH”. Despite these allegations being rejected by Lord Justice Taylor’s Interim Report into the disaster in 1990, the allegations remained in the public consciousness thanks to South Yorkshire police repeating them at the first coroner’s inquest into the disaster, which resulted in verdicts of accidental death for the 95 who had died up to that time.
Even with the publishing of the Hillsborough Independent Panel Report and the verdicts of the subsequent new inquest, these Lies remain a powerful presence, sung from the terraces by rival supporters and used by trolls on Twitter to hurt survivors and the bereaved.
Hopefully this piece will help Liverpool supporters and others to counter some of the more common lies on social media by providing relevant counters with reference to Lord Justice Taylor’s report and the Hillsborough Independent Panel Report where relevant.
Lie 1: “The same event was held the year before with no problems”
Problems at Hillsborough before 1989:-
1912 – overcrowding at Hillsborough stadium, then known as Overton stadium, causes a wall to collapse. 75 are injured with some fatalities possible
1934 – a man dies from crush injuries on the Leppings Lane terrace at Hillsborough
1952 – overcrowding at the Blackburn Rovers vs. Newcastle United FA Cup semi-final at Hillsborough
1956 – More injuries and overcrowding at Hillsborough, with police blaming fans arriving late
1957 – More injuries at the Birmingham City vs. Manchester United FA Cup semi-final at Hillsborough
1970 – Norman Bettison, a police officer involved in the coverup of the 1989 disaster, relates his own experience of crushing on the Leppings Lane terrace at the 1970 match between Sheffield Wednesday and Manchester City
1981 – 38 Tottenham Hotspur supporters are injured at the FA Cup semi-final match with Wolverhampton Wanderers at Hillsborough, with supporters spilling onto the perimeter track. Disaster was only averted when a police officer ordered the emergency gates in the fencing in front of the terrace to be opened. When the Sheffield Wednesday chief executive is told of the danger of fatalities, he responds: “Bollocks”. Following this near disaster, lateral fences were built on the terrace to restrict supporter movement (Hillsborough Independent Panel Report page 6)
1983 – Newcastle United supporters escape crushing on the Leppings Lane terrace by climbing over fences and up into the upper tier stand
1987 – Leeds fans are crushed at the FA Cup semi-final between Leeds United and Coventry City, despite kick-off being delayed for 15 minutes
1988 – Many complaints of overcrowding at the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest the year prior to the same fixture where disaster struck in 1989. Police match commander Brian Mole averts disaster by closing access to the Leppings Lane’s central pens
Thanks to the research of @wrong_kennedy on Twitter. Twitter thread can be found here: