issue 27// vol 47 sports // no. 9

lillsborough Disaster
cc 22

Don't take life for granted. Ensure our police and media are held to account
by telling the truth. That a good crowd control and safety plan is needed
for any large gathering of people. Oh, and don't read 'The Sun’
— Paul Chapman, Deputy Editor of The Province

 

the death of the 96th victim, Tony Bland. This was due to the fact
he died over a year and a day after his injuries were caused. The
jury at Duckenfield’s first trial earlier in the year failed to agree toa
verdict.

During the criminal trial, the prosecution alleged Duckenfield
had a “personal responsibility” for what transpired at the Liverpool
and Nottingham Forest match on April 15, 1989. The court heard
that he gave the order to open the exit gates at the Leppings
Lane end of the ground at 2:52 pn—eight minutes before the
match started—after the area outside the turnstiles had become
dangerously overcrowded. Over 2,000 fans then entered through
exit gate C, with many fans heading for the tunnel in front of
them. This led to the central pens of the terrace being overcrowded
where the crush occurred. Footage captured the day of the match
shows the side pens containing less people. It begs to wonder why
Duckenfield did not have adequate police presence to control the
crowd outside the stadium. And it poses more questions, like why
were there no police helping direct fans instead to the lesser-filled
pens? And why wasn’t the entrance to the central pens closed after
they had filled to capacity?

Paul Chapman, Deputy Editor for The Province, was born
in Liverpool and moved to Canada with his family in 1974; he is
very familiar with the Hillsborough tragedy. “Like most people in
the city, we were anxious,” Chapman said in an email interview
with the Other Press. “Everyone knew someone who had gone to
the match. English soccer was mostly ignored here in Vancouver,
but the evening news covered this story, complete with the
horrific pictures of bodies lying all over the pitch, survivors and
police running around in chaos.’ Chapman says the tragedy at
Hillsborough speaks of how fragile life is: “Well, don’t take life for
granted. Ensure our police and media are held to account by telling
the truth. That a good crowd control and safety plan is needed for
any large gathering of people. Oh, and don’t read The Sun,”

Over three decades have passed since the Hillsborough
Disaster. It seems that time has not healed the victims’ families
who were looking for justice for the 96 victims. The Duckenfield
acquittal left the families with more questions than answers.
Margaret Aspinall, whose 18-year-old son, James, died at
Hillsborough expressed her anger with the not guilty verdict: “I
blame a system that’s so morally wrong within this country, that’s a
disgrace to this nation. When 96 people—they say 95, we say g96—
are unlawfully killed and yet not one person is accountable. The
question I'd like to ask all of you and people within the system is:
who put 96 people in their graves? Who is accountable?”

Next week, Paul Chapman, Deputy Editor of The Province, shares a
very personal story about the Hillsborough tragedy.

 

Illustration by Athena Little