The most senior South Yorkshire police officer in command inside Hillsborough football ground, where 96 people died at the 1989 FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest, has rejected assertions that he was too slow to react when the lethal crush happened.
The new inquest into the disaster was shown distressing pictures from just after 3pm on the day, 15 April 1989, when Liverpool fans were crushed against each other and into the metal mesh fence in front of the Leppings Lane terrace pens.
That picture included two of the 96 people who did die in the crush: Marian McCabe, 21, and Inger Shah, a 38-year old mother of two teenage children who were taken into care after the disaster.
Roger Greenwood, then a superintendent, told the court that at that point, he still believed the situation in the Leppings Lane pens was recoverable.
He stood on an advertising hoarding in front of those people crushed against the fence, and gestured and shouted for the crowd behind them to move back. When that did not happen, at 3.05pm he ran onto the Hillsborough pitch and asked the referee to abandon the match.
Bolt-cutting equipment was not called for until 3.14pm, though Greenwood said he believed it could have posed a danger and caused a stampede had the fence been cut open.
Stephen Simblet, representing 75 families whose relatives died in the crush, told Greenwood: “The complaint made against you is that you were too slow to react. Surely there was a whole range of things that you needed to do to try and get those people out, and merely standing on the fence gesturing for them to go back wasn’t anywhere near enough, was it?”
Greenwood replied: “I can only, with respect, deal with my judgment at the time. I did my best.”
The inquest continues.
