Tony Evans: 'Emotions remain raw for those of us who were at Hillsborough'

Tony Evans26 April 2016

The emotions are still raw 27 years on. What happened on the Leppings Lane end at Hillsborough on April 15, 1989 when 96 Liverpool supporters were killed in a completely avoidable crush has finally been laid bare. It didn’t need to be this way.

The result of the second inquest into the deaths ruled that the victims were unlawfully killed. For the families of those who died, it is vindication. They have fought relentlessly to overturn the original coroner’s verdict of accidental death. For those of us who were there, who were accused of causing the disaster, the verdict comes as a relief. For nearly three decades, the lie persisted that Liverpool fans, drunk and violent, caused the carnage on the terraces. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The central issue of Hillsborough is not about football. It is about public safety. The tribalism of the national sport and the instinctive urge of the British public to place their trust in the police has obscured this. What happened in Sheffield that day was a complete breakdown of the emergency services. Then, the individuals responsible for this breakdown conspired to skew the narrative of the day to evade responsibility for their actions.

Hillsborough should have been used as a case study for future generations. It should have been a learning tool for the emergency services to ensure that a similar incident never happens again. The airline industry provides the template for how good can come out of the most catastrophic disasters. Plane crashes are studied in the most forensic manner to find exactly what caused the situation and steps are then taken to try and ensure no repeat situation occurs. This so-called ‘Black-box thinking’ has created massive advances in airline safety.

Hillsborough Disaster - In pictures

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Instead, it was easier to demonise the dead and the survivors and write the tragedy off as another example of the barbarism that surrounded football. Too many people were too eager to accept this explanation. It’s hard to be too critical of those who eagerly swallowed the misinformation. After all, they came from people that you should be able to believe: men at the highest levels of government and senior policemen.

Yet the lies were so great, so gruesome, that it defies belief that people could give them credence. Over the years, many people have questioned me about what happened that day. A significant amount of them were skeptical of my account and brought up some of the propaganda of 1989: that Liverpool fans without tickets broke down the gates, that they stole from the dead, urinated on bodies and even molested a dead girl. I always asked them a simple question: would you do that? No one ever said yes. The follow-up question invariably left them speechless: if you wouldn’t, why would you think I would? There was never an answer.

You should be able to trust the police and the ambulance services.

You should be able to attend a public event in the knowledge that the authorities will do their best to make the environment safe and have a plan to deal with any emergencies.

That level of belief is crucial to any parent who lets their child attend a concert or a sporting event.

Any time a loved one goes to a large public gathering, we rely on the authorities to provide a framework for their safety.

This is the trust the South Yorkshire police broke in 1989 and continued to undermine in the subsequent cover-up. They tested one of the dead, Jon-Paul Gilhooley to see if he had alcohol in his blood in a concerted attempt to place the blame on drunken fans. Jon-Paul was 10 years old. It is one of many horror stories that emerged from that dreadful day.

Trust could have been restored immediately if senior police officers, politicians, Sheffield Wednesday FC and the Football Association would have accepted responsibility for their mistakes.

There will be prosecutions as a result of the unlawful killing verdict. Police investigations are already under way. We are still a number of years from drawing a line under the Hillsborough disaster. Many people wonder why the fight continues. Often, the relatives and campaigners are told to “let it go” and “move on”. That would be wrong.

Not only do the families and those of us who were there have a responsibility to those who died, they have a duty to ensure no one else has to suffer in the way they have suffered. To give an idea of what they have gone though, consider this: if the tragedy happened today and the same timeline occurred, the truth would emerge in 2043. It is mindboggling.

Hillsborough is not about Liverpool. It is not about football. It is about all our safety. And it’s about taking responsibility for your actions. That is why it will continue to be important and the emotions will remain so raw.

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