Criminal trials that resulted from the investigations
As a result of their investigations, both the IOPC and Operation Resolve referred a number of individuals to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for it to decide whether anyone should face criminal charges in relation to the disaster or its aftermath. In June 2017, six individuals were charged with criminal offences.
Ch Supt Duckenfield was the SYP match commander on the day: in other words, he was the officer in charge of the police operation. He was charged with manslaughter by gross negligence. He went on trial in January 2019, and the jury was unable to reach a unanimous or a majority verdict. He then faced a retrial in October 2019, at which the jury found him not guilty.
Mr Mackrell was the SWFC Secretary and designated safety officer at the time of the disaster. He was charged with two offences under the SSGA 1975 and one offence under the HSWA 1974 relating to the turnstile arrangements. He went on trial at the same time as Ch Supt Duckenfield. He was found guilty of the offence under the HSWA 1974 and fined £6,500.
Norman Bettison, a former chief inspector and superintendent with SYP and subsequently Chief Constable of Merseyside and of West Yorkshire. He was charged with four offences of misconduct in public office in relation to the allegation that he lied about his involvement in the aftermath of the Hillsborough disaster and about the culpability of Liverpool supporters. This prosecution was discontinued by the CPS on 22 August 2018, following a review of the evidence. This is examined further in chapter 20.
SYP officers Ch Supt Denton and DCI Foster were charged with perverting the course of justice for their involvement in amending fellow SYP officers’ accounts before they were submitted to the Taylor Inquiry. Peter Metcalf, a solicitor from a firm called Hammond Suddards, which was acting for SYP in 1989–1990, was also charged with the same offence, for his role in the amendment process, including suggesting specific changes to officers’ accounts.
These latter three went on trial in April 2021. On 26 May 2021, the judge ruled that the defendants had no case to answer. This was because the offence they were charged with was perverting the course of justice in relation to the amendment of officer accounts presented to the Taylor Inquiry. As the Taylor Inquiry was a non-statutory departmental inquiry, it was not a course of justice, so the case required the prosecution to demonstrate that the amendment of these accounts was also intended to affect the Popper Inquests or the subsequent criminal investigation conducted by WMP—both of which were courses of public justice. The judge concluded that the prosecution had failed to demonstrate this.
This report includes more details of the evidence provided by Operation Resolve and the IOPC that led to these charges and the trials that followed.
