Huge coverup of fatal British police bungling

British Prime Minister David Cameron has apologised to the families of the 96 victims of the 1989 Hillsborough football stadium disaster for the "double injustice" they suffered.

Following the release of thousands of documents, he told parliament on Wednesday the Liverpool supporters had suffered not only from official failings that led to the deaths, but also from police attempts to blame the victims.

"On behalf of the government - and indeed our country - I am profoundly sorry for this double injustice that has been left uncorrected for so long," a sombre Cameron said in a statement to lawmakers.

He was speaking after the Hillsborough Independent Panel, a seven-member body led by the Bishop of Liverpool, published a report into Britain's worst sporting disaster following a review of previously unseen files.

"With the weight of the new evidence in this report, it is right for me today as prime minister to make a proper apology to the families of the 96 for all they have suffered over the past 23 years," Cameron said.

"Indeed, the new evidence that we are presented with today makes clear that these families have suffered a double injustice. "The injustice of the appalling events - the failure of the state to protect their loved ones and the indefensible wait to get to the truth. "And the injustice of the denigration of the deceased -- that they were somehow at fault for their own deaths."

The panel found that police "significantly amended" 164 statements, including the removal of 116 negative comments about the leadership of the police, to push the blame for the tragedy onto the fans, Cameron said.

The tragedy was caused by massive overcrowding in the Leppings Lane End of Sheffield's Hillsborough stadium at the 1989 FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest.

To ease overcrowding outside the Leppings Lane End, police opened an exit gate, allowing supporters to flood into the central pens. Fenced in, fans were crushed to death.

The city of Liverpool will hold a two-minute silence from 3:06pm (1406 GMT) - the time the match was called off - as a mark of respect to the victims, ahead of a a candle-lit vigil.

Liverpool's current captain Steven Gerrard has condemned the authorities for covering up the truth about the Hillsborough stadium disaster for 23 years. "For 23 years they have fought for truth and justice on behalf of the victims and survivors of this terrible tragedy and all Liverpool supporters," Gerrard said.

"Victims and survivors suffered not just on April 15, 1989 in Sheffield, but for over two decades afterwards with the shameful slandering of their actions by people who abused their position and power."

Gerrard's 10-year-old cousin Jon-Paul Gilhooley was the youngest fatality at the FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest, with most victims crushed and suffocated in a standing-room-only section at Sheffield Wednesday's stadium.

A government-appointed panel that reviewed the papers found that injured fans were denied medical treatment that could have saved their lives. Panel member Dr Bill Kirkup said 41 fans had the "potential to survive".

"Speaking as someone whose family directly suffered, I know the pain and hurt will remain," Gerrard said.

The editor of Rupert Murdoch's British tabloid The Sun at the time of the Hillsborough stadium disaster has apologised for a running a story 23 years ago that blamed fans for the tragedy.

Kelvin MacKenzie said he had been "totally misled" into running a front-page story with the headline "The Truth", together with false claims that supporters picked the pockets of victims and urinated on police.

"Today I offer my profuse apologies to the people of Liverpool for that headline," he said in a statement issued hours after an independent panel published a report revealing a huge police cover-up of the tragedy.

"It has taken more than two decades, 400,000 documents and a two-year inquiry to discover to my horror that it would have been far more accurate had I written the headline The Lies rather than The Truth. "I published in good faith and I am sorry that it was so wrong."

Original report here

More details here. Some cops may now be prosecuted.



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