Hillsborough trial: Stadium’s safety officer was ‘accountant with no formal training’, court told
Prosecution accuses Graham Mackrell of ‘shrugging off responsibility’ for getting Liverpool fans safely into stadium
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The official in charge of safety at Hillsborough stadium was a former accountant with no health and safety training, a court has heard
A defence lawyer representing former Sheffield Wednesday club secretary Graham Mackrell said standards for the role were “very different” in the 1980s.
Jason Beer QC told Preston Crown Court: “Mr Mackrell was not an expert in issues of structural engineering, his background and training was in accountancy before he served at two smaller clubs.”
The lawyer said that health and safty management had “moved on a lot” in the past three decades and Mr Mackrell’s role did not include “what we would currently understand” as the expertise needed.
Mr Beer said the government-issued Green Guide made first mention of a “safety officer” in 1986 and there was no formal training course or qualification for the post.
The lawyer said decisions affecting the safety of Hillsborough stadium, such as the installation of fenced pens where the overcrowding of supporters led to the death of 96 victims, had already been taken before Mr Mackrell became club secretary in December 1986.
Earlier this week, the jury was shown a letter from the following year where he informed a Sheffield City Council official his “duties encompass those of a safety officer” and that he possessed the most recent edition of the Green Guide on safety.
The prosecution said Mr Mackrell “contributed to some very specific failures that fell squarely within his job” by failing to take reasonable care of how Liverpool fans entered the stadium and making contingency plans for overcrowding at turnstiles.
Richard Matthews QC said Mr Mackrell “simply shrugged off all responsibility for both those matters, about which he had accepted personal responsibility”.
Mr Mackrell, now 69, denies contravening the stadium’s safety certificate and a health and safety offence.
His defence lawyer said the prosecution would have to prove allegations that Mr Mackrell did not agree an entry plan with South Yorkshire Police as required, claiming that record-keeping by relevant officers was poor.
Mr Beer said the defendant was of “good character” and was not being prosecuted over any actions on the day of the disaster on 15 April 1989.
“Things can look ever so simple after they have happened,” he added. “These charges are not to be viewed with the eyes of 2019, but what was known before 1989 and the standards then.”
Mr Mackrell joined Sheffield Wednesday from Luton Town in 1986, and “inherited” Hillsborough stadium’s layout and safety arrangements, he added.
The jury was told that the club’s relationships with a firm of structural engineers, the council and police were already well established.
Mr Beer suggested that the head of the Eastwoods structural engineering firm – who has since died – exercised “control over anything to do with the safety of the ground” and “dominated” an advisory group.
The lawyer said the same structural engineer also declined to change the capacity calculations for Hillsborough after alterations at the Leppings Lane end.
Mr Beer alleged that David Duckenfield’s predecessor as match commander “dominated the planning and preparations for football matches, especially FA Cup semi-finals” and had charge of how spectators approached Hillsborough stadium and entered standing terraces.
He said former Chief Superintendent Mole, who has also died, was “instrumental” to the planning of how Liverpool fans would enter the ground on the day of the disaster and left his post just weeks before.
Mr Beer claimed it was “entirely feasible” for all Liverpool fans to pass through the Leppings Lane turnstiles, where a crush caused police to open large exit gates.
He told the jury police had previously ensured fans arrived in an “orderly manner” by controlling their approach to the stadium, and funelling them to specific terrace entrances once inside.
A supporter who attended a previous FA Cup semi-final in 1981 where police opened gates on perimeter fencing to let fans escape a crush told the court he was prevented from getting to the terraces by police officers.
James Chumley said an officer told him Leppings Lane was the “worst end” and he thought the capacity had been overstated, even before the West Stand was split into pens.
On the day of the disaster, thousands of fans flooded through opened gates and down a sloped tunnel that fed into two fenced pens, where 94 victims were crushed to death by the pressure. Two other supporters later died from their injuries.
Mr Duckenfield, now 74, denies manslaughter by gross negligence. The trial continues.
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Mr Beer says: "These charges are not to be viewed with the eyes of 2019, but what was known before 1989 and the standards then."
He asks the jury to consider how football matches were planned for in the 1980s, and the role of police and different agenies. "What was expected of a football club secretary in those days?" he asks
Mr Mackrell joined Sheffield Wednesday from the smaller Luton Town in 1986, Mr Beer says
Hillsborough had opened FA Cup and World Cup matches and was renowned as a "marquee ground" where some of the biggest football matches could be played.
Mr Beer says he expected the established club to have a "sophisticated stadium", and that it was one of few with CCTV at the time
Mr Beer says Sheffield Wednesday had installed aspects of the stadium that were "inherited" by Mr Mackrell on expert advice and with regulatory approval.
The lawyer says relationships with a firm of structural engineers, the council and police were already well-established.
He refers to a letter presented by the prosecution where Mr Mackrell said his "duties encompass those of the safety officer" in 1987.
Mr Beer says: "Health and safety management has moved on a lot in these intervening years ...the position in 1987 was very different. The concept of a safety officer at a football club was a relatively new one."
He said the government-issued Green Guide made first mention of a "safety officer" in 1986 and there was no formal training course or qualification for the post.
Mr Beer says that what Mr Mackrell did and didn't do was "consistent" with fellow safety officers at the time, saying that his role did not include "what we would understand" as the expertise needed in 2019.
He is listing features that "set the scene" before Mr Mackrell became club secretary, including the structure and layout of Hillsborough, the extent to which consultants Eastwoods exercised "such control over anything to do with the safety ground", and extent to which police and Chief Superintendent Mole "dominated the planning and preparations for football matches, especially FA Cup semi-finals".
Mr Beer says safety at Hillsborough was governed by a committee including police, the local council, building control and other agencies called the Office Working Party and then, from 1986 the "advisory group".
Mr Beer says the safety certificate's conditions meant anything in the stadium had to be approved by the committee.
"Mr Mackrell was not an expert in issues of structural engineering, his background and training was in accountancy before he served at two smaller clubs, and the decisions affecting the safety of this ground had already been taken and approved before Mr Mackrell became club secretary in mid-December 1986."
Mr Beer said the Leppings Lane terraces had already been divided into pens, and crush barriers put in with barrier 144 removed, which will come up later in the trial as a factor in the disaster.
"The advisory group approved that," he adds, as well as the terrace steps, sloped tunnel, number and layout of Leppings Lane turnstiles. "To the extent it was a bottleneck, it was one that had been there since 1979 and before."
Mr Beer said the layout of turnstiles had been the subject of discussions between 1979 and 1985, when the final layout was arrived at with the assistance of consultants Eastwoods and approval of the advisory group.
"What we ask you to bear in mind is that the structural state of the stadium when the disaster took place was the same as far as the turnstiles and terraces are concerned were the same as when Mr Mackrell arrived," he tells the jury.
Mr Beer says Hillsborough's layout was not "out of the ordinary" compared to other stadiums.
He said the police carried out an assessment on compliance with safety guidance in 1986, when an internal member from Supt Freeman to Ch Supt Mole said: "Sheffield Wednesday football club have complied with the Green Guide to a very large extent, moreso I expect than many clubs in the country and it is only on minor points that improvements can be made."
Mr Beer says Sheffield City Council asked for submissions from the police and fire service on safety at Hillsborough in November 1986, as well as Sheffield United's stadium.
It asked whether they met the requirements of 1975 safety legislation.
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