Hillsborough disaster witnesses urged to give evidence to IPCC investigation

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/sep/17/hillsborough-disaster-witnesses-ipcc-police

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The Independent Police Complaints Commission has appealed for witnesses who were at the Hillsborough football ground in 1989, when 96 people died, to give evidence to its investigation into alleged police misconduct at and after the disaster.

The police watchdog said it is principally keen to talk to people who attended the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at Hillsborough on April 15 1989 and then gave statements to West Midlands police, who were appointed to investigate how the 96 people died.

The IPCC is examining the original West Midlands police investigation for a range of possible misconduct, including pressing witnesses to change their statements and West Midlands officers amending statements themselves, and for the inquiry simply proving "inadequate".

The original investigation, the IPCC has said, did not take statements which complied with Criminal Justice Act legal requirements of the time, and resulted in no criminal prosecutions of any individual or organisation.

Many survivors of Hillsborough, who were trapped in the Leppings Lane terrace "pens" with people dying and screaming for help around them, have contacted the IPCC in the past year making complaints about their experience of West Midlands police.

The Hillsborough independent panel, which produced its report on the disaster last September, has all police statements from witnesses on its archive, and some survivors have told the IPCC that the statements do not tally with what they recall saying.

Several have also said they were pressed, when making their original statements, to withdraw criticisms of South Yorkshire police, whose failings were principally blamed for the deaths by Lord Justice Taylor in his official report.

After talking to survivors and reviewing the evidence it has, the IPCC decided to appeal for witnesses to gain a fuller understanding of the West Midlands investigation. "Early indications from our initial review of forms [filled in by witnesses] suggests changes and amendments," said the IPCC senior investigator Chris Mahaffey.

"We know thousands of people gave eyewitness accounts to that West Midlands police investigation," said Deborah Glass, the IPCC vice-chair. "We want to speak to those people about their experiences of dealing with West Midlands police."

West Midlands police were appointed to conduct the criminal investigation into Hillsborough on 16 August 1989, two days after the force's then chief constable, Geoffrey Dear, had disbanded its serious crime squad, which had produced a series of collapsed prosecutions and miscarriages of justice.

Dear is himself now under investigation by the IPCC, as is Mervyn Jones, the former assistant chief constable who directly headed the Hillsborough investigation, for several specific instances of possible misconduct including "general concerns about inadequate investigation" of Hillsborough and failure in the investigation's "direction and control".

Dear asserts that the West Midlands investigations were "scrupulous" and that he will be cleared of any fault by the IPCC. Jones has declined to comment.

The IPCC is also inviting anybody who was among the 54,000 people at Hillsborough to provide their account of what happened. Glass said support will be available for survivors to overcome "your trauma, your fears, your lack of trust" about talking to the IPCC.

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