Hillsborough survivors: police bullied us to change evidence

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/nov/03/hillsborough-survivors-evidence

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Traumatised Hillsborough survivors were "bullied" into changing their witness statements during prolonged and aggressive cross-examination by police officers, according to dramatic new allegations over the extent of the authorities' cover-up in the aftermath of the tragedy.

Supporters have come forward to describe how West Midlands police subjected them to gruelling interviews lasting up to five hours in which they were coerced into amending statements that had portrayed the police in a negative light.

The Hillsborough Independent Panel, chaired by Bishop James Jones of Liverpool, recorded in September that senior officers had altered scores of police statements to hide the truth about the 1989 disaster, when 96 supporters were crushed to death at an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. The new claims that emotionally vulnerable survivors were forced by police into changing their accounts of the disaster have further infuriated victims' families.

Merseyside Labour MP Maria Eagle, who has long campaigned on behalf of the Hillsborough familes, said survivors had recently approached her to explain how they were intimidated into changing their accounts during interviews carried out in the aftermath of the stadium crush. Survivors said they had been made to feel like criminals during cross-examination by West Midlands officers, even though they were grieving and still suffering from shock.

Eagle, who is the shadow transport secretary, said she had seen a statement from one man – whose harrowing account of 15 April 1989 describes him struggling to survive the crush under the weight of dead fans – that appeared to have been amended following contact with the West Midlands force. "One of the ways in which he'd coped was by writing it down. It's a terrible, traumatising account. He had people die pressed up against him.

"He was given a four- to five-hour grilling by the West Midlands police when they took his statement, treating him like a thief that they were trying to get to confess, telling him, 'You can't say that, you've got to say this.'

"He was given a real going over. Eventually, he was so browbeaten and upset that he agreed to make some of the changes they suggested. He's got a copy of his statement. The changes I've seen on the statement are all about taking out any suggestion that the police had lost control."

A number of other survivors interviewed by West Midlands officers after the disaster have asked the force to release their statements, but to no avail.

Margaret Aspinall, chairwoman of the Hillsborough Family Support Group, said the actions of West Midlands police added a further dimension to the smear campaign that was orchestrated by the authorities to deflect scrutiny from their own failings by blaming the fans.

Aspinall, whose son James died at Hillsborough, said: "This shows they were prepared to stop at nothing. To bully the people they were meant to protect at a time when they were so traumatised is a disgrace. People will rightly ask how could this have happened?"

The role of West Midlands police in the cover-up is central, according to victims' families. During the aftermath of Hillsborough, the West Midlands force was appointed to collect evidence while investigating South Yorkshire police's handling of the disaster. However, its supposedly independent inquiry has been marred by claims that both forces were working together to blame the tragedy on football fans. Eagle said the claims added further material to evidence that the two forces colluded to deflect criticism away from the police.

The Hillsborough Independent Panel revealed that West Midlands police knew that South Yorkshire officers had altered more than 100 statements, mostly to remove or alter "unfavourable" comments about the policing response to the disaster. In addition, evidence collated by West Midlands police went to the director of public prosecutions, who judged that there was "insufficient evidence" to bring charges.

The force also provided key evidence used in the discredited Hillsborough inquests that delivered a verdict of "accidental death" for all the dead. Earlier this month, the police watchdog, the Independent Police Complaints Commission, said it would be investigating the West Midlands force's role in the Hillsborough disaster along with South Yorkshire's.

Eagle hopes that the IPCC's investigation will also now include a focus upon allegations that fans were coerced to retract or amend their own statements relating to the FA Cup semi-final.

Months after Hillsborough, when West Midlands began allegedly forcing supporters to amend their accounts, the force's elite squad of detectives, the serious crime squad, was disbanded amid allegations that it had been fabricating evidence to "fit up" armed robbers. Following its closure, the crime squad's former head, Detective Superintendent Stanley Beechey, helped to prepare evidence for the Hillsborough investigation, although no evidence has surfaced that he acted improperly.

Meanwhile, pressure continues to mount for the inquest into the death of one Hillsborough victim to be fast-tracked after his mother was last week diagnosed with cancer. Anne Williams's son, Kevin, was 15 when he died in the disaster. She has always disputed the coroner's verdict of accidental death, particularly since it was proven that her son was still alive 45 minutes after the time when the coroner had earlier ruled that all victims were dead. Police officer Debra Martin has described how, at 4pm on the day of the disaster, Kevin had opened his eyes and said "Mum" before losing consciousness.

However, she also admitted that two West Midlands officers had pressured her into changing a statement on the tragedy. She said the officers had repeatedly visited her trying to get her to change her statement until eventually she did. "People need to realise there are two statements, my original and this horrible copy that has been done," she said.

An online petition has been set up calling for Kevin's inquest to be brought forward. It had already collected more than 20,000 signatures just days after it was set up last week. If it attracts 100,000 signatures, it will trigger a debate in the House of Commons.