1989
27 March Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police, Peter Wright, will replace Captain Brian Mole, the experienced commander of football matches at Sheffield Wednesday’s Hillsborough Stadium. Wright promoted David Duckenfield to replace Moll.
15th April Nineteen days after Duckenfield’s appointment, 54,000 people attended the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. 97 men, women and children were badly injured in this deadly attack.
1st August Lord Justice Taylor’s official report on the disaster strongly attributed the incident to police mismanagement and criticized South Yorkshire Police for blaming Liverpool supporters rather than accepting responsibility. Wright says he fully accepts the findings.
1990
30 August The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decides that there is not sufficient evidence to justify criminal proceedings against any individual from any organization for any offense arising from the deaths.
october South Yorkshire Police admitted that they were negligent and failed in their duty of care to those who attended the match, the bereaved families and to settle civil claims brought by those injured.
19 November The first inquest began in Sheffield, heard by the local coroner, Dr Stephen Popper. South Yorkshire Police renewed their case blaming intoxicated supporters arriving late and without tickets.
1991
28 March The inquest jury returned a majority verdict of accidental death.
29 October Duckenfield retired on medical grounds due to suffering from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
1992
13 January Disciplinary action against the police control box commander in Hillsborough, Superintendent Bernard Murray, has been dropped.
1993
5 November A judicial review application by six representative families to quash the inquest decision has been rejected by Lord Justice McCowan in the Divisional Court. McCowan rules that the investigation was properly conducted. The family continues to campaign for justice.
1996
5th December ITV airs a drama documentary written by Jimmy McGovern, researched by journalist Katy Jones, which powerfully exposes the families’ injustice and allegations of police cover-up.
1997
30 June The new Labor government orders an “investigation” into the new evidence by Lord Justice Stuart-Smith. It has been found that South Yorkshire Police changed 164 officers’ accounts of the disaster before sending Taylor for questioning. According to a civil service note made public in 1997, the then Home Secretary Jack Straw did not believe there was enough evidence to warrant a new investigation, but said such a claim would have to come from an independent source such as a judge to be “acceptable”. The then Prime Minister, Tony Blair, wrote in the note about setting up a new inquiry: “Why? What’s the point?”
1998
13 February Stuart-Smith rejects any grounds for overturning the prosecution or investigation. Straw accepts that conclusion.
2009
12 April Twenty years after Hillsborough, the Guardian highlighted the families’ grievances and complaints of injustice. The then Labor Ministers Andy Burnham and Maria Eagle called for all documents related to the disaster to be published.
15th April Burnham’s speech at the 20th anniversary memorial service at Anfield is interrupted by the crowd’s call for “justice for the 96”. His call for disclosure is supported by Gordon Brown’s government.
2012
12 september The Hillsborough Independent Panel, which reviewed the 450,000 documents disclosed, has published its report. Its lead author is Professor Phil Scranton, who has worked since 1989 to document miscarriages of justice and miscarriages of justice. The failures of the police have been exposed, and their campaign to blame supporters has been further exposed. Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron apologized to the families in parliament. The Home Secretary, Theresa May, accepts the report and orders a new criminal investigation into the disaster, Operation Resolve. The Independent Police Complaints Commission subsequently launched an investigation into alleged misconduct by police in the presented case.
19th December The verdict of the first inquiry into the sudden death has been quashed by the Lord Chief Justice, Igor Judge and two other judges, who found that the investigation was not properly conducted.
2014
31st March New inquest opens at Birchwood, Warrington. Together they lasted more than two years, the longest case ever heard by a jury in British history.
2016
26 April The inquest jury delivers its verdict. It asked for answers to 14 questions, and concluded that the 96 people who died in the disaster were unlawfully killed by Duckenfield due to manslaughter committed by gross negligence. The 97th victim, Andrew Devine, died in 2021.
The jury found that “errors and omissions” throughout the police operation that day contributed to the causes. Errors and omissions by the South Yorkshire Metropolitan Ambulance Service were also found to have contributed to the disaster.
As police alleged, no behavior by Liverpool supporters contributed to the dangerous situation at the Leppings Lane turnstiles. This, ultimately, led to a widespread acquittal of supporters whom the police blamed for the disaster.
The investigation found that defects in the stadium’s construction and layout contributed to the disaster, and that the stadium’s lack of a valid safety certificate also contributed, as did Sheffield Wednesday FC’s preparations for the match.
On the question of whether the club’s actions on the day of the game were a contributory factor, the jury could not say definitively but said it might.
2017
29 June Following Operation Resolve, the CPS charged Duckenfield, the police officer who officiated the match, with manslaughter by gross negligence. The charge relates to the 95 people killed in Hillsborough. No charges could be brought in connection with the death of Tony Bland, the 96th victim, due to the passage of time before he died in 1993.
Graham Mackrell, secretary and safety officer of Sheffield Wednesday Club at the time of the disaster, has been charged with two counts of breaching his duties under safety legislation.
November 1st Bishop James Jones published a report commissioned by May, the Home Secretary, which aimed to learn lessons from the difficulties of the Hillsborough families and prevent future cover-ups and miscarriages of justice following public tragedies. It makes recommendations for wide-ranging reforms across 25 “learning points”, including a charter establishing a “duty of candor” for police and public officials to assist openly and transparently in investigations and inquiries following a major incident.
2019
14 January Duckenfield’s trial began at Preston Crown Court. Both men are on trial along with the 75-year-old McCrell, who has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Opening the prosecution’s case, Richard Matthews QC says: “Duckenfield’s criminal responsibility for the deaths… arises from his gross failure to discharge his personal responsibility as match commander.” Ben Myers QC, defending Duckenfield, said he was being “unfairly singled out”.
3 April After deliberating for eight days, the jury failed to reach a verdict on Duckenfield’s charges. McCrell was found guilty by a majority of 10-2 of breaching his legal duty to take reasonable care at work for the safety of people, in relation to the allocation of turnstiles for the match.
Matthews told the judge, Sir Peter Openshaw, that the CPS would seek a retrial for Duckenfield on the same charges. Mackrell was fined £6,500 after pleading guilty.
25th June Just a month after the 30th anniversary of the disaster, Openshaw ruled that Duckenfield must face a retrial, which begins at Preston Crown Court in October.
7 October Duckenfield’s retrial begins. The proceedings are broadcast live to the Cunard Building in Liverpool to allow survivors and victims’ families to more easily attend.
28 November After the jury deliberated its verdict Duckenfield was found not guilty of murder by gross negligence. Openshaw had previously told the 10-member jury that he would accept a majority verdict, to which at least nine of the 10 jurors agreed.
2021
25 may The trial of two former South Yorkshire Police officers and the force’s lawyer at the time of the disaster, on charges of perverting the course of public justice, relating to amending officers’ statements after the disaster, has been stopped by a judge and the three men acquitted.
4th June South Yorkshire and West Midlands Police have agreed a settlement with more than 600 people to compensate them for a false police campaign which aimed to avoid responsibility for the disaster and instead blame the victims, which bereaved families have always said was a cover-up.
The forces will compensate families whose relatives were among the men, women and children unlawfully killed at Hillsborough, and compensate survivors of the disaster for trauma and psychological damage.
21st July A coroner believes 55-year-old Andrew Devine died of severe brain damage suffered during the crush at Hillsborough, and so he is, after 32 years, the 97th person to be unlawfully killed.
2023
6th December The Government has responded to Bishop James Jones’ report by apologizing to ministers for taking six years to do so. It signs and adopts the charter recommended by Jones, and the duty of candor is to be included in the code of conduct for police officers.
However the government rejects the families’ proposals for a “Hillsborough law”, which would impose the duty of candor as a legal responsibility, and provide equal funding to public authorities for legal representation at inquests for bereaved families.
2025
16 september The Hillsborough Law has been introduced into Parliament by the Labor government of Keir Starmer, which establishes a statutory duty of “candor, transparency and clarity” for police officers and forces, public officials and authorities.
2 December The Independent Office for Police Conduct publishes its investigation report into the Hillsborough disaster and its aftermath.
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