Hillsborough Independent Panel findings and release of documents.

[likesfish]

they got away with the lie because it was football fans.
after heysel the media and the public were prepared to belive the lie.
After heysel maggie pushed for english clubs to be banned from europe and they were for five years.
have enough bad marks against you nobodys going to belive it wasnt your fault

 

[butchersapron]

Apart from the many millions of people who never bought it.

 

[likesfish]

Apart from the many millions of people who never bought it.

They did get away with it same with bloody sunday for twenty odd years

 

[chandlerp]

Never understood the whole "grassing on your mates is the worst thing you can ever do" mentality.

Stuff that went on here needed to be reported. That's not grassing someone up it is crime prevention which is their fucking job.

 

[DaveCinzano]

No mobile signal? That's sub dog-ate-my-homework stuff.

The only top cop who could have got away with that excuse was Chief Constable Todd.

 

[butchersapron]

IPCC update later today.

 

[Fedayn]

Hillsborough: Fans' accounts and more police statements 'amended'

Fans' statements after the Hillsborough stadium disaster "may have been altered", the police watchdog has said.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission also said 74 further police statements could have been changed - taking the total number above 200.

 

[butchersapron]

Holy fuck, they altered fans statements.

edit as fed said above.

 

[butchersapron]

The statement.

From our work on this we have recovered West Midlands policy books that have never been seen by previous inquiries. We have identified the statements of 74 more officers which may have been amended. We have also uncovered material which would suggest that fans’ witness accounts may have been altered. We have recovered pocket notebooks from officers who were on duty on the day of the match. We are in the process of interviewing all the surviving officers whose accounts were amended.

 

[butchersapron]

A panel to monitor the go-slow. Rather than making them speed up.

 

[butchersapron]

Anniversary of publication. Here's the crime report for the stolen CCTV tapes of the day. Stolen from a room that was both locked and alarmed - wonder why they wanted 'no publicity'? (via @wrong_kennedy). More here.

 

[butchersapron]

A panel to monitor the go-slow. Rather than making them speed up.

Phil Scraton has said this panel lacks expertise understanding and has no in-depth background knowledge of what happened. So a chocolate teapot effectively.

Here a vid of a talk he did on Recovering Truth, Informing Justice- Researching the Hillsborough Disaster:

 

[elbows]

Manslaughter charges could be brought against organisations over the deaths of 96 fans in the Hillsborough tragedy, an inquiry boss has said.

Jon Stoddart said he was looking at the actions of South Yorkshire Police, Sheffield Wednesday FC, Sheffield City Council and the FA.

The retired officer said they were all being investigated for possible gross negligence manslaughter.

His team have found new evidence while going through thousands of documents.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-24064118

 

[William of Walworth]

Don't know how much proper-new is in these Guardian articles from today (Thurs), but interesting maybe (apols if Guardian is recycling stuff already well known on here) :

David Conn :
Hillsborough: police, FA, council and club could face manslaughter charges
Lead detective reveals scale of investigation, which will be pursued under 1989 gross negligence manslaughter law

David Conn analysis bit :
Hillsborough: more new hope for families scarred by a long struggle
For 23 years, victims' groups seemed to be getting nowhere. In the last 12 months, their progress has been spectacular

Sandra Laville :
Hillsborough disaster witness statements may have been altered by police – inquiry
West Midlands police may be responsible, IPCC says, and new evidence has been found from 90 South Yorkshire pocket books

 

[butchersapron]

Guess who...again:

Hillsborough cop tipped off before files were made public

SIR Norman Bettison was passed Hillsborough files suggesting he had a key role in an alleged police propaganda campaign a year before they were made public.

...

The documents, released last September, have helped spark an investigation into Sir Norman’s conduct in the aftermath of the Sheffield disaster on April 15, 1989.

But they came as no surprise to the then West Yorkshire chief constable because he was sent them by his former force, South Yorkshire Police (SYP), in a December 2011 email

 

[Voley]

Is there any chance of this bastard doing some time?

 

[butchersapron]

I really can't see it happening. There's more to come on him as soon well - stuff about his use of hospitality packages to places like Old Trafford to head off disciplinary actions or to gain access to incriminating material...

 

[teqniq]

One would really hope so, the evidence building up thus far is compelling. Unfortunately it often seems that when individuals obtain positions of power within the state they often obtain a certain immunity. Whether this is because of fear of information he may have on others and also may bring down if bought to court or whether is because the state always protects it's own is open to question. I suspect the truth may lie somewhere in between.

 

[Voley]

Yeah I'm not optimistic either. If he plays for time he could well evade justice even if he's pursued. The current reinvestigation could take three years, even if that recommended prosecution he could probably tie the courts up with appeal after appeal. Then claim ill-health, how a poor old retired man is being hounded etc etc. You know how it is.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Yeah I'm not optimistic either. If he plays for time he could well evade justice even if he's pursued. The current reinvestigation could take three years, even if that recommended prosecution he could probably tie the courts up with appeal after appeal. Then claim ill-health, how a poor old retired man is being hounded etc etc. You know how it is.

If only cop-killers went after the brass rather than the foot-soldiers.

 

[butchersapron]

Another day...

IPCC: 12,000 people filled out WMP witness forms after Hillsborough. The IPCC says it has found evidence that they may have been doctored and calls for witnesses to contact them.

 

[butchersapron]

And marvelous: the IPCC investigator (Chris Mahaffey) announcing the above was involved in the initial Tomlinson cover-up.

(This coming from the excellent Johnathon Corke, the Daily Star journalist who is refusing to let any of this go)

 

[butchersapron]

Guess who...again:

Hillsborough cop tipped off before files were made public

...and on top of this (this was december 2011) SYP also gave this scumbag a confidential briefing in february 2012.

 

[likesfish]

Fucking up is one thing shit happens.
Even the intitial storys might be explained in the confusion as in the Jean de menzes case a bloke in a heavy coat did jump the gates unfortunatly it was one of the armed coppers.
But altering statements,stealing cash from the dead etc etc etc jail time should happen but it wont.

 

[friedaweed]

Phil Scraton has said this panel lacks expertise understanding and has no in-depth background knowledge of what happened. So a chocolate teapot effectively.

Here a vid of a talk he did on Recovering Truth, Informing Justice- Researching the Hillsborough Disaster:

Do you think it's that 'bearing witness' emphasis that Phil mentions that's resulted in them asking for witnesses to come forth again?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-24125645

Thousands of witnesses to the Hillsborough disaster are to be re-interviewed as part of the fresh investigation by the police watchdog.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) wants people who were at the stadium in 1989 to contact its team examining the police actions.

 

[butchersapron]

Mentioned that above. And no, i think it's that the corrupt IPCC investigation into the corrupt west midlands police investigation into the corrupt SYP investigation has show that the sheer volume of alterations cannot be covered up and credibly presented as results, esp results now open to public scrutiny - and if it were it would easily be taken down by witnesses challenging it.

The key point is that there is evidence from the very slow and very partial IPCC investigation that of the witness statements they have looked at, many were altered in conditions where this could only be done by the police. And that this is on top of the alterations in police and ambulance statements.

 

[butchersapron]

Don't know if anyone saw this story yesterday:

Crown Prosecution Service spends £1MILLION on golden goodbyes for just two former employees

Well, Mike Kennedy, the one who received "at least £515,000" was present at the CPS meeting in 1990 that decided no prosecutions were to be brought against any police as a result of the disaster - and who decided they didn't need to bother reading all of the evidence to reach that decision. Barely 10% was looked at - and they left it up to the police themselves to decide what that 10% consisted of. The CPS then tried to cover this up. 20 years later he is given millions from tax-payers money and the families are left fighting the same cover-ups, the same white-washes and the same lies.

 

[chandlerp]

It doesn't say millions does it? It says at least £515,000. Which is still too fucking much

 

[butchersapron]

It doesn't say millions does it? It says at least £515,000. Which is still too fucking much

Well i presume he was paid some form of wages in the intervening years. He was being paid 150 grand basic a year recently. For playing a role in making the decisions like the one outlined above and then trying to cover them up.

 

[DaveCinzano]

Mike Kennedy...

As an aside he was also lead prosecutor in Sussex from shortly after cops there executed unarmed and naked James Ashley in bed through to shortly before the acquittal on murder and manslaughter charges of fatal shooter PC Chris Sherwood.

Given that Kent Constabulary ran the inquiry, and the trials of the police officers involved took place at the Old Bailey and in Wolverhampton, I don't think there is any suggestion he was intimately involved in the prosecutions themselves. However, he would have had a close relationship with senior officers keen to do whatever it took - including smearing the dead man as a dangerous drug dealer, inflating the value of the flawed pre-operation intelligence, ensuring the critical external force reports were kept secret - to close down any suggestion of police impropriety (again) throughout the two years of his tenure as CCP.