Hillsborough documents to be released

[Flight]

Hundreds of official documents about the Hillsborough disaster are to be made public for the first time, the Home Office has confirmed.

 

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has met with South Yorkshire's chief constable Meredydd Hughes to discuss waiving the 30-year-rule into official documents.

 

Ninety six Liverpool supporters died in a crush at Sheffield Wednesday's Hillsborough stadium on April 15, 1989 where their team was to meet Nottingham Forest in an FA Cup semi final.

 

The 20th anniversary of the tragedy, Britain's deadliest sporting disaster, was marked with memorial services in all three cities last Wednesday.

 

Thousands of Liverpool supporters chanted "Justice for the 96 " when Andy Burnham, the minister for sport, read a speech at the service held at Anfield.

 

Mr Burnham later repeated his call for the 30-year rule to be waived.

 

The victims' families have been fighting for further inquiries into the deaths.

 

They believe a Major Incident Plan was never initiated by South Yorkshire police and fans in the Leppings Lane end were denied emergency medical attention.

 

The families also dispute the findings of the single inquest into all 96 deaths, which ruled the victims were all dead, or brain dead, by 3.15pm and subsequently recorded a verdict of accidental death.

 

They say it is an injustice that no individual or organisation has every been held fully to account for the disaster.

 

The documents covered by the 30-year-rule could include police files and the records of other emergency services, Government departments and the local authorities.

 

The families say they are particularly keen to see the minutes of a meeting between then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and senior South Yorkshire police officers which they say took place on the Sunday morning after the disaster.

 

Trevor Hicks, of the Hillsborough Families Support Group, said: "We believe that a decision was made at that meeting that the police would not be blamed for what happened.

 

"We would like to see the minutes of the meeting, to know what the Prime Minister was told and what decisions were taken about the handling of any inquiries."

 

Mr Hicks added: "The claim that all the 96 were dead at 3.15pm has never been accepted."

[Billy Dane]

Great news if and when this happens. Just hope the files are not "doctored" first. As has also been mentioned elsewhere it will be interesting if they release the minutes of meetings between Thatcher and the police.

[Tommok]

Great news if and when this happens. Just hope the files are not "doctored" first. As has also been mentioned elsewhere it will be interesting if they release the minutes of meetings between Thatcher and the police.

 

Can't help thinking anything "too controversial" will have been removed from the records - they'd have known even at that time it was potentially dynamite.

 

Fingers crossed it helps though.

Edited April 19, 2009 by TommoK

[Cliff M]

I hope the full documentation will be released.

 

I believe it will be censored/incomplete.

 

I know our society is riddled with corruption, especially in positions of responsibilty.

[Behind Enemy Lines]

Yorkshire Police claim nothing to hide

linkity

 

The chief constable of South Yorkshire tonight denied any police cover-up in the Hillsborough disaster and said he hoped to be able to release large amounts of information.

 

Meredydd Hughes said South Yorkshire police held 300 boxes of material on the tragedy, not all of which was in the public domain. "South Yorkshire police has no secrets, has a lot of information that we hope can be made public and, if it's ­possible to do so, we will," he told BBC Look North.

 

Hughes rejected accusations that police had to tried to hide evidence on the 1989 disaster in which 96 Liverpool supporters died at Sheffield Wednesday's Hillsborough stadium when their team was to play Nottingham Forest in an FA Cup semi-final.

 

"If I thought there had been a cover-up I would already have dealt with it. I don't need an anniversary to make me want to put right an injustice. I didn't join the police force to be part of conspiracies and cover-ups and I never have done," he said. The home secretary, Jacqui Smith, has said hundreds of official documents about the tragedy could be made public 10 years early.

 

The Guardian revealed last week that two ministers, culture secretary Andy Burnham and Maria Eagle, the justice minister, would ask for full disclosure of all public bodies' documentation relating to Hillsborough.

 

Asked if he thought there should be new inquests into the deaths, Hughes, who is due to meet Smith , said: "I would be highly surprised if there's anything in these files after 20 years that causes such a major reappraisal of the disaster."

[Barabis]

to be honest I think anyone with anything to hide would have destroyed the incriminating evidence at the time. The most we can hope for is the oversight of a small but perhaps significant detail which may have been overlooked at the time. This may not be such a long shot when you consider the large amount of paperwork involved.

[Flight]

to be honest I think anyone with anything to hide would have destroyed the incriminating evidence at the time. The most we can hope for is the oversight of a small but perhaps significant detail which may have been overlooked at the time. This may not be such a long shot when you consider the large amount of paperwork involved.

 

 

Probably true, mate.

 

I'm just hoping they will re-evaluate the ruling on the 3.15 cut off time. There exists plenty of evidence to counter that, including the evidence of the PC and WSPC who helped Kevin Williams well after that time. As most of us know, their statements were changed for the inquest, they were never called to give evidence, yet they stand by their original statements.

 

 

If the establishment is not prepared to address this then the whole thing is just being done for PR.

[smithdown]

Yorkshire Police claim nothing to hide

linkity

 

The chief constable of South Yorkshire tonight denied any police cover-up in the Hillsborough disaster and said he hoped to be able to release large amounts of information.

 

Meredydd Hughes said South Yorkshire police held 300 boxes of material on the tragedy, not all of which was in the public domain. "South Yorkshire police has no secrets, has a lot of information that we hope can be made public and, if it's ­possible to do so, we will," he told BBC Look North.

 

Hughes rejected accusations that police had to tried to hide evidence on the 1989 disaster in which 96 Liverpool supporters died at Sheffield Wednesday's Hillsborough stadium when their team was to play Nottingham Forest in an FA Cup semi-final.

 

"If I thought there had been a cover-up I would already have dealt with it. I don't need an anniversary to make me want to put right an injustice. I didn't join the police force to be part of conspiracies and cover-ups and I never have done," he said. The home secretary, Jacqui Smith, has said hundreds of official documents about the tragedy could be made public 10 years early.

 

The Guardian revealed last week that two ministers, culture secretary Andy Burnham and Maria Eagle, the justice minister, would ask for full disclosure of all public bodies' documentation relating to Hillsborough.

 

Asked if he thought there should be new inquests into the deaths, Hughes, who is due to meet Smith , said: "I would be highly surprised if there's anything in these files after 20 years that causes such a major reappraisal of the disaster."

 

Due to meet Smith when? Those files should already be in her hands, she's the feckin home secretary. 7 days have passed and there's been feck all done about it?

 

Doesn't look good this at all. "hope can be made public"? "if it's possible to do so"? He's already bang at it. Burnham, Smith, Eagle and Brown should be making statements telling him who is in feckin charge. He's clearly prejudicing the process.

[ManxRed]

Due to meet Smith when? Those files should already be in her hands, she's the feckin home secretary. 7 days have passed and there's been feck all done about it?

 

Come on, it takes a while to go through 300 boxes and work out which bits to shred and which are OK to leave where they are.

[Koogan]

Quite surprisingly, this was reported in the morning TV news here in Finland yesterday.

[smithdown]

Gone a bit quiet all this

[Des]

Gone a bit quiet all this

 

Too busy shredding their expenses receipts.

[smithdown]

Maybe if Burnham's wife threatened to leave him he might actually get on with it.

[StuGib]

Gone a bit quiet all this

You just know the Tories are going to re-bury this when they get in. Clock's ticking.

[GWistooshort]

From the Liverpool Echo today...............

 

Expert archivists needed to explore secret Hillsborough files

May 22 2009 by Luke Traynor

 

EXPERT archivists will have to be employed to study the huge dossier of secret Hillsborough disaster documents, MPs said today.

 

Members of the Hillsborough Family Support Group (HFSG) met four Merseyside MPs last weekend to be informed of the progress of the disclosure of the hidden files.

 

Derek Twigg, Peter Kilfoyle, Dave Watts and George Howarth sat down with the families of the 96 victims who died in the tragedy 20 years ago.

 

The MPs will now report back the wishes of the HFSG to “keep the process moving” in a meeting with home secretary Jacqui Smith next month.

 

It has emerged the government is considering using specialist archivists to sift through the hundreds of boxes, which contain never-been-seen-before evidence.

 

It was suggested files could be transferred on to computers to more easily scrutinise the volume of material from South Yorkshire Police and the county’s ambulance and fire services.

 

Mr Twigg said he hoped files would be available before the end of the year.

 

The Halton MP, a Liverpool fan who attended the 1989 semi-final and sat in the North Stand, said: “Jacqui Smith has promised to come back to us as soon as possible. We do not know the size of this task or the whole issue of how the material has been archived.

 

“There will be a lot of work getting it in the correct format and archivists and other experts will be employed to do that.”

 

Following public pressure after the 20th anniversary memorial service at Anfield, the government called for the emergency services to release previously unseen files.

 

South Yorkshire Police admitted they have up to 300 boxes of documents and other files held by Sheffield council and Sheffield Wednesday FC could also be disclosed.

 

HFSG president Trevor Hicks said: “We expect the process to be moving by the time we hold our next meeting in a month.”

 

On Saturday, a match will take place between local Liverpool fans and Norwegian Reds supporters to raise money for the Hope For Hillsborough campaign.

 

The game kicks off at 1pm at Aintree Villa’s ground, in Melling Road, Aintree.

 

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-f...00252-23686620/

[Des]

You just know the Tories are going to re-bury this when they get in. Clock's ticking.

 

They'd have a vested interest in doing so since the Tory govt at the time tried to persuade Taylor and his people to minimise the blame laid at the police's door.

[Molby]

They'd have a vested interest in doing so since the Tory govt at the time tried to persuade Taylor and his people to minimise the blame laid at the police's door.

 

 

they should lay all the blame at Thatcher's door and come clean

 

that would be good PR

[Behind Enemy Lines]

they should lay all the blame at Thatcher's door and come clean

 

that would be good PR

& then burn her as a witch on the pier head.

I'd buy a ticket.

[Raj]

They'd have a vested interest in doing so since the Tory govt at the time tried to persuade Taylor and his people to minimise the blame laid at the police's door.

 

Will that change your vote?

 

[Murphman]

they should lay all the blame at Thatcher's door and come clean

 

that would be good PR

 

 

It's ex Home Secretary Michael Howard is the problem, like Duckenfield and Thatcher he's still alive but he's still active. Having said that I don't think the Tories would give a toss to be frank, they're trying to distance themselves from the excesses of the Thatcher years and I can't see them standing in anybody's way. Apart from that this government should have this sorted well before the next election, why does severything have to f*cking drag on so log, with the will to show even a modicum of urgency I'll bet this could be sorted by now.

Edited May 24, 2009 by Murphman

[GWistooshort]

It's ex Home Secretary Michael Howard is the problem

 

Is that self-confessed Liverpool fan Michael Howard?

[Coyler]

Is that self-confessed Liverpool fan Michael Howard?

"Self-proclaimed", Shirley, on a Liverpool forum!

[The walters step over]

Yorkshire Police claim nothing to hide

linkity

 

The chief constable of South Yorkshire tonight denied any police cover-up in the Hillsborough disaster and said he hoped to be able to release large amounts of information.

 

Meredydd Hughes said South Yorkshire police held 300 boxes of material on the tragedy, not all of which was in the public domain. "South Yorkshire police has no secrets, has a lot of information that we hope can be made public and, if it's ­possible to do so, we will," he told BBC Look North.

 

Hughes rejected accusations that police had to tried to hide evidence on the 1989 disaster in which 96 Liverpool supporters died at Sheffield Wednesday's Hillsborough stadium when their team was to play Nottingham Forest in an FA Cup semi-final.

 

"If I thought there had been a cover-up I would already have dealt with it. I don't need an anniversary to make me want to put right an injustice. I didn't join the police force to be part of conspiracies and cover-ups and I never have done," he said. The home secretary, Jacqui Smith, has said hundreds of official documents about the tragedy could be made public 10 years early.

 

The Guardian revealed last week that two ministers, culture secretary Andy Burnham and Maria Eagle, the justice minister, would ask for full disclosure of all public bodies' documentation relating to Hillsborough.

 

Asked if he thought there should be new inquests into the deaths, Hughes, who is due to meet Smith , said: "I would be highly surprised if there's anything in these files after 20 years that causes such a major reappraisal of the disaster."

 

And he STILL hasn't addressed the question of just who it was that gave the Sun the "urinating,stealing and charging the gates" stories, when it was decided to smear the fans and cause people that had lost loved ones even more grief instead of acknowledge failures in their system of coping on the day. Or why the coroner, on the biggest case of his life, forgot to question the one ambulance driver that was allowed into the ground to help.

 

I fully expect relative minor issues to come to light - criticism from their own officers over lines of communication between those in charge and the officers present, lack of equipment etc. S. Yorkshire will then give an apology that in their eyes will end the matter and the questions about the lone ambulance, the "Truth" smear campaign, the missing tapes of the CCTV cameras will be lost forever.

[Lark]

anyone from here going to london on this protest march?

[Berger]

Out of interest, if Tories were to take over the parliament, would our chance of appeal slimmer?