An official watchdog is continuing its investigation into allegations that police spied on the relatives of the 96 who died in the Hillsborough football disaster.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission has been scrutinising allegations that 24 relatives were placed under surveillance.
In a statement this week, the IPCC said 17 people had been interviewed since its investigation started last year.
“Investigators are now following several lines of enquiry resulting from these interviews.”
“Our enquiries continue around burglaries that took place at the Hillsborough Justice Campaign shop in Liverpool and the home addresses of one of the complainants.”
However the IPCC has been criticised by a lawyer representing 20 of the Hillsborough families. Elkan Abrahamson said he had “serious concerns about the efficacy of the IPCC investigation”.
“They have for instance reneged on a promise made in writing to tell the families by this month whether any of them have been under police surveillance”, he told the Liverpool Echo.
For many years, the families have been campaigning for justice and the truth of what happened at the 1989 semi-final match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest.
In January 2013, relatives told Guardian reporter David Conn that they believed their home telephones had been tapped.
In January last year, it emerged that Solomon Hughes, a journalist at Private Eye magazine, had submitted a freedom of information request to the Metropolitan Police for copies of any Special Branch files on the Hillsborough campaigners.
At the time, the Met gave its stock response that it could neither confirm nor deny whether any files existed.
In previous updates about its investigation (see here), the IPCC has said that Home Secretary Theresa May asked police forces around the country to search their archives to find any documents relating to covert surveillance of the Hillsborough families.
In its latest update, the IPCC said that it was “liaising with the Home Office about any materials they may hold relating to covert activity around the time of, and following, the disaster.”
If anyone has any evidence of espionage involving the Hillsborough campaigners, I would of course be interested to see it.
The IPCC investigation is certainly one to watch.
