The admissions of failure made in 2015 by the man who was match commander during the Hillsborough disaster, which claimed 96 lives, should be dismissed, his barrister has told his trial for manslaughter.
Benjamin Myers QC, defending, said the admissions David Duckenfield made at the 2014-16 inquests in Warrington, which included answers he gave to his own barrister, John Beggs QC, were made after he was “bombarded with questions” for days.
The former South Yorkshire police chief superintendent had become “worn down” and the jury hearing his trial at Preston crown court might have concluded that “he had given up”, Myers said.
Duckenfield’s admissions to three barristers at the inquests, which have been read to the jury, included that he “froze” at critical moments in the build-up to the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest on 15 April 1989.
He accepted in his evidence to the inquests that, having been promoted to chief superintendent and match commander 19 days before the match, his “professional failings led to the deaths of 96 innocent men, women and children, and the injuries to
many more”.
On the second day of his speech closing the defence case for Duckenfield to the charge of gross negligence manslaughter, Myers also told the jury that other factors contributed to the disaster for which he believed Duckenfield was being unfairly blamed.
These, he said, included failings by other South Yorkshire police officers at the match, some Liverpool fans arriving late after having a drink and pushing to try to get in, and some fans who did not have tickets exacerbating a crush at the Leppings Lane turnstiles.
Myers said these points about the behaviour of some of the 24,000 people who had tickets to support Liverpool were not made to be unpleasant, but that the trial could not ignore them, “rewriting history to spare the shame of some”.
In his evidence to the Warrington inquests read to the jury by Myers, Duckenfield acknowledged to Beggs that he made “serious failings” at the match. These included not delaying the scheduled 3pm kick-off to try to ease overcrowding at the turnstiles, and failing to ensure a tunnel inside was closed off that led to the terrace’s central “pens” 3 and 4, where the lethal crush happened.
The jury has heard that Duckenfield gave an order at 2.52pm for exit gate C to be opened to allow a large number of people into the ground and alleviate the pressure at the turnstiles, but the tunnel was not closed off and many of the incoming people went through it.
Myers said many of Duckenfield’s admissions of failure at the inquests were given with the qualification of hindsight, but later picked up on without acknowledging that explanation or his problems with remembering the events. Duckenfield was questioned by “four or five” other barristers, over four or five days, between some of the admissions the jury has been shown, Myers said, and he had become “worn down”; some of it was “very disorientating” and “impossible to deal with”.
Myers told the jury that Duckenfield had been “bombarded with questions until he [ended] up accepting some of it”.
Referring to Duckenfield’s admission to Paul Greaney QC, representing junior ranking officers in the Police Federation, that he froze after the opening of gate C, Myers said it was very unfair persistent questioning, and that the evidence did not establish that Duckenfield froze.
Myers said the admissions had to be considered with the sharp focus of criminal proceedings: “A criminal trial is a rigorous test of a prosecution theory. An inquest is a different kind of hearing,” he said.
Telling the jury that the admissions should be dismissed, Myers said: “You will want to consider this material. We don’t dismiss it lightly, but ultimately we do.”
Myers said Duckenfield had to cope with four challenging elements that were different from the match played between the same two clubs the previous year: a reduction in police personnel; changed turnstile arrangements that meant all 10,100 people with standing tickets to support Liverpool had to go through seven turnstiles; police radios failing; and some fans arriving late and without tickets.
Referring to the failings of other police officers outside at the turnstiles, inside on the Leppings Lane concourse, and Supt Bernard Murray, who was in charge in the police control box, Myers told the jury: “We say [Duckenfield] did do what was expected in the circumstances. Others, perhaps, didn’t.”
Myers is expected to finish his closing speech on Wednesday.
