Hillsborough families fear police report won’t ‘give all the answers’

Families of some of those killed in the Hillsborough disaster fear they could once again be denied full responsibility as the long-delayed report into police conduct surrounding the stadium crush is due to be published on Tuesday.

Several people who worked on the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) investigation, including a former director, have told the BBC they doubt the report will provide all the answers that were promised to survivors and grieving relatives.

Some have warned this could lead to accusations of another cover-up in Hillsborough.

The families have also criticized the length and cost of the investigation, the largest of its kind ever carried out in England and Wales.

The police watchdog has spent more than 13 years examining the actions of South Yorkshire Police and other forces following the 1989 disaster in which 97 Liverpool fans were killed during an FA Cup semi-final at Sheffield Wednesday’s Hillsborough ground.

The IOPC had planned to publish its full report, which BBC News says is several thousand pages long, but will now publish a “more focused” 400-page version.

He said the change was prompted by “concerns” from survivors and relatives about the sensitivity of some materials and is intended to avoid undermining previous investigations.

Jenni Hicks, whose teenage daughters Sarah and Victoria died at Hillsborough, said she would have preferred families to see the longer report before making any decisions about its release.

“I don’t expect any big revelations,” he said. “I am very disappointed that we did not receive the full report.

“I would have liked to see what took 13 years to produce.”

Some experts said they believe the process has been hampered by internal disagreements, overlapping investigations and a lack of momentum.

Mike Benbow, who previously led the inquiry for five years, said: “The inquiry was partly about trying to restore faith and confidence in a judicial process that had let families down for many years.

“It remains to be seen if we have achieved closure for anyone.

“After 13 years, people deserve more than a 400-page report.”

Another insider, who did not want to be named, said: “It will be the equivalent of seeing a house through a keyhole.

“It won’t tell you anything at all. It will just be an executive summary and a chronology of what happened.”

The IOPC said the full report would be placed in the National Archives and transfer would begin next year, although no deadline has been set.

The IOPC investigation was developed alongside Operation Resolve, a criminal investigation focused on the day of the disaster.

Both were created in 2012 following revelations of a widespread cover-up in which police leaders were found to have spread false narratives blaming Liverpool fans and hiding evidence of their own failures.

Officials promised a new era of transparency.

In that moment, families bereaved by the disaster – and the thousands of people who survived – dared to feel optimistic for the first time in more than 20 years.

The researchers were aware of the weight of their responsibility: to correct the mistakes of the past.

In 2013, Deborah Glass, then vice-chair of the IPCC (predecessor of the IOPC), told the BBC that she hoped the research could be completed within two years.

“Hillsborough has a history of botched investigations by other agencies that led to results that people didn’t trust. We can’t allow any more of that,” he said.

“What we need to achieve here is the final definitive investigation into Hillsborough so that the next generation will no longer be looking for answers. We have to be successful.”

More than £150m has been spent on IOPC investigations and Operation Resolve, according to a BBC analysis of accounts.

This includes more than £56 million in IOPC staff, which peaked at around 200 staff, at least £10 million in accommodation, with dedicated offices in Warrington, and up to £18,000 per year of IOPC spending on office supplies.

In the early years of the research, the teams overcame practical and technological challenges.

On a visit to the archive in 2016, the BBC saw original police notebooks kept under lock and key for 25 years.

Some were so neglected that they had to be cleaned of rat droppings before they could be analyzed.

Evidence on VHS tapes and floppy disks required resurrected 1980s computers to view and modern facial recognition tools had to be used to track fans’ movements frame by frame.

The scale was unprecedented and there was a sense of purpose. However, 13 years later, the optimism felt by survivors and their families has faded.

After the criminal trials ended without significant convictions and after Police Commander David Duckenfield was acquitted, many grieving relatives began to lose faith in the process.

Several told the BBC they felt the IOPC investigation was pointless.

They knew that all the police officers involved had retired or died. Even if they were found guilty of misconduct, no sanctions could be imposed.

“I hope it’s not a waste of taxpayers’ money,” Ms. Hicks said.

“We’ve just had the budget and people are struggling. Maybe the money would have been better spent on the NHS, or somewhere else that’s desperately needed.”

Charlotte Hennessy was just six years old when her father, James, died in the disaster.

He said the length of the investigations, as well as the original cover-up, have resulted in Hillsborough pursuing his adult life.

“The process has been extremely long and I have no doubt it will only leave us frustrated,” he said.

“We want to be able to live our lives, but this constantly drags us down.”

He added: “There has been no empathy for my own mental health, no compassion for how distressing the outcome can be.”

Hennessy is also uncomfortable with the cost of such a long-term investigation.

“You can’t put a price on my father’s life, but I would never have wanted public money to be used this way. It’s an atrocious waste,” he said.

Families received the full report on Monday, although those who filed complaints had already been notified of the results.

Many have not been confirmed, with the IOPC citing a lack of evidence.

This has been difficult to swallow for whistleblowers who felt they had read too much evidence in the 2012 Hillsborough Independent Panel report that exposed the cover-up, and had heard much more in the investigations that followed.

For them, it has had the effect of turning back the dial of justice.

Hennessy had complained of gross negligence by police after the 2016 Hillsborough investigations found his father could have survived with better emergency medical care.

You have now been informed that the IOPC found no case to respond to.

“I’m really frustrated,” she said.

“They’ve had a decade to write this and I don’t think it’s worth the paper it’s written on. No report will change the facts.”

Debbie Matthews, whose brother Brian was murdered in Hillsborough, filed two complaints alleging that officers had fabricated evidence and made false statements.

He said one was not confirmed while the other was considered outside the scope of the investigation.

“We’ve been through hell and back and it feels like we’re getting kicked again,” he said.

“We’re really frustrated. Our mental health is suffering a lot because of this.”

Andy Burnham, the Merseyside-born mayor of Greater Manchester, who was culture secretary when the Hillsborough re-scrutiny began, said he hopes the report will result in senior police officers at the time being held to account.

“The campaign we worked on established the truth about Hillsborough… that there was a failure of policing on unsafe ground,” he told BBC Radio Manchester last week.

“What it has never achieved is individual accountability for the officers who spearheaded a cover-up and attempted to shift the blame onto Liverpool fans.”

The publication of the report comes as the Public Office (Accountability) Bill, widely known as the Hillsborough Act, continues its passage through Parliament.

The legislation aims to ensure that victims of major incidents receive greater transparency and accountability in the future and that public bodies have a legal duty to be truthful and cooperate fully with investigations.

The bill is backed by Sir Keir Starmer, who Hennessy says personally promised him it would be implemented.

Burnham has also renewed her call to create a permanent victims’ advocacy body to help grieving families hold institutions to account.

Many who once felt hopeful now approach the IOPC conclusions with a sense of resignation.

Families who celebrated the publication of the Independent Panel report and cried with joy after the inquests verdicts in 2016 felt they were getting to the truth, but they also wanted justice and accountability.

An IOPC spokesperson said: “We share the frustrations of survivors, bereaved families and all those who have campaigned for so long for answers, and we have told them they deserve better.”

“Our investigations are part of what have been very long and unprecedented processes.”