There was no Hillsborough ‘cover-up’

Eight years ago, I was instructed as leading counsel for two South Yorkshire Police officers who had overseen the force’s evidence-gathering in response to the Hillsborough stadium disaster. They were accused of trying to minimise the blame placed on the police by amending witness statements.

It has been the longest and most challenging assignment of my 27-year career, with the weight of public and media opinion pitted heavily against us. Finally, last week, the only one of my two clients to be criminally charged, 83-year-old retired chief superintendent Donald Denton, was cleared, alongside a 74-year-old retired detective chief inspector and the former police solicitor. It was a just outcome that demonstrated judicial integrity and independence at its best.

I have been a lifelong Liverpool fan and was a season ticket holder for years. I was not at the fateful semi-final in Sheffield on 15 April 1989, in which 96 innocent people died. But I had a standing ticket for the FA Cup final at Wembley between Liverpool and Everton, a few weeks after the disaster. The case was very close to home for me.

That’s why, before taking on the case, like most people, I had certain preconceptions. The popular narrative was straightforward: the police engaged in a systematic ‘cover-up’ following the disaster falsely to lay the blame on ‘drunken, ticketless’ Liverpool fans.

The Sun infamously splashed this falsehood, with an unintentionally ironic headline: ‘The truth.’ The Spectator, too, has felt the wrath of the city of Liverpool. Former editor Boris Johnson apologised in 2012 for running an offensive leader column in 2004 that accused Liverpudlians of refusing ‘to acknowledge, even to this day, the part played in the disaster by drunken fans’.

The accusation against Mr Denton was that he had attempted to minimise the blame placed on the police by altering officers’ notes given in the immediate aftermath of 15 April 1989.