A friend of two men who died at Hillsborough broke down in tears at the new inquests into the disaster when he recalled one of them pleading for help in his final moments.
David Roberts had travelled to Sheffield Wednesday’s ground with Alan McGlone, 28, and Joseph Clark, 29, both fathers with two young children each, and Joseph’s brother Stephen, to support Liverpool in the 1989 FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest.
Roberts told the inquests on Monday that he, McGlone and Joseph Clark were crushed towards the front of pen three of the football ground’s Leppings Lane terrace. He said the pressure of people there was so great that nobody could move and he had trouble breathing.
Questioned by Brenda Campbell, representing the McGlone and Clark families, Roberts recalled that in the crush somebody had vomited on the face of another person, who could not even move his hands to wipe the vomit off.
He said he was lifted off the ground and had no control over his movements, then suddenly found himself freed and out on the pitch side, because a gate in the metal mesh perimeter fence had burst open.
“The best way to describe it,” Roberts said, giving his evidence in a low, quiet voice, “it was like water. Water – I was poured on to the pitch.”
He said he climbed on to the perimeter fence to look for Joseph Clark and McGlone among the crowd – Stephen Clark had a ticket in the seated area – and picked out Joseph, who did not appear to be in danger at that time.
Asked by Christina Lambert QC, for the coroner Sir John Goldring, what Joseph said to him, Roberts began to cry. Gathering himself after a pause, he recalled: “We were always joking about – that’s all we ever did. Because I was on the pitch, he shouted to me: ‘Ginger, you tit!’”
That prompted a ripple of laughter in the courtroom in Warrington, where approximately 100 people whose relatives were among the 96 who died sat in the public gallery.
Roberts said he was reassured by Joseph cracking a joke, but then he walked along the perimeter track at the front of pens three and four where he saw people crushed against the metal fence and realised his friends were in great danger. He went back to climb on the fence, saw Joseph Clark again, but this time the situation had become serious.
“He was in trouble then,” Roberts said quietly. “He couldn’t move, but he shouted to me: ‘Get me out! Get me out!”
“How did he look?” Lambert asked him. “Distressed,” Roberts replied, “as everybody did.”
BBC colour footage was played on the screens in the courtoom which had McGlone and Clark picked out in piles of bodies at the front of pen three. McGlone was shown being pulled out of the pen by South Yorkshire police officers, laid out on the pitch, then carried on an advertising hoarding to the Hillsborough gymnasium, where the bodies were being kept.
Clark was carried by three supporters and police officers on what one officer, sergeant Peter Doyle, described as “a short, broken ladder”. Doyle confirmed that he did not check Clark for a pulse or other signs of life but said he was certain from his colour that he was dead.
A third victim, Michael Kelly, 38 – a former Royal Navy seaman and father of a young daughter – was remembered by his younger brother Stephen, who had to travel to Sheffield on 16 April 1989, the day after the disaster, to identify Michael’s body.
Stephen Kelly said that it did not occur to him that Michael would be caught up in the crush because he was “quite a big lad” and an experienced football fan. “When I never heard from Mike, I actually thought he was safe,” he said.
Two South Yorkshire police constables, Simon Lally and Charles Wilmott, gave evidence about carrying Michael Kelly and Alan McGlone on advertising hoardings into the gymnasium, agreeing that they had mixed them up when identifying them. Lally described as “shocking” the scene in the gymnasium, where he was met by other officers.
“They said: ‘Is he dead, is he alive?’ as though “Is it hot, is it cold?’” Lally said. “So it was really strange and a shock. Having gone into the gym, which was itself quite shocking, my immediate actions I can’t 100% recall.”
Campbell, representing Alan McGlone’s wife Irene and daughters Amy, who was five in April 1989, and Claire, then two, referred Lally to a statement he made about his experiences after the disaster.
He confirmed he was 21 at the time, that he had to stay with Alan McGlone’s dead body all night in the gymnasium, and that he was concerned for members of his own family who were at the match, including his brother, Chris.
“The whole experience you made quite clear, of being in the gym, being with Mr McGlone and others, was entirely overwhelming to you?” Campbell asked. “Yes it was,” he replied.
The inquests continue.
