Six people, including two former senior police officers, "have been charged with criminal offences over the deaths of 96 people at the Hillsborough disaster and the alleged police cover-up that followed," according to David Conn of the London GUARDIAN. David Duckenfield, the South Yorkshire officer who was in command of policing at the FA Cup semifinal between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest in '89, was "charged with the manslaughter of 95 people." The 96th, Tony Bland, died four years later after his life support was switched off. A manslaughter charge "cannot be brought in his case because his death came more than a year and a day after his injuries were sustained." Crown Prosecution Service Head of Special Crime & Counter-Terrorism Sue Hemming said that the CPS "would allege that Duckenfield's failure to take personal responsibility" on the day was "extraordinarily bad and contributed substantially to the deaths of each of those 96 people who so tragically and unnecessarily lost their lives" (GUARDIAN, 6/28). In London, David Brown reported Norman Bettison, a former chief constable of Merseyside and West Yorkshire, was charged with "misconduct in public office over allegations that South Yorkshire Police tried to shift blame on to fans." He is accused of "lying about his involvement in the aftermath of Hillsborough and the culpability of fans." Peter Metcalf, a solicitor who represented South Yorkshire police after the disaster, was charged with "perverting the course of justice." He is accused of reviewing the accounts provided by police officers for an inquiry into the disaster and making "suggestions, alterations, deletions and amendments for which there appears to be no justification" (LONDON TIMES, 6/28).
NO CORPORATE CHARGES: The defendants, other than Duckenfield, will appear at Warrington Magistrates' Court on Aug. 9. No organization will face corporate charges and no one from the ambulance service will be charged, Hemming said. She explained that Sheffield Wednesday is now a "different company" and, as it is not a successor organization, "is not criminally liable" for any offenses that might have been committed in '89. Hillsborough Family Support Group Chair Margaret Aspinall, whose son James, 18, was killed, said, "This is definitely the start of the end. I think everybody needs that, I think we all need peace from Hillsborough but we can never have peace until we've got truth, justice, accountability" (BBC, 6/27).
