Former officer tells Hillsborough inquest that fans were ‘in no way to blame’
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Version 0 of 1. A former senior police officer has told the new inquests into the deaths of 96 people at the Hillsborough disaster that he regrets claiming Liverpool fans misbehaved and said they were “in no way to blame for the disaster”. Sir Norman Bettison also insisted he was not part of an alleged cover-up by South Yorkshire police, where he was a chief inspector at the time of the 1989 FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest, to avoid responsibility for police failures and blame fans for the deaths. Later, the inquests heard, he became chief constable of Merseyside police, and did not mention his Hillsborough experience anywhere in the job application. Related: Hillsborough inquest: ex-police chief denies attending 'cover-up' meeting During a day of questioning at the inquests in Warrington on Friday, Bettison detailed his various roles for South Yorkshire police after the disaster, which included, he said, being “at the beck and call” of the lawyers at Lord Justice Taylor’s official inquiry in 1989, and fetching their lunchtime sandwiches from Marks & Spencer. Bettison accepted that after Taylor’s report and before the first inquests, which started in November 1990, he had searched for “buzzwords” in witness statements relating to fans’ behaviour, which included “drunk, unruly, pushing, shoving, fighting, violent, ticketless”. He was also given the job of searching the police computer to find witnesses who had given the most emphatic evidence alleging Liverpool supporters were misbehaving, drunk or had no tickets. In November 1989, Bettison went to parliament, where he played to a group of MPs a video South Yorkshire police had compiled about the disaster. Afterwards he told the chief constable, Peter Wright, about a “promised attack” on the Taylor report by two unnamed Conservative MPs. Related: Former superintendent showed police video of Hillsborough to MPs However Bettison told the inquests that throughout South Yorkshire police’s evidence-gathering and legal procedures after Hillsborough, he was only ever acting on instructions, given “tasks” by more senior officers, and played no leadership or management role. Bettison expressed regret for his 2012 statement that Liverpool supporters misbehaved at Hillsborough during questioning by Jonathan Hough QC on behalf of the coroner, Sir John Goldring. Around 200 people whose relatives died in the lethal crush on the Leppings Lane terrace at Hillsborough were at the court in Warrington to hear Bettison give evidence. He agreed that in September 2012, after the Hillsborough Independent Panel published its report, he issued a statement that said: “Taylor was right in saying that the disaster was caused, mainly, through a lack of police control. “Fans’ behaviour, to the extent that it was relevant at all, made the job of the police, in the crush outside the Leppings Lane turnstiles, harder than it needed to be. But it didn’t cause the disaster any more than the sunny day that encouraged people to linger outside the stadium as kick-off approached.” Related: Hillsborough report: Sir Norman Bettison's statement Bettison recalled that a furore was caused by those comments about fans’ behaviour, and, he said, by media commentary about the panel report which, he said, named him as “central to a longstanding [police] strategy of blaming Liverpool fans”. “I became the front and centre of a very serious allegation of cover-up and putting blame on Liverpool fans for causing the deaths of 96 innocent people,” Bettison told the inquest, his voice quavering at times. “I made a judgment that I needed to respond to that. The communication put out was hurried and ill-thought-through and it was wrong at the time.” He said his comments about fans’ behaviour were “honestly held beliefs”, but that his statement was wrong because “there’s a time and a place” and it was inappropriate to have made it the day after the panel’s report. “I regret putting out that statement on the 13th [September 2012] in the terms I did, the way I did,” he added. Hough asked Bettison about the description he gave of his role in that first statement, in which he denied ever altering a police officer’s statement, which a team of South Yorkshire officers did, or asking for one to be altered. “Do you think that this in any way is incomplete, or understates your involvement in the South Yorkshire police response to the disaster?” Hough asked. “I think it’s a fair summary,” Bettison replied. “I wasn’t part of the team that had in any way been doctoring or altering police evidence.” Bettison then read out the second statement he made in 2012 following the panel report, which clarified the first. In it, he said: “Let me speak very clearly. The fans of Liverpool football club were in no way to blame for the disaster that unfolded at Hillsborough on 15 April 1989. “My clear view, on hearing all the evidence presented at the Taylor inquiry, having sat through every day: the police failed to control the situation, which ultimately led to the tragic deaths of the 96 entirely innocent people. “I can be no plainer than that, and I am sorry if my earlier statement intended to convey the same message has caused any further upset.” In 1992, Bettison detailed his experience on the Hillsborough inquiry team in his application to be an assistant chief constable of South Yorkshire police. However, he agreed that he had not mentioned his Hillsborough role at all when he applied to be chief constable of Merseyside police in 1998. Bettison said this was because there was no opportunity to do so on the application form, and the chief constable role required a “competency-based” application form. “Sir Norman, as an intelligent man,” Hough asked him, “did it occur to you at the time that any work you did in connection with Hillsborough might be seen in Merseyside as significant?” “No,” he replied. The inquests resume on Tuesday, when Bettison is expected to be questioned by barristers for the bereaved families. |