Hillsborough police chief does not accept he admitted failings, court told

The South Yorkshire police officer in command at the 1989 FA Cup semi-final at Hillsborough when 96 people were killed does not accept he has clearly previously admitted his failings caused the disaster, his barrister has told a jury.

Benjamin Myers QC, making his closing speech in defence of the former Ch Supt David Duckenfield to a criminal charge of manslaughter by gross negligence, said the prosecution had taken “out of context” Duckenfield’s evidence to the 2014-16 inquests into the disaster. Myers added it was not unfair at this trial to criticise another police officer, Insp Harry White. Duckenfield said at the inquests that it was unfair to criticise White and that he did not blame him.

At the inquests, in March 2105, into the 96 deaths at the semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest, Duckenfield, now 75, agreed under questioning that he had made a series of failures and had fallen below the standards of a reasonably competent match commander.

Myers told the jury at Preston crown court that these answers were made with the benefit of hindsight, and that explanations he gave have been disregarded and to present them as admissions of failure is “very unfair and very inaccurate”.

The prosecution alleges that Duckenfield was grossly negligent after he ordered a large exit gate to be opened to alleviate a crush at the 23 Leppings Lane turnstiles, which had been allocated to the 24,000 people with tickets to support Liverpool. Duckenfield, the jury has heard, did not take steps to close a tunnel which led people into the crowded central “pens” of the Leppings Lane terrace where the lethal crush took place.

At the inquests, Duckenfield was asked by Paul Greaney QC, representing the Police Federation, about the failure to close the tunnel and his view of White, who was in charge of two “serials” of officers in the area around the tunnel: “Whatever the cause of your failure, whether freezing or ignorance, it was your failure and nobody else’s; do you agree?” Greaney asked. “Yes, sir,” Duckenfield replied.

“You said that you do not at all seek to blame Insp Harry White or … serials 14 or 15 for the failure to close the tunnel. That’s your position, is it not?” Duckenfield said: “I don’t blame anyone, sir.”

Greaney asked: “Any reasonable person reading your assertions in the past may have taken it that you were criticising Insp White and his serials?” Duckenfield said: “That’s a possibility, sir.”

“Can we take it that you have realised that any criticism of those serials or their inspector would be unfair?” He replied: “It would be unfair, sir.”

Myers told the jury at Preston crown court that it “isn’t unfair” to criticise White, and it was “more than a possibility” that he should be criticised.

Of Duckenfield’s answer to Greaney that it would be unfair, Myers said: “That’s Mr Duckenfield dealing with this question at that time at the inquests.”

Myers asked the jury of eight women and three men to return a not guilty verdict, saying there were many failings that caused the disaster, for which Duckenfield was not responsible. These included the safety flaws at the Leppings Lane terrace, a “defective” police plan which Duckenfield inherited, an “impossible” allocation of seven turnstiles for the 10,100 people with standing tickets to support Liverpool, “unexpected late arrivals” of large numbers of Liverpool supporters and failing police radios. Myers, of the prosecution case, said: “That isn’t gross negligence manslaughter, that is grossly unfair.”

The judge, Sir Peter Openshaw, began his summing up of the evidence by telling the jury to “put aside” emotion and sympathy, “and decide the case with a cold, calm and dispassionate review of the evidence”.

He will continue his summing up on Friday.