Hillsborough inquest jurors retrace Liverpool fans' steps
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Version 0 of 1. Jurors on the inquest into the deaths of 96 football fans killed in the Hillsborough disaster have retraced the steps Liverpool supporters made on the day the tragedy occurred. Under grey skies and intermittent showers, the 11-strong jury left the courtroom in Warrington for a visit to Sheffield, home of the Hillsborough stadium. Hooked up to wireless headphones, the jurors were guided by the coroner Lord Justice Goldring along Leppings Lane to the ground's terrace of the same name, where Liverpool fans arrived for the FA Cup semi-final 25 years ago. Britain's worst sporting disaster unfolded at the stadium on 15 April 1989 during Liverpool's match against Nottingham Forest as thousands of fans were crushed in the ground's Leppings Lane terrace. Huddling under umbrellas, jurors were briefly taken around the edge of the stadium, decorated in the home team Sheffield Wednesday's blue and white colours. Goldring highlighted structural changes, before taking jurors down the tunnel to the former location of pens three and four, where the fatal crush occurred. Jurors were shown the police control box, which is "much larger" than its 1989 counterpart. Looking down the tunnel, the coroner explained the pitch was without grass as the football season had ended and it would be returfed. Earlier, two coaches, escorted by police motorbikes and cars, transported the jury, counsel, court staff, the coroner and a small press pool to the stadium. Goldring pointed out the White Horse pub, just off the A61, where some Liverpool supporters went before the match. He also showed jurors the former site of Wadsley Bridge train station, from where Liverpool supporters were accompanied by police officers as they made their way to the stadium. A marked police van closed off Leppings Lane as the jurors disembarked from the coach and were taken towards the entrance, site of gates A, B and C, all used by Liverpool fans on the day of the 1989 match. Traffic and police cones, as well as orange tape, had been laid out to illustrate to jurors the layout of the entrance in 1989, such as the location of a railing and gate no longer present. Awnings had been constructed in advance to shelter jurors from the expected rain. Earlier this week, the inquest heard a minute-by-minute countdown of how the disaster unfolded. The hearing was told of key events accompanied by rarely seen footage of the day taken by police and BBC cameras and stadium CCTV as the cup tie began. Jonathan Hough QC, counsel for the inquest and Neil Malkin, the senior investigating officer for Operation Resolve, the police's criminal investigation into the disaster, took the jury through events of the day, interspersed with a compilation of both black-and-white and colour video captured from the cameras. |