Duckinfield Not Guilty

The whole tragedy of Hillsborough and this trial highlights a major dichotomy of safety at football stadia, in so far as who has responsibility. The Police see this as a public order issue whilst the club's "Football Safety Officer" should see this as a H&S issue. The problem is compounded by the safety enforcing authority of the Police (the HSE) is not the same as that of a football club (Local Authority). It tends to be compounded further by the vast majority of football safety officers ex-police and not qualified H&S Practitioners.

 

Two juries decided otherwise.

 

All has now been aired across two inquests (one proper one) and two trials.

 

I don’t know what directions the jury were given as to the level of proof needed to convict on the gross negligence manslaughter charge . I’m guessing the jury had to weigh up at what point gross incompetence becomes gross negligence. There’s no doubt that Dunkenfield was out of his depth , promoted above his competence level and I’m told there was some resentment from his colleagues at the time . He wasn’t experienced in any way to be in charge of such an operation but others were , did he get any advice from more experienced colleagues, did he seek advice , did he ignore it or was he left to flounder with disastrous consequences. I’m assuming all these things were brought up in the trial and the jury decided he wasn’t negligent in his actions

 

Were the Orgreave accused not all found not guilty at Sheffield Crown Court?

 

He shouldn't have lied about his order to open the gate but he's been found nit guilty and that should be that.

 

I genuinely feel for the families who lost loved ones that day and still don't have closure but in general I have faith in our justice system and think the jury reached the right verdict.

 

Having read both the interim and final reports of Lord Justice Taylor, I am not aware as to which party, SYP or SWFC, had primacy on that fateful day. (Please see my earlier post). Without that being established culpability cannot be apportioned, which is why I suspect it would have been influential in the verdict of Dukinfield.

 

I'm not comfortable with people being prosecuted for making mistakes in their job. We all do so, no-one is 100% perfect for 100% of the time. The difference is, the vast majority can make a mistake and it doesn't cost a life. I don't think anyone involved that day can be regarded as 100% blameless - police, Sheffield Wednesday, the council, fans. They all played a part, however small. The terrace culture of the time had something to do with it for example. Liverpool fans especially, loved to cram directly behind a goal and sway about. They should have been prevented from doing so by adequate safety measures but they weren't. There were also regular crowd surges at games, some accidental some on purpose. I was at the Wolves v Spurs Semi Final 8 years previously and there was overcrowding in the Leppings Lane end that day, which caused fans to spill onto the pitch surround. Were lessons learned and acted upon? No they weren't. I believe the central pens also got uncomfortably crowded at the Leeds v Coventry Semi Final just 2 years before the disaster, yet that wasn't heeded either. Duckenfield was just one of many, many people responsible for hosting unsafe FA Cup Semi Finals at that ground.

 

I think they have. In the inquest he admitted he shouldn't have opened the gate. He misjudged the situation, its not the same as wilfully making a decision knowing it would have that result.

 

Indeed they have. It beggars the question who exactly was guilty

 

Maybe nobody.

 

96 people unlawfully killed by nobody. How does that work?

 

Pretty simple really, no one killed them.
If a ship sank/sunk would you always blame the captain?
If a plane crashed would you automatically blame the Pilot ?
Terrible circumstances lead to the disaster at Hillsborough. I'm not convinced Duckinfield was to blame.

 

Well one thing was agreed by the prosecution and the defence and that was the fans WERENT to blame at all for the events that happened April 15th 1989

 

Agreed. But in hindsight I bet they'd turned around instead of going forwards.
The biggest mistake was not to delay the kick off time by SYP.
They could have simply put an announcement out on the tannoy that KO will be delayed .

 

An interesting question, especially since an 'unlawful killing' verdict in an inquest requires proof to the criminal standard, namely beyond reasonable doubt. However, the inquest did not determine who was responsible for the unlawful killing, given the multiplicity of players involved in the tragedy. That was for the Crown Court, which found that Duckinfield's guilt could not be proved beyond reasonable doubt. It's difficult to analyse the jury's verdict further because juries do not (and can not be asked) to give reasons for their decisions.

 

That was definitely a big factor mate yes, the surge in was due to the match starting and Liverpool hit the crossbar early on, so the noise from the crowd already there alerted the fans outside.

 

Biggest omission was not putting barriers up controlling the flow of fans into the Leppings turnstile area and putting officers in the tunnels to direct fans away from the pens that were overcrowded , all measures that had been employed on previous big games

 

If he wasn't up to the job then who ever appointed him should take responsibility surely (I know it's never going to happen).