Hillsborough: Mum Prevented From Seeing Body

The mother of two girls who had just died in the Hillsborough disaster says she was refused permission to see the body of one of them "because she was the property of the coroner".

Jenni Hicks, who's daughters Sarah, 19, and Vicki,15, were crushed in the tragedy, was giving evidence at the joint inquests into the 96 who were killed.

She described how, once the match had been abandoned, she eventually made her way to a temporary mortuary at the stadium gymnasium.

She told the inquests she was assured there had been no girls inside, only to discover later that fifteen-year-old Vicki had been taken there.

Mrs Hicks described how she then waited for her family at an agreed rendezvous point next to the stadium and was eventually taken by a social worker to Sheffield's Northern General hospital where she discovered that Vicki had died.

She said: "At the hospital when they told me about Victoria I asked if I could see her and I was told no I wasn't allowed to see her because she was the property of the coroner.

"She was nothing to do with me."

She told the inquests that later that day she found the bodies of both girls back at the temporary mortuary.

"I actually got down on the floor on my knees.

"First of all I hugged Vicki and I remember that she was quite cold and then I hugged Sarah.

Earlier in the hearing there were emotional scenes as a former policeman broke down while trying to reassure Mrs Hicks and her husband Trevor about the treatment of one of their daughters.

Russell Greaves was an off-duty officer from Lincolnshire and attended the 1989 football match as a spectator.

Because of his first aid training he helped to carry Sarah onto the pitch from the overcrowded terraces where she and Vicki had been crushed.

Mr Greaves then gave Sarah mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and helped to carry her across the pitch on a wooden advertising hoarding to get medical help.

He told the inquests: "The situation in my mind was that this was such an horrendous event that was taking place that I as an individual wanted to do something positive and not give in."

But he eventually had to close Sarah's eyes after being told by a medical team at the Hillsborough stadium that she was dead and "beyond help."

Through their barrister, Sarah's parents thanked Mr Greaves for his help.

In tears he said: "I know that just mere words cannot comfort Jenni and Trevor Hicks or remove their sense of loss, pain and utter devastation but I would like to take this opportunity to say to them that I did my very best for Sarah in the circumstances.

"I could not have done more.

"For the time I was with Sarah she was with someone who cared and Sarah was not alone."

Another witness, former ambulance man Andrew Lawson, told the inquests he heard Mr Hicks shouting and screaming about his dying daughters: "Help me!

"They've all I've got. Help them!"

Yesterday Mr Hicks told the inquests how he desperately battled to save his daughters after finding them lying together on the football pitch.