Thatās a bit harsh on @gilgamboa, itās been a tough World Cup year for him.
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The acquittal of David Duckenfield endangers us all
The not-guilty verdict over the Hillsborough tragedy has grave implications for society
Tony Evans
Sun 1 Dec 2019 05.30 GMT
David Duckenfield can finally rest easily. The matchday commander at Hillsborough was found not guilty of gross negligence manslaughter charges pertaining to his role in the football disaster 30 years ago. Duckenfieldās ordeal ended at Preston crown court on Thursday.
The acquittal was not a shock. The families of the 96 Liverpool fans who died at the 1989 FA Cup semi-final, the survivors who managed to get out of the overcrowded pens at the Leppings Lane end of Sheffield Wednesdayās ground, and the campaigners who have fought relentlessly for justice for decades were expecting the verdict. They knew the law would let them down. It has dashed their hopes repeatedly over the years.
The verdict defies logic. Ch Supt Duckenfield reacted to the build-up of supporters outside the ground by ordering the gates to be opened before the game between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. It was a catastrophic and deadly error. Duckenfield then lied and told FA executives that fans had broken in to the stadium. That cowardly deceit set the tone for everything that followed. It was the founding myth of Hillsborough. Even while the dead and dying were lying on the pitch, barely attended to by the emergency services, Duckenfield was throwing the blame and trying to avoid the responsibility for a decision that caused the carnage.
He admitted everything at the 2015 inquests into the disaster, saying that his āprofessional failings ā¦ led to the deaths of 96 innocent men, women and childrenā. Duckenfield added that he had āno ideaā what motivated him to blame other people for his mistakes. The jury at the inquests returned a verdict of unlawful killing, reversing the 1990 ruling of accidental deaths. Despite this, the retired officer was able to walk away last week in the face of overwhelming evidence and his own admissions.
It took some tortuous legal logic to create a courtroom environment where this could be allowed to happen. Sir Peter Openshaw, the judge, told the jury that the inquestās findings ā which were not discussed in court ā were āquite irrelevantā. The most exhaustive and longest inquest in British history was dismissed as not being pertinent. The families watching in a conference room in Liverpool were aghast. It was even more dispiriting to hear the defence barrister, Benjamin Myers QC, recycle all the rancid myths that grew out of Duckenfieldās dissembling: that fans turned up late, alcohol was a factor and supporters ignored police instructions. All this had been comprehensively dismissed at the inquests. They were even more appalled when Openshaw called the defendant a āpoor chapā after Duckenfield was forced to go to hospital with a suspected chest infection.
Yet this was not a doddery septuagenarian being persecuted inappropriately for actions long buried in the past. Duckenfield was a public servant who failed in his basic duties to the people he was charged with protecting. Debate about Hillsborough should not be about football or the city of Liverpool; this is a matter of civic safety that has implications for everyone in British society. We need to be able to trust the emergency services and the systems that are set up to protect the populace. Those systems failed on 15 April, 1989, and no one will ever take responsibility for that failure.
If things go wrong it is important that investigations explain why and ensure the situation never occurs again
Why should anyone care about Hillsborough? Because any time you or your loved ones attend a public event it should be with the knowledge that the people responsible for maintaining order and safety will be competent. If things go wrong it is important that investigations explain why and ensure the situation never occurs again. For this to happen, there needs to be accountability. Duckenfieldās acquittal underlines that no one has been held responsible for Hillsborough.
What happened in Sheffield was beyond horrific. The stories of personal loss and individual pain have too often been overlooked. Jimmy Hennessey, a 29-year-old, had negligible medical attention and was placed in a body bag while still alive. He vomited inside the bag before he died. Minimal treatment would have saved many of the victims. Up to 41 of the dead might have survived had they been given oxygen. Only one ambulance made it onto the pitch; 42 remained in a queue outside. The only effective way to ensure this sort of scenario is not repeated is accountability. There has been barely any for those who were mindbogglingly inept at Hillsborough.
Who has been left to carry the weight and pain of the disaster? The agony of the families of the dead is unimaginable. Hennesseyās daughter Charlotte, who was six at the time of the disaster, has had the course of her existence changed. Her adult life has been dominated by the quest to find the truth about her father and gain justice for him. No one should have to suffer the emotional damage that comes with such a burden. It is hard to comprehend how the relatives have maintained their dignity in the face of numerous disappointments and crass treatment from the authorities.
Unlike Duckenfield, the families, survivors and those affected by Hillsborough cannot sleep easy. They live with the misery every day. The man who caused so much pain has escaped the consequences.
Tony Evans is a journalist and former football editor of the Times. A Liverpool fan, he was present at the Hillsborough disaster
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For fucks sake.
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I wonder has Tony, the Liverpool fan and thereby whinging martyr, ever written an article on events in Heysel.
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The self-styled edgelords are getting uncomfortable, the truth is too much for them
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The truth according to an independent judiciary or the truth according to a martyr with an agenda?
Christ almighty. A sliver of admitting what scum English soccer fans are before blaming dodgy stadiums and something that happened in Italy previously. This is who Irishmen in their late 30s, early 40s want to be associated with? Violent scumbags, thieves and murderers.
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No one from Ireland can write a credible history book on Irelandā¦
No one from Ireland is from Liverpool.
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Liverpool is more Irish than most places in Ireland, itās certainly more Irish than Galway
You can say this as many times as you wish to justify your childish obsession with an English soccer team but it wonāt make it true.
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Liverpool in a nutshell. Always the victims. Happy to use violence and thuggery when it suits and, when it inevitably leads to deaths, completely absolve themselves of all blame.
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Liverpool is a people and a cause, mate
Rural Irish simpletons wouldnāt understand that because they donāt understand Ireland
Liverpool matters to Irish people in the way that, say, club Gah teams never will
The more worrying thing is lads actually believe that sort of thing. Itās gas.
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Liverpool doing well is driving fellas, who claim not to care, absolutely demented.
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A crazy amount of anger on display hereā¦ Lads obsessed with other ladās obsessionā¦ Lolz 
Liverpool doing well is driving some Irish simpletons so demented that they have to resort to dancing on the graves of 96 people
There is something seriously lacking in the lives of these simpletons, itās pitiful to watch
I mean itās not as weāre even going to win the league or anything, weāve secured Premier League football for next season and thatās all
The three way battle for the title between United, City and Leicester will be very interesting and as a neutral, something Iām greatly looking forward to
Liverpool is a crime ridden city in the north west of England, mate.
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