Bereaved families criticise ending of Hillsborough stadium disaster trial in Britain
- Ninety-six Liverpool football fans died in a stadium overcrowding disaster in 1989
- A British judge ended the trial of two former police officers and an ex-lawyer on charges of perverting the course of justice
Families of 96 Liverpool football fans who died in a stadium overcrowding disaster in 1989 criticised a British judge’s decision to end the trial of two former police officers and an ex-lawyer on charges of perverting the course of justice.
After four weeks of evidence, Judge William Davis told jurors in Salford, northwest England, that he agreed with lawyers for the defendants that there was no case they could properly consider.
That decision brings to an end the families’ 32-year fight for justice for their loved ones who died on April 15, 1989, during the crush at an FA Cup semi-final match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at Hillsborough Stadium The deaths initially were ruled accidental – a ruling overturned in 2012 after a new, wide-ranging inquiry.
“We’ve got the death certificate with 96 unlawfully killed but yet not one person has been held to account,” Margaret Aspinall, whose 18-year-old son James died in the disaster, said at the Hillsborough memorial at Liverpool’s Anfield stadium.
“To me that’s a disgrace on this nation, on the British system, on the law,” she added. “I’m absolutely so devastated today for the hard work that the families have put in for all of these years.”