A crowd of more than 5,000 people gathered in the Kop at Anfield gave a standing ovation to the chair of the Hillsborough Family Support Group, Margaret Aspinall, who promised to see their campaign for justice through to its conclusion.
Speaking at the 26th anniversary memorial service to the 96 people who died at Hillsborough in 1989, Aspinall, whose 18-year-old son James was one of the Liverpool supporters killed at the FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest, said of the new inquests into the disaster: “We will not see a job half done; we will make sure this job is done properly.”
The crowd, many of whom were at Hillsborough and survived the crush in the Leppings Lane central “pens”, applauded Aspinall’s combative speech, and there were calls of “Justice for the 96.” In return, she paid tribute to the fans, and survivors who have given evidence to the inquests about what happened.
“A lot of the fans came home from Hillsborough feeling guilty,” Aspinall, standing on the Anfield pitch, told the crowd. “Why they felt guilt, I will never know. The families owe a great debt to the fans, because without them coming home and giving their accounts we wouldn’t be where we are today. So I thank them very much.”
The service of prayers, hymns, readings and speeches, took place a year into new inquests, which began on 31 March 2014, ordered after the original 1990-91 inquests were quashed by the high court in December 2012. Aspinall said she was restricted in what she could say because of legal proceedings, which are scheduled to last a further year, as individual inquests are still to be held for all the 96 who died. She reflected she was a young woman, with a young family, in 1989, saying that now she is an old woman, with grandchildren, still seeing through the justice process for the loss of her son and the other victims of Hillsborough 26 years ago. The names of all the 96 who died were read by three local priests, and a candle lit for each, in alphabetical order from John Anderson, 62 when he died, to Graham Wright, 17. The reading of names, heard in silence, took more than seven minutes.
Sue Johnston, the acclaimed actor who formerly starred in the Liverpool soap opera Brookside, a long-term supporter of the Hillsborough families, read lyrics from the Beatles song In My Life to a rapt reception.
In a characteristic show of unity from Liverpool’s rivals Everton, the former player Graham Stuart, now an Everton ambassador, gave one of the Bible readings. The other was delivered by John Aldridge, who was a striker in Kenny Dalglish’s Liverpool team on the day of the 1989 semi-final.
After Aspinall’s speech, as the crowd sang the Liverpool anthem You’ll Never Walk Alone, the club captain, Steven Gerrard, and his Everton counterpart, Phil Jagielka, together released 96 red and white balloons from the centre circle. Gerrard’s cousin Jon-Paul Gilhooley was the youngest person to die at Hillsborough, aged 10. “We’ve got a long journey ahead of us,” said Aspinall, who with dozens of bereaved family members has attended the new inquests daily.
The inquests resume in Warrington on Monday 20 April after a break for Easter and the memorial service. The next phase of the inquests will hear from South Yorkshire police witnesses about how they gathered evidence about the disaster, which the families’ lawyers have alleged was a cover-up.
