Disaster police to go on trial

TWO FORMER senior police officers were sent for trial yesterday on manslaughter charges relating to the Hillsborough stadium disaster.

The private prosecution against former Chief Superintendent David Duckenfield and former Superintendent Bernard Murray is the first criminal case arising from the 1989 incident in which 96 people died.

Members of the Hillsborough Family Support Group, which brought the prosecution, were at Leeds magistrates to hear the ruling that the men should stand trial at Leeds Crown Court on 24 August.

The men, both retired from South Yorkshire Police, are accused of the manslaughter of John Alfred Anderson, 62, and James Gary Aspinall, 18, who died at the Sheffield Wednesday ground, and also of wilfully neglecting to carry out a public duty.

They were both granted bail.