Former striking miners who were arrested during the violent confrontation at Orgreave in 1984 said their names could finally be cleared after the announcement of a public inquiry.
The inquiry, expected to launch in the autumn, will investigate the events surrounding clashes at the Orgreave Coking Plant in South Yorkshire on June 18 1984, which caused 120 injuries.
In total, 95 picketers were arrested and initially charged with riot and violent disorder, but all charges were later dropped after evidence was discredited.
On Monday representatives from the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign welcomed the “historic and momentous announcement” at a press conference in Sheffield.
Kevin Horne, who was one of the 95 people arrested on that day, said: “We have this chance now to wipe the slate clean so that our children and grandchildren can respect the police again.”
He said his children had “seen me come back from Orgreave black and blue” adding: “I had to wait 14 months for my name to be cleared, all the time thinking I could go to prison for life.”
Another former miner who attended the press conference, Craig Mansell, told the PA news agency he had been arrested at 8.45am on that day and “saw a few nasty things”.
He said: “These are the police that are supposed to help us in our country – they were animals, a lot of them were OTT.”
Mr Mansell, 59, from Sheffield, said the announcement of a public inquiry was “brilliant”.
“It means a lot. We can finally put everything to bed, get it out there and let people know exactly what went off and why it went off.”
He told PA: “It’s bitter, because there’s thousands that’s no longer with us that have been wanting this to happen for 41 years. They’re not around to see it, but hopefully their names will be cleared.”
John Dunn, who was not present at Orgreave but was arrested on other occasions throughout the miners’ strike, told the press conference: “The best we can hope for is that we clear our names.
“Every copper who perjured themselves, everybody who gave instructions about what they had to write in their arrest statements must be held to account.
“I don’t think we’ll ever get real justice but if we can clear our names and absolve the NUM of all the slanders and the smears, we can go a fair way to making sure things like that stop and aren’t allowed to happen again.”
The inquiry will be statutory with powers to compel people to provide information where necessary, the Home Office said.
The Rt Revd Dr Pete Wilcox, the Bishop of Sheffield, has agreed to chair the inquiry, which the Home Office said is intended to “aid the public’s understanding of how the events on the day, and immediately after, came to pass”.
A statement read at the event by Chris Peace from the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign said what happened at Orgreave was key to understanding what happened throughout the 1984-5 strike.
She said: “Events relating to this day can provide answers to how and why paramilitary violent policing across mining villages and communities all over Britain was taking place throughout the strike.
“We want answers to questions about the systemic violent and lying behaviour of the police.
“We need to know how police officers on the ground were briefed and how that briefing came about.
“We need government and police papers releasing that have been embargoed until 2066 and 2071.
“What is important is that due to the age and health of many miners we quickly secure a public acknowledgement of why and what the state did to the miners and our communities.”
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