The 96 liverpool football fans who were crushed to death in overcrowded sections at Hillsborough Stadium in 1989 were “unlawfully killed” in a disaster caused by police actions, a jury concluded on Tuesday.
The police force responsible for the stadium in the northern English city of Sheffield said “we unequivocally accept the verdict,” while apologizing for their failings to families who have spent 27 years campaigning for the police to be officially blamed.
Relatives of the victims of the disaster chanted “Justice for the 96” and sang the liverpool club anthem, “You'll Never Walk Alone,” outside a specially-built courtroom after the conclusion of two years of fresh inquests into Britain's worst sportingdisaster.
By the end of the year, police plan to conclude a separate criminal investigation into wrongdoing by authorities at the April 1989 FA Cup semifinal match between liverpool and Nottingham Forest at the stadium where second-tier English club Sheffield Wednesday still plays.
The Crown Prosecution Service said it will then “formally consider whether any criminal charges should be brought against any individual or corporate body.”
Families have fought to ensure authorities were held to account after being angered by the verdicts of accidental death at the original inquests. Those verdicts were overturned in 2012 following a far-reaching inquiry into the disaster that examined previously secret documents and exposed the wrongdoing and mistakes by police.