Opinion

Emotional moment as Hillsborough families finally get justice

A giant banner is unveiled at St George's Hall in Liverpool after an inquest jury ruled the 96 victims in the Hillsborough disaster had been unlawfully killed
A giant banner is unveiled at St George's Hall in Liverpool after an inquest jury ruled the 96 victims in the Hillsborough disaster had been unlawfully killed A giant banner is unveiled at St George's Hall in Liverpool after an inquest jury ruled the 96 victims in the Hillsborough disaster had been unlawfully killed

IT was an emotional moment when the jury in the Hillsborough disaster returned their verdict this week.

Emotional even as an observer, I can only imagine how it felt for the families of those who had waited 27 years and 11 long days for justice and for a city that has never stopped mourning.

As the relatives stood outside Warrington court house, where the two-year long inquest had taken place, and sang Anfield anthem You'll Never Walk Alone, one woman looked to the sky while clutching a picture of her loved one.

While the campaigning families, who never gave up their quest for justice already knew the truth - that the 96 football fans who died were unlawfully killed - any suggestion that they may have contributed to their own deaths has now been removed.

The jury decided police commander Chief Superintendent David Duckenfield's actions amounted to "gross negligence" due to a breach of his duty of care to fans on the day of the disaster.

Police also delayed in declaring an emergency situation and therefore the ambulance response to the unfolding horror at the Hillsborough stadium during a match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest was fatally slow.

The decision to open the Leppings Lane gate proved catastrophic - all things that have been highlighted before but now that negligence has been officially acknowledged.

The formidable families of the 96 victims have won the admiration of many for their refusal to bow down to the power of the establishment.

When the Hillsborough Independent Panel’s findings - published on September 2012 - paved the way for the new inquests there was hope that the discredited inquests of 1990/1991 could be overturned.

That hope is now reality.

Both the panel investigation, inquests and now fresh criminal investigation amount to the biggest inquiry of its type in British history.

The families have waited 27 years, a lifetime and more for some of those that died. Of the 96 victims, 71 were aged between 10 and 27 at the time.

There were 58 children left without a parent following the tragedy. Among the dead was Inger Shah (38) a single mother who regularly travelled from London to support Liverpool, after her death her two children were taken into care.

Some of those who fought like lions for the truth didn't live to see Tuesday's verdict.

Anne Williams, who campaigned for justice for her beloved 15-year-old son Kevin even throughout her battle with cancer, died in 2013.

She dedicated her life to challenging flawed medical evidence accepted at the original inquest, and its verdict of accidental death. She always rejected the inquest's 3.15pm evidence "cut-off" because she discovered her wee boy died in the arms of special police constable, Debra Martin, at 4pm. Just before he died, he called out for his mother.

Tuesday's verdict should act as her legacy.

On Tuesday the names of the dead were read out in turn as the jury delivered the cause of death in each case, a difficult but important moment.

Back then the Thatcher administration did all in its power to cover up any official wrongdoing and blame was wrongly attributed to the victims.

The wait isn't over, it could be another year before the CPS decide if criminal charges are to be brought against those who were negligent on that day. Had affirmative action been taken the independent review panel found 41 lives may have been saved.

Needless deaths, long waits and arduous fights for justice, smearing of victims and family members who have literally died waiting on answers.

All sounds depressingly familiar doesn't it?

Here in Northern Ireland innocents also died needlessly albeit it in a very different environment and amid political turmoil.

However, the British government's response was remarkably similar, in fact the response in diverting blame from the establishment and onto victims had been a well used tactic in operation since the early 1970s.

I hope the findings on Tuesday will give some peace and help with the healing of those families who lost loved ones and the hundreds more injured on that awful day.

It should also serve as a reminder that justice has no sell by date and when victims refuse to be silenced and a community are determined to support their quest for truth then anything is possible.