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Multiple allegations of misconduct against police officers relating to the 1989 Hillsborough disaster have been upheld by the police standards watchdog, bereaved families have been told.
However, none will face disciplinary proceedings because they have all left the police service.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said it had upheld complaints against some former South Yorkshire police officers, and some who were serving at the West Midlands force, for misconduct during its original investigation into the disaster.
In letters sent to bereaved family members this week, the IOPC deputy director general Kathie Cashell said almost 100 people had made a total of 354 complaints of misconduct, the investigations into some of which were still being finalised.
“However, to date just over half of complainants have had at least one complaint upheld, or in our opinion there would have been a case to answer for misconduct for one or more officers, had they remained serving,” she wrote. “I understand that for many it will be disappointing that this number is not higher.”
On 15 April 1989, 97 men, women and children, aged from 10 to 67, were killed in the lethal crush at Sheffield Wednesday’s Hillsborough stadium at an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest.
Even as people were dying, South Yorkshire police mounted a false narrative that the disaster had been caused by Liverpool supporters arriving in large numbers late, drunk and without tickets. Bereaved families, survivors, supporters and campaigners relentlessly fought the case, accusing the force of lying to cover up its responsibility.
Many survivors, including some who were under 18 at the time, have complained about how West Midlands police officers questioned them, and the IOPC said it had upheld some of those complaints.
In April 2016, the jury at new inquests – held after a 1991 inquest verdict of accidental death was quashed in 2012 – determined that those who died had been unlawfully killed due to gross negligence manslaughter by Ch Supt David Duckenfield, the officer in charge of match safety.
The jury also determined that no behaviour of Liverpool supporters contributed to the disaster. Families have long protested that no police officer faced disciplinary proceedings for the mismanagement that caused the disaster or the false narrative. Duckenfield was prosecuted for gross negligence manslaughter and acquitted in 2019.
Cashell informed complainants that the IOPC’s investigations had reached the same conclusions as the jury at the new inquests. She said complaints had been upheld against senior South Yorkshire officers for the policing of the match and against a number of other officers for being abusive of supporters at the match and some for “excessive use of force”.
However, she said most complaints against police officers for seeking “to deflect the blame” had not been upheld because there was no legal duty at the time for the police to be candid.
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Bereaved families and their lawyers have campaigned for a “Hillsborough law” that would impose a statutory duty of candour on police and public officials. The government has promised to introduce it in some form by next month, the 36th anniversary of the disaster.
Cashell wrote: “Like the HIP [Hillsborough independent panel] report, our investigations did find evidence to support allegations that in the aftermath of the disaster, South Yorkshire police sought to deflect the blame from themselves. We found no evidence to support claims that the behaviour of supporters was a contributing factor.
“In the majority of cases, we were unable to find the officers had a case to answer for misconduct because the professional standards for policing at the time did not include a specific duty of candour. Despite the wider public interest to gain answers about what happened, South Yorkshire police was entitled, within the law at the time, to present its ‘best case’ and be selective with the evidence it presented.”
Cashell said the IOPC would inform complainants, who include bereaved families and survivors of the disaster, of the findings regarding individual complaints by 28 March.
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