The jury at the trial for manslaughter of the match commander at the 1989 FA Cup semi-final at Hillsborough has been told that he accepted at the 2014-16 inquests into the disaster that his professional failings had caused the deaths of 96 people.
In a series of admissions read by the prosecution barristers Christine Agnew QC and Charlotte Atherton at Preston crown court, David Duckenfield accepted he had lacked the necessary experience and competence to take command of the match, between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at Sheffield Wednesday’s ground on 15 April 1989. He accepted it was a mistake to take on the role after being promoted to chief superintendent 19 days earlier and having not policed at Hillsborough since 1979.
Duckenfield specifically accepted that the crush in the central “pens” three and four of the Leppings Lane terraces, which killed 96 people, was caused by his failure to close off a tunnel to direct incoming people away from those pens. He had previously ordered a large exit gate, C, to be opened at 2:52pm to let in about 2,000 people with tickets to support Liverpool who had been caught in serious congestion outside at the turnstiles.
Duckenfield admitted that although gate C stayed open for five minutes, he did not consider where the incoming people would go. A match commander “of reasonable competence” ought to have thought about that, he agreed, and that his response had been “a grave mistake”. He had an insufficient grip of the ground’s geography, he accepted, and that was “totally unacceptable”.
Paul Greaney QC put it to Duckenfield at the inquests that after gate C had been opened, he froze. Duckenfield at first disagreed, but Greaney persisted: “Mr Duckenfield, you know what was in your mind, and I will ask you just one last time. Will you accept that, in fact, you froze?”
“Yes, sir,” Duckenfield replied.
Duckenfield agreed that as match commander he led all of the officers policing the match and they were entitled to look to him for instruction and guidance. He accepted that he lacked experience and competence, and there was “a whole series of things” of which he was unaware or misunderstood.
In his preparations, he acknowledged that he had been unable to have a full discussion with the match commander he replaced, Ch Supt Brian Mole; that he had not seen the safety certificate for the ground, and did not know of overcrowding problems at the 1981 and 1988 semi-finals. He did not realise the Leppings Lane turnstile area was a bottleneck, and did not take steps to filter people to prevent congestion building up. He agreed that it was for him, and him alone, to decide if the 3pm kick-off should be delayed, which might have eased the pressure outside, and it was his failure not to do so.
Of failing to close the tunnel after gate C was opened, Greaney put it to him: “That failure was the direct cause of the deaths of 96 persons in the Hillsborough tragedy.”
“Yes, sir,” Duckenfield replied. Another barrister, John Beggs QC, then asked him “whether it has been easy … to admit that your professional failings led to the deaths of 96 innocent men, women and children, and the injuries to many more?”
“Sir, it has been the most difficult period of my life,” he replied.
Duckenfield, 74, denies gross negligence manslaughter in relation to 95 of the people killed. Graham Mackrell, 69, the former Sheffield Wednesday secretary and safety officer, has pleaded not guilty to two breaches of safety legislation.
The trial continues.
