Source: Telegraph
Hillsborough disaster documents to be made public
Jacqui Smith has met with South Yorkshire's chief constable Meredydd Hughes to discuss waiving the 30-year-rule into official documents.
Ninety-six Liverpool supporters died at Sheffield Wednesday's Hillsborough stadium on 15 April 1989 where their team was to meet Nottingham Forest in an FA Cup semi final. The 20th anniversary of the tragedy was marked with memorial services in all three cities last Wednesday.
The victims' families have been fighting for further inquiries into the deaths and this new information, collated from the police, local councils and ambulance service at the time, stands to give them answers.
They believe a Major Incident Plan was never initiated by South Yorkshire police and fans in the Leppings Lane end were denied emergency medical attention.
The families also dispute the findings of the single inquest into all 96 deaths, which ruled the victims were all dead, or brain dead, by 3.15pm - just nine minutes after the match was halted - and subsequently recorded a verdict of accidental death.
Their argument is based on hundreds of witnesses who insist they saw supporters who went on to lose their lives still alive after the aforementioned time.
They say it is a injustice that no individual or organisation has every been held fully to account for the disaster.
The timing of the deaths is a crucial part of the defence given by the emergency services as they claimed sending ambulances and paramedics into the ground was needless as there was no one left to try and revive.
On hearing the news from the Home Office, support group member, Trevor Hicks said: "I am pleased, it's better late than never. This will enable us to see the full picture of events in a way that we have been denied for 20 years.
"It is vital that these files are released in full and not sanitised in any way.
"The families would also like a short period to view the documents before they are made public.
"Some of them are bound to contain information about the manner in which our loved ones died, their medical conditions and so on.
"I think it's best if we learn of that ourselves and not through other parties."
The families are particularly keen to see the minutes of a meeting between then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and senior South Yorkshire police officers which they say took place on the Sunday morning after the disaster.
Mr Hicks said: "We believe that a decision was made at that meeting that the police would not be blamed for what happened.
"We would like to see the minutes of the meeting, to know what the Prime Minister was told and what decisions were taken about the handling of any inquiries."
Mr Hicks added: "The claim that all the 96 were dead at 3.15pm has never been accepted.
"We would also like to know who gave permission for certain police officers to retire on the grounds of ill health before they could be prosecuted for negligence of duty."
