Hillsborough: Duckenfield and others bid to stop prosecutions (found not guilty 28.11.19)

Hillsborough: Duckenfield and others bid to stop prosecutions
 
Six men including former police chief David Duckenfield have begun a legal bid to prevent them being prosecuted over the Hillsborough Disaster.
 
They have asked a judge at Preston Crown Court to halt any future prosecutions by claiming they are an abuse of the legal process.
A legal order imposed in 2000 would have to be lifted before Mr Duckenfield can face manslaughter charges.
The hearing is expected to last up to two weeks.
Mr Duckenfield faces 95 charges of gross negligence manslaughter following a fatal crush at the 1989 FA Cup semi-final which resulted in the deaths of 96 Liverpool fans.
For legal reasons, the 73-year-old cannot be charged over the death of the 96th victim Tony Bland as he died four years after the disaster.
The hearing will address the issue of a legal order - or 'stay' - imposed following a private prosecution 18 years ago halting future legal proceedings against the former chief superintendent.
The Crown Prosecution Service has applied for that stay to be lifted.
Lawyers representing the six men are expected to make their applications to judge Sir Peter Openshaw to have any forthcoming prosecutions halted.
The full list of individuals and charges are:
•   Mr Duckenfield, 73, faces manslaughter by gross negligence of 95 men, women and children
•   Sir Norman Bettison, 61, faces four charges of misconduct in a public office relating to alleged lies he told about his involvement in the aftermath of Hillsborough and the culpability of fans
•   Graham Mackrell, former Sheffield Wednesday club secretary, will be accused of breaching Health and Safety and Safety at Sports Grounds legislation
•   Peter Metcalf, who was a solicitor acting for South Yorkshire Police, is charged with perverting the course of justice, relating to alleged changes to witness statements
Former Ch Supt Donald Denton and former Det Ch Insp Alan Foster are accused of perverting the course of justice
 
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-44443369

Hi DougD,thanks for the article,if these named person's are allowed to escape being prosecuted over the HillBoruogh deaths,then i suppose the only thing that is left in the UK is anarchy?

I am Not abdicating that it should be carried out,but if Justice cannot prevail,you then have a breakdown in Society,don't you?

This would be due to a breakdown in the " State,Government" has run out of Rules to Govern its own Legislators in successful prosecutions?

Millions of pounds have been spent on Inquiries,Independent reviews due to these persons actions,now they are standing behind " State legislation" so as Not to be prosecuted for their Actions,you couldn't make this shit up,could you!?

I state this as they tried to" Cover up" for who was to be held responsible for crowd safety at the event blaming the Fans attending the event?

96 Families have been affected by the lie,machinations eminating from successive UK Governments,Conservative and Labour,Jack Straw,Home Secretary?

Now the "State,Leglislation" being used to "Pervert The Court Of Justice"?

Hillsborough police chief David Duckenfield cleared of manslaughter

4 minutes ago


David Duckenfield was in charge of policing the 1989 FA Cup semi-final

Hillsborough match commander David Duckenfield has been found not guilty of the gross negligence manslaughter of 95 Liverpool fans in the 1989 disaster.
Former South Yorkshire Police Ch Supt Duckenfield, 75, was in charge of the FA Cup semi-final in which 96 fans were fatally injured.
Men, women and children were crushed on the Leppings Lane terrace.
Mr Duckenfield, of Ferndown, Dorset, was cleared after a seven-week retrial at Preston Crown Court.
Due to the law at the time, there can be no prosecution over the death of the 96th victim, Tony Bland.
This is because he died more than a year and a day after his injuries were caused.
The jury at Mr Duckenfield's original trial earlier this year failed to agree a verdict.

• Live reaction as David Duckfield is cleared of manslaughter
  
• Timeline of the 1989 stadium disaster
  

Barry Devonside, whose son Christopher, 18, died in the disaster, said: "I'm shocked and stunned by the verdict of the jury.
"We, the families, have fought for 30 years valiantly."
Paul Robinson, whose brother Steven was killed in the stadium crush, said: "As a family we would like to thank all those who have supported us over the years in our quest for justice and accountability.
"We firmly believe that we have done everything in our power to do right by our Steven and we walk away from this case with our dignity and our heads held high."
Mr Duckenfield's wife, Ann, went over to comfort her husband in the courtroom.


  Image caption  The people who lost their lives in the Hillsborough disaster 

Analysis

Judith Moritz, BBC North of England correspondent
The acquittal of David Duckenfield is the latest twist in the history of a disaster which has lasted 30 years. For all that time, the families of those who died, and the survivors of the crush, have campaigned for justice and accountability.
David Duckenfield has now stood trial 3 times. The first two juries - in Leeds 19 years ago, and in Preston earlier this year - were unable to reach verdicts. Now, at the third time of asking, a jury has made a clear decision about the Hillsborough match commander's criminal liability.
He was charged with the gross negligence manslaughter of 95 Liverpool fans at an FA Cup Semi Final in Sheffield in 1989. Legally, the 96th victim, Tony Bland, could not be included in the prosecution as he died nearly 4 years later.
Mr Duckenfield did not dispute that he ordered the opening of a gate at Hillsborough to let fans in, or that he failed to close the tunnel to the terraces which were already full. In 2015 at the Hillsborough Inquests he accepted that this was the direct cause of the 96 deaths. But an inquest is not a criminal court, and so it was for another jury to decide whether Mr Duckenfield's mistakes amounted to gross negligence manslaughter.
The crown's case was that the Chief Superintendent's failings were so extraordinary that they met that test.
But the jury accepted the defence case that the 75 year old was a target of blame who was unfairly singled out for prosecution.
He will now be able to resume his life in retirement on the south coast. But the Hillsborough families and survivors will find the outcome hard to take… and will ask hard questions about the £65m spent on a criminal investigation which has ended with no one convicted for so many lives lost.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-50592077

It is clear that even talking about Hillsborough outside the "Official Liverpool Story" is on a par with thinking about Madeleine Beth McCann outside the "official McCann version of The Truth" or asking questions about racial differences, or about whether it is even possible to change from one gender into another.

It has become a new Orthodoxy, and Heresy is punishable, as we all understand and have seen demonstrated.

The fences were there and the supporters treated like cattle because of their appalling behaviour for the decade before.

The Police and authorities made bad mistakes, the cover-up was terrible.

But the fans - ESPECIALLY the Liverpool fans (Heysel) - bear responsibility.

But you can't openly say that without danger of persecution.

The fact that after the verdict the families say they feel "let down" is indicative that they will never accept a proper verdict, arrived at after long consideration of the facts by an independent body of people.
They have their own view, and made it clear by the death threats against Duckenfield during the proceedings - which few papers have reported. 

Much has been written in the part about Liverpool's Victim Mentality.   Some trace it back to the creation of the Manchester Ship Canal, which destroyed their monopoly of trade in the North with the Americas and the payment of taxes.   Others to the influence of generations of unskilled Irish immigration.

Hillsborough was a ghastly tragedy whose genesis is more complicated than even a few weeks in a court room can begin to unfold.  Every incident leads back to a decision which leads back to the information available, which leads back to the interpretation of previous information . .  probably as near ad infinitum as we care to look.

The original prosecution which included H&S people, stadium designers, FA and other decision makers was closer to the point.   But once Duckenfield was in the dock on his own there was no way the entire burden could be heaped upon his shoulders.   He was a small cog, and to a large extent as we have written earlier, was a victim of the system by which Senior Officers have to collect diverse entries on their CVs to move up.

His first 30 years of retirement have not been good.

I'm a bit lost as to the charges brought about after such a long time.

I remember the Hillsborough disaster very well.

I also remember the Ibrox disaster.

What has caused a change in statements to bring about an expensive and long trial in the UK justice system which singles out retired Police officers?

Duckenfield retained his protection to the end and gained an acquittal in 2019 against the charges laid.
We, the people know there was a conspiracy to pervert the course of Justice by South Yorks Police.
His deputy and minions though are now in the firing line and will be dragged through the courts. Denton et al seem to have lost their protection. Why, we don't know. Perhaps they are deemed to be the sacrificial pawns to appease the proles.
So how does one associate this to the McCanns or Operation Grange when this conspiracy finally falls apart?
The McCanns can only be dealt by the Portuguese, who seem disinterested in the long game.
So the UK masters will need to avoid rioting on the streets [as per KM].
Lord Hogan Howe is safe [see Lords], but as to the others; the Grange Met cops may well become the sacrificial pawns for some drawn out internal review leading to a legal action.
I do hope Gerry will be kind with generously releasing Maddy funds, to support those in need of legal support!

The McCanns could be dealt with by the English system for Fraud and Conspiracy to Pervert 
IF and only IF, of course, it could be shown that they knew Madeleine was dead.

But the Hillsborough one is interesting.
At some point they must have been formally arrested, interviewed under caution, and then charged.
Were we are of that ?

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/hillsborough-accused-altered-witness-statements-to-cover-up-police-failings-j8sp7l8ww

Hillsborough accused ‘altered witness statements to cover up police failings’
David Brown
Tuesday April 20 2021, 1.45pm BST, The Times



Liverpool fans at Hillsborough trying to escape severe overcrowding during the match against Nottingham Forest in 1989
DAVID GILES/PA

A lawyer and two senior police officers altered witnesses statements to cover up failings during the Hillsborough disaster, a court was told today.

Peter Metcalf, a former solicitor, Donald Denton, a retired South Yorkshire police chief superintendent, and Alan Foster, a former detective chief inspector, are charged with intending to pervert the course of justice.

The accusations are linked to the deaths of 96 Liverpool fans crushed during the FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest at the Hillsborough stadium in Sheffield in 1989.

Sarah Whitehouse QC, for the prosecution, said: “These three tried to minimise the blame that might be heaped upon the South Yorkshire police at the many different forms of inquiry that followed that dreadful day.

“They did this by altering accounts given by police officers who were present on the day.



“They knew that those accounts were inevitably going to end up being sent to a number of inquiries that would follow the disaster.”

Metcalf advised on alterations to the accounts and the senior officers ensured the changes were made, the jury at the Lowry theatre in Salford was told.

Whitehouse said: “The name of Hillsborough is known throughout the land as the scene of a terrible disaster. The name has, though, also become connected in the minds of many, mainly through media coverage, as linked with cover-ups and attempts to hide the real facts.”

Metcalfe, 71, and Denton, 83, along with relatives of the victims and some of the lawyers sat in the theatre’s tiers of red velour boxes. Mr Justice William Davis sat on the stage with Foster, 74, and the barristers sitting at desks on a platform constructed over the stalls’ seats.





The judge explained that the trial was being held in the Lowry because of the backlog of cases caused by the pandemic.

“Today it is not a theatre, it is a courtroom and the seriousness and solemnity of this process is no less,” he said. “This is a very significant trial, significant to very large numbers of people.”

Photographs of Liverpool fans outside the turnstiles of Leppings Lane terrace and a crush of supporters in the central pens were shown to the jury.

Metcalf, then a partner in solicitors’ firm Hammond Suddards, was asked to act for Municipal Mutual Insurance, the insurers of South Yorkshire police, because of the expected substantial compensation claims, the court was told.

He was also asked to act for the force at the inquiry into the disaster headed by Lord Justice Taylor and to represent it in any civil litigation.

West Midlands police were appointed to gather evidence for the Taylor inquiry and the inquests into the supporters’ deaths.

Officers on duty on the day of the disaster had been asked for written accounts for Metcalf and South Yorkshire police’s legal team. When the statements were requested by the West Midlands investigators the solicitor recommended altering some of them, the court was told.

“The effect of the alterations was to mask failings on the part of South Yorkshire police in their planning and execution of the policing of the football match,” Whitehouse said.

The trial continues.

Another silly question but after so long why has the trial been scheduled to take place in a theatre during a pandemic?

The regular courts are stuffed with a backlog of several years of 'normal' shoplifters, shirt lifters, stabbings, street robberies, drug dealing, drug possession, and contested speeding offences.
And it demonstrated that the government are "Doing Something". ?  Like the Nightingale Hospitals, the majority of which either didn't open, or did, but had not a single patient to look after. And are now quietly being closed.

They had no staff either, of course, nor equipment, but that is another story.

A bit like the speed courts set up in South Africa to reassure visitors to the World Cup that all is safely gathered in.

I am at a loss as to why any judge would preside in a theatre.

Will judges rock up at empty warehouses next?

Mail and others

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9620595/Two-police-officers-forces-lawyer-cleared-perverting-case-justice.html


"The three men were each accused of two counts of doing acts tending and intended to pervert the course of justice and it was alleged they were involved in a process of amending officers' statements to minimise the blame on South Yorkshire Police following the disaster at the FA Cup semi-final on April 15 1989, in which 96 Liverpool fans died.


But in a ruling handed down at the Nightingale court at the Lowry theatre in Salford on Wednesday, judge Mr Justice William Davis said the amended statements were intended for a public inquiry into safety at sports grounds led by Lord Justice Taylor, but that was not a course of public justice.
He concluded there was no case fit for consideration by the jury based on any of the six counts on the indictment."

and ltater
'However, whatever the anxiety and distress, I have to determine whether there is evidence to support the particular criminal offence with which these defendants have been charged.'
'In concluding that there is not, that is all I do.'
The trial had heard statements were amended to remove criticism of the force.
But expert witness Sir Robert Francis QC told the jury there was no legal duty of candour for police at a public inquiry.

I'm a bit lost as to how statements can be altered for the purposes of an inquiry.

‘No case to answer’, yet it was accepted that they changed their statements to deflect blame.
 
So no cover up or blame, but the forces have already agreed to pay damages over the cover-up and it couldn’t be reported until after the end of the trial!

Confused? Don't be. That's the legal system for you.
 
 
Hillsborough: Police forces agree cover-up compensation for victims
36 minutes ago
 
 
Two police forces are to pay damages to more than 600 people over a cover-up which followed the Hillsborough disaster, lawyers have said.
 
The South Yorkshire and West Midlands forces agreed the settlement earlier this year following a civil claim.
 
Nobody has ever been convicted over police actions following the disaster, in which 96 Liverpool fans died in a crush at a 1989 FA Cup semi-final.
 
Three men were acquitted of altering police statements in May.
Former South Yorkshire Police Ch Supt Donald Denton, 83, retired Det Ch Insp Alan Foster, 74, and Peter Metcalf, 71, who acted as a solicitor for the force, were accused of trying to minimise the blame placed on the force in the aftermath of the disaster.
 
They were each charged with two counts of perverting the course of justice, relating to the amendment of police statements.
The men went on trial but were acquitted of the charges after a judge ruled they had no case to answer.
 
A spokesman for Saunders Law, the lead solicitors for the group litigation, said the civil claim for misfeasance in a public office was started in 2015.
It was agreed in April but could not be reported until the conclusion of the trial.
The spokesman said: "[The] victims sought justice and accountability for the deliberate, orchestrated and thoroughly dishonest police cover-up that suppressed the truth about the responsibility of the police and blamed the football supporters for the horrific events that unfolded".
He added there had been "an almost complete failure of the justice system to deliver justice" and called on the government to implement a Hillsborough Law, which would include a duty of candour for public officials.
The disaster at Sheffield Wednesday's stadium, which was later investigated by West Midlands Police, remains the UK's worst sporting disaster.
Many families and survivors have since led a campaign for more than 30 years to discover how and why the victims died.
In 2012, then-chief constable of South Yorkshire Police David Crompton apologised for a cover-up following the publication of the Hillsborough Independent Panel report.
 
New inquests, which concluded in 2016, found that the men, women and children who died were unlawfully killed and fans played no part in the causes of the disaster.
Lawyers said the cover-up caused additional psychiatric injury to the survivors of the disaster and the families of those who died.
The Saunders spokesman said: "The settlement of these claims marks the end of an unparalleled and extraordinary fight for justice by the victims and their families.
"We trust that this settlement will put an end to any fresh attempts to rewrite the record and wrongly claim that there was no cover-up."
 
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-57356486

Was it all about money and a payout?

Is that really what it boiled down to?

Liz Eagles wrote:I'm a bit lost as to how statements can be altered for the purposes of an inquiry.

me too, applies to another case not so far away..

Liz Eagles wrote:Was it all about money and a payout?

Is that really what it boiled down to?

Yes.

Still no mention of the "innocent Liverpool Supporters" who arrived late and drunk, and tried to force the Leppings Lane gate 
when the turnstiles were not fast enough FOR THEM.  
They were all going to be allowed access if they had tickets, but the match had started. That is how late they were.
They know perfectly well that it takes a finite time to get people through Victorian cast iron turnstiles, but no matter, they were going to get in

No mention of them them charging down the tunnel under the stand and forcing their way forward, causing the crush
They used to do it on the terrace in the east Stand at forest when I was a very young PC, but then it was just for fun, to crush 
the children against the low wall at the front.

But Liverpool has a victim mentality inherited from the opening of the Manchester Ship Canal in 1893 !