Hillsborough trial: Risk of deadly crush was ‘obvious’ before disaster, court hears
Prosecutors say hindsight not necessary to identify failings in crowd management after 1981 crush
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The risk of Liverpool fans being crushed to death at Hillsborough was “obvious” long before the start of the 1989 FA Cup semi-final in which 96 people died, a court has heard.
A prosecutor at the trial of Hillsborough match commander David Duckenfield told Preston Crown Court that the danger was shown by a series of previous overcrowding incidents, and made worse by the failings Mr Duckenfield and Sheffield Wednesday club secretary Graham Mackrell.
“There was an obvious, serious and very present risk of death from crushing to those entering the Leppings Lane area of the stadium,” Richard Matthews QC told the jury on Wednesday.
“It involves no hindsight to recognise that if there is a need to prevent too many people from entering a particular wholly confined area, bounded by metal fencing, that is to avoid crushing and that with crushing comes the real risk of death.”
The court was played footage of the hours and minutes leading up to the disaster on 15 April 1989.
The footage showed a crush developing outside the turnstiles in Leppings Lane as Liverpool fans tried to enter the stadium in time for the 3pm kick-off.
The fenced pens behind the goal, where the disaster would unfold minutes later, were already full but prosecutors said police “did nothing” to stop more spectators from flooding in.
The court heard that lives were saved in a crush at Hillsborough stadium eight years before the disaster because gates at the front of pens three and four were opened as an escape route.
A jury deciding whether match commander David Duckenfield was responsible for the deaths of 95 victims was told police vowed to “learn lessons” from the averted tragedy in 1981.
A letter from South Yorkshire Police to the chairman of Sheffield Wednesday in June 1981 said “letting spectators onto the track was not only necessary, but was vital to avoid further serious injuries and possibly save life ... the searching examination should be in regard to why such emergency action was ever necessary”.
Police officers on duty in the 1988 FA Cup semi-final match, also played between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at Hillsborough, said a tunnel leading to pens three and four was closed off by officers to prevent overcrowding.
But a year later, the tunnel into the pens remained open and the escape gates shut, as 96 people suffered fatal injuries.
The court also heard that Hillsborough stadium’s safety certificate had not been updated since 1979, despite changes to the layout including new fences splitting the West Terrace into pens.
An expert witness is to tell the jury that Sheffield Wednesday’s designated safe capacity for the fenced areas had been “overstated from the outset”, by thousands.
Mr Matthews said the 23 turnstiles designated to 24,000 Liverpool fans entering the stadium from Leppings Lane were not enough for them to enter safely in the time given.
He told the jury that a plan drawn up before the match made clear that 10,100 people passing through turnstiles A to G would immediately be faced with the central tunnel leading to pens three and four.
It was marked “standing” with a large sign above, and although two other tunnels to the left and right led to the terrace, the signage was too small to be seen.
Mr Matthews said that to carry out reasonable care as match commander, Mr Duckenfield should have identified the “obvious hazard” posed by the layout.
He added that an electronic counting system on the turnstiles showed that half an hour before the match, only 40 per cent of Liverpool supporters had entered the stadium but the kick-off was not delayed.
The court heard that the turnstile system had been installed “primarily to deter fraud, rather than for safety”.
Mr Duckenfield, now 74, denies gross negligence manslaughter and Mr Mackrell, 69, denies two health and safety offences.
Ninety-four of the 96 victims died on the day of the disaster, while Lee Nicol passed away as a result of his injuries two days later.
There can be no prosecution over the death of the 96th victim, Tony Bland, as he died more than a year and a day after his injuries were caused.
The trial continues.
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The system counted people through the turnstiles. There was also an "electronic eye", like a light beam, above the turnstile to record any people jumping the barriers without passing through. When 90% of an area's capacity was reached, the screen would change colour so the club control room could advise the police and ground staff to shut turnstiles down and move people to other areas with spare capacity, Mr Matthews says.
What was termed an "illegal entry" was captured in a separate column on the counting screen, Mr Matthews says. The prosecution has the print-out from the counting system that was produced at the end of the event.
The document, shown to the jury, shows the zone marked Leppings Lane recorded 7,262 people through the turnstiles. The total number of spectators was counted as 48,894 by the turnstile system.
A breakdown of the Leppings Lane zone is being shown to the jury, listing the number of people counted through turnstiles A to G.
Mr Matthews is telling the jury details of the internal Sheffield Wednesday telephone system, and showing a phone in the club control room.
The jury is being shown the view from the police control box over the West Stand and Terrace, including pens 3 and 4, where the crush took place
Mr Matthews is showing jurors a plan ofr the police control box, which contained a desk with a single seat for use by the CCTV operator. Three seats behind another desk at the front of the box were occupied by Superintendent Murray, Sergeant Goddard and PC Ryan
The police control box had the ability to override any transmission by the Sheffield Wednesday "DJ" who sat beneath. Tannoy announcements could reach any section selected or the whole stadium, including the rear of stands
Mr Matthews says the jury will hear evidence from two former police officers who were in the police control box on the day. One is Michael Goddard, then sergeant, who had "very considerable experience" in the box for both league and FA cup matches.
He was responsible for radio reception and transmission, and had been in the role for the 1987 and 1988 quarter and semi-finals at Hillsborough.
Superintendent Murray, who has since passed away, was in overall control of the police box and an adviser to David Duckenfield, Mr Matthews says.
Andrew Sanderson, a civilian employee of South Yorkshire Police with radio expertise, brought around 300 radios to the stadium on the day with a spare base station for the control box. They were on a UHF frequency that was not being recorded and crown noise made them difficult to appear, so some officers had earpieces
It was Home Office equipment, Mr Matthews says, and not every officer had a personal radio at the time.
Sgt Goddard could use the UHF sets to receive communications from officers or send messages to them, Mr Matthews says
The UHF system operated on something known as "talk through", meaning communications would be heard on every radio in the network. "Talk through" could be overriden through the base station but there were problems with it on the day, Mr Matthews says
Normally on "talk through" if two people were speaking at the same time, the one with the weakest signal would be drowned out
"If the control operator was using the radio on talk-through and somebody else spoke, the controller would ordinarily be cut off," Mr Matthews tells the jury.
"There would be no question of control hearing two voices at the same time. If two people were trying to speak to control, control would only hear one or the message might break up entirely. "
Mr Matthews says the radios operated "for the greater part" of the match via talk-through.
A South Yorkshire Police force operations room at Snig Hill, in Sheffield, used a VHF radio system to communicate with officers in vehicles. There was also a VHF set in the police control box at Hillsborough.
Snig Hill, which also had a major incident room, was commanded by Chief Inspector Malcolm Edmundson, who was monitoring both VHF and UHF frequencies on 15 April 1989
Mr Matthews says the radio communications between the police control box and officers on duty in and around the stadium were "through a system that was neither recorded nor accessible to every police officer".
But the South Yorkshire Police radio system at Snig Hill was recorded some of the radio traffic that passed between the there and the Hillsborough police control box will be placed to the jury.
Background snippets of communications coming over their UHF radio were also recorded.
Another man in the police control box was Chief Inspector McRobbie, who had little experience in policing football matches and had just been transferred to F Division.
As part of his education he wanted to see a semi-final match, Mr Matthews says, and Mr Duckenfield agreed that could. He was in the control box standing in a corner, in civilian clothes and with no radio.
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