Police officers who served in South Yorkshire in the 1980s have been told they “did a good job” despite the deaths of 96 fans at Hillsborough.
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The message from Rick Naylor, secretary of the South Yorkshire National Association of Retired Police Officers, appeared on the organisation’s website although it was not meant to be made public, according to the BBC.
SYP Police and Crime Commissioner Alan Billings said Mr Crompton, who is reportedly in line for a £2million pension pot, is unlikely to return.
South Yorkshire Police Chief Constable David Crompton has been suspended over his handling of the inquest into the Hillsborough disaster of 1989. “I’m simply offering the opinion that for there to be justice there needs to be balance and we have got to be careful how we make decisions, and especially when it is such a hard case as this”.
Former home secretary David Blunkett said Mr Billings had been right to suspend the chief constable.
“That is, as I said, extraordinary and I think we will rarely see the like again”.
Lawyers acting for the families of the Hillsborough disaster victims are to press ahead with legal action against South Yorkshire Police and West Midlands Police over the “widespread police cover-up” which had attempted to blame fans.
Relatives are taking both South Yorkshire Police, the subject of a jury’s damning verdicts this week, and West Midlands Police, who carried out the initial probe into how the match was handled, to the High Court for millions in damages.
Overcrowding during the 1989 FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest resulted in a human crush, killing 96 Liverpool fans and injuring hundreds more.
A 1991 inquest ruled that the deaths were accidental and senior police and security officials blamed the victims for causing their own deaths. Steve Kelly, of the Hillsborough Justice Campaign, who lost his brother, Mike, 38, in the disaster, told the paper: “People could read Eleanor’s reports and feel as if they were there, because they were so well-written”.
He said that retired police officers should not be immune from misconduct proceedings and laws needed to be changed, adding: “We’ve had truth, we’ve had justice, there now must be accountability”.
Quoted in the Echo she said: “Many families weren’t able to attend the inquests on a regular basis, and the Echo was determined to keep them, and all our readers, as well-informed as possible”.
And then imagine that those who failed them in their time of need laid the blame at the feet of the dead.
The deaths of 96 innocent people happened because of the failings of the police, the ambulance service and the stadium operators.
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He added that last month the police chief had announced his intention to retire in November, and that the process of replacing him had already begun.
