During the most recent inquest into the disaster such accounts were picked apart bringing the newspaper’s claims into disrepute.
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An inquest jury concluded on Tuesday (Tuesday night NZT) that 96 Liverpool fans who died in an overcrowded, fenced-in enclosure at the Hillsborough ground in Sheffield, northern England, had been unlawfully killed, with police accepting catastrophic mistakes had been made.
“It was, and still is, the biggest disaster in British sporting history”.
“Today, as I have said before, I want to apologise unreservedly to the families and all those affected”. “But I do blame their leadership and culture, which seems rotten to the core”, he said, calling on the Home Secretary to order the “fundamental reform” of the force and “consider all options”.
The names and ages of the victims will be read outside St George’s Hall in Liverpool city center on Wednesday.
She told the vigil: “The system, the police force of South Yorkshire ought to be ashamed of themselves and hang their heads in shame”.
It followed a previous apology in 2012 from Mr Crompton after the release of the damning Hillsborough Independent Panel report which concluded a major cover-up had taken place in an effort by police and others to avoid the blame for what happened. “They lived through it, they did everything they possibly could to help people who were struggling”, he said.
A photo of the families outside the Warrington court room appeared on later editions of The Times, along with a trailer for its coverage that ran into several pages, including an editorial comment. Nevertheless, these failures had to be put into the context of other contributory factors.
“We are sorry if our approach has been perceived as at odds with our earlier apology, this was certainly not our intention”. But the families have never faltered in their pursuit of the truth.
It endorsed statements saying there were “errors or omissions” in police planning, policing on the day of the match, and the action of commanding officers, which had all “caused or contributed” to the events that led to the deaths.
The families of the 96 people who died at Hillsborough had called on Crompton to resign immediately, and accused the force of seeking to mislead the inquests into their deaths.
“One is looking at gross negligence manslaughter, perversions of the course of justice, perjury, misconduct in a public office – all extremely serious offences and a lot of evidence to be looked at”.
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“Thankfully, the jury saw through the lies, and I’m sure, repeating what my right-honourable friend the Home Secretary said, this house will join me in thanking the jury for their devotion to this task, and giving two years of their lives to this important public duty”.
