Justice for the 96. [Archive]

AntonioLFC08

3rd June 2008, 04:11 AM

96campaign - epetition reply 2 June 2008

We received a petition asking:

"We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to 'Re-open the enquiry into the Hillsborough Disaster, where 96 innocent football fans lost their lives through incompetent policing, resulting in Lies and cover ups and blame unjustly on the innocent dead."

Details of Petition:

"The history of Hillsborough begins with the deaths of 96 people and the physical and mental injury of countless others. However it does not end there. The enormity of the Disaster goes beyond even this. The history of Hillsborough becomes the history of injustice, of cover-up, and collusion. We need the truth to be revealed and Chief Inspector Duckenfields role in the unfolding disaster exposed and his actions brought to justice. The bereaved and survivors of the Disaster will long be remembered for the heroic stances they took against the might of bureaucratic forces in the name of justice. Please sign this petition, not as a Liverpool fan, but for the injustice to the 96 football fans, who no longer to get to watch their beloved team, and the greaving families & friends who have to live with the injustice, the lies, the cover-ups & blame, driven through the media, of their loved ones."

Read the Government's response

Thank you for the e-petition, about re-opening the inquiry into the Hillsborough Disaster.

The Government understands the abiding pain felt by those who lost loved ones in this disaster. As we come up to the 20th anniversary of the disaster in April next year, the whole country will join in remembering the unbearable tragedy suffered by the city of Liverpool on 15 April, 1989.

As you know, the Hillsborough disaster was the subject of an immediate and thorough public inquiry by Lord Taylor in April 1989, which sought to identify the causes of the disaster and make recommendations to avoid such a disaster ever happening again.

Subsequently, a private prosecution was launched by the Hillsborough Family Support Group against former Chief inspector Duckenfield and former Superintendent Murray, the policemen in charge on the day. However, neither were found guilty as a result of that prosecution.

Following that, in June 1997, Lord Justice Stuart-Smith re-examined the evidence from the Taylor Inquiry and the Inquests as well as other material from police records to determine whether there was sufficient evidence to bring criminal charges against any individual for their part in the tragedy.

In particular, he considered whether there was any basis for the allegations that police statements were altered to cover up police failures on the day, or whether there was any missing or concealed videotape evidence, or any interference with witnesses. He concluded that the evidence submitted to him did not add anything significant to the evidence previously available, and that there was no evidence to support the allegations made of a 'cover-up'.

In these circumstances, unless there is further new evidence that has not been considered previously, there is no provision in the law for a further inquiry to be initiated.

We are deeply sorry that this will be a disappointing reply for the many hundreds of people who lost family members and friends in the Hillsborough tragedy, and for the hundreds of thousands of other Liverpool fans across the world who felt those losses as their own.

However, in these circumstances and in the absence of any new evidence, we could not hold out any hope that a further inquiry would reach any different conclusions than those previously conducted.