Hillsborough trial: David Duckenfield 'unfairly singled out' for manslaughter prosecution, defence claims
Prosecution says match commander's 'extraordinarily bad' series of failings led to fatal crush
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David Duckenfield has been “unfairly singled out” for prosecution over the Hillsborough disaster, his defence lawyer has claimed.
The match commander “was not equipped with special powers to anticipate things that everybody else didn’t,” Benjamin Myers QC told a jury at Preston Crown Court.
He added: “It can hardly be fair to judge Mr Duckenfield by different standards from everyone else.
“The prosecution are blaming him for ... events that can’t be attributed to the fault of any persons in particular.
“What happened on 15 April 1989 was brought about by a combination of factors great and small, some with their roots in events years before and some that emerged in the hours and minutes before disaster struck.”
The prosecution had previously told the court that Mr Duckenfield’s “extraordinarily bad” failings as match commander was a substantial cause of the deaths.
Richard Matthews QC said it “required no hindsight” to realise the risk of a fatal crush in fenced pens at the Leppings Lane end of Hillsborough stadium.
Mr Duckenfield did not consider the consequences of an influx of thousands of Liverpool fans down a tunnel into the already overcrowded pens when he ordered a large gate to be opened to ease a separate crush outside the stadium, the court heard.
Prosecutors said he then failed to take action as the disaster was unfolding, with survivors and witnesses recalling how they shouted at police officers for help, and to be let out, but got no repsonse.
Excerpts of statements from officers were read showing that they were operating without orders from Mr Duckenfield, or the police control box, to try to manage crowds at the Leppings Lane end.
Even as the victims were being crushed to death, police communications played to the court suggested that some officers believed the incident to be a pitch invasion and responded accordingly.
When the match was stopped at 3.05pm, police triggered operation support, which was not a safety operation but a “contingency plan to deal with spontaneous disorder”.
Mr Matthews said: “No matter who else could have done better, done more, done things differently, Mr Duckenfield’s failures continued.
“Each flowed from his own decision making and fell squarely within his personal responsibility as match commander.
“Ultimately Mr Duckenfield failed in the most appalling manner to monitor what was happening in pens three and four, and to prevent or avert the inevitable consequence of the flow of many spectators into the central tunnel, crushing the life out of so many people.”
But speaking later on Thursday, Mr Myers told the jury a combination of factors “came together in catastrophic fashion … and to single out David Duckenfield is artificial and unfair”.
The defence lawyer said that the fencing that contributed to the disaster was common at football stadiums in the 1980s and that safety risks that may seem obvious now “were a fact of life in 1989”.
Mr Myers asked the jury to “keep in mind the danger of hindsight, the historical context and the possible unfairness of applying unreasonable standards to Mr Duckenfield from what is expected for others”.
Mr Myers pointed out that the prosecution has accepted that other people are at fault “but they are not accusing them of gross negligence manslaughter”.
He added: “You may be wondering how it can be fair to single out one man for prosecution when there are so many other people at fault – so are we. Looking back now, there may be things that could be done differently or better, and the same can be said for a good many people.”
Mr Myers said his client believes he was not negligent and “did his best”, and that “bad stadium design, bad planning, some aspects of crowd behaviour, some of police behaviour, and genuine human error” contributed to the disaster.
He reminded the jury that Mr Duckenfield is not representing South Yorkshire Police or any other agency, adding: “Our sympathy for others can never be a reason to convict another for events beyond his control or repsonsiblity.”
Mr Duckenfield, now 74, denies manslaughter by gross negligence of 95 victims.
There can be no prosecution over the death of the 96th victim, Tony Bland, as he died more than a year and a day after his injuries were caused.
Graham Mackrell, Sheffield Wednesday’s former club secretary, denies health and safety offences.
The trial continues.
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Mr Matthews says gate A was opened at 2.58pm and closed two minutes later.
Gate C was opened at 2.48pm for 26 seconds at 2.52pm for five minutes, he says. An expert witness has calculated an estimated figure of 2,603 as a the total number of people entering through gate C on those two occasions.
Mr Matthews says the Green Guide on stadium safety recommended a maximum of 54 people
per 10 square metres
According to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) the density of people in pen 3 at 2.52pm was 36.1 people per 10 square metres. The density of people in pen 4 at that time was 42.7 people per 10 square metres.
At 3.03pm, the HSE found pen 3 was between 80 and 84 people per 10 square metres, and the expert to give evidence at the trial 69 to 76 people per 10 square metres.
Mr Matthews says further HSE analysis of pen 3 found that at the front, density could have been
as high as 10 people square metre, "in other words in 10 people were packed each square of space made up of a metre per side", Mr Matthews says
He says that at that density, a phenomenon called "involuntary packing" occurs where people cannot control how they move
The crowd expert who will give evidence later in the trial, Mr Cutlack, said that at the FA Cup semi-final played between the same teams at Hillsborough the year before, 1,062 people were in pen 3
But in 1989, the figure was around 1,430, pushing the situation "out of the realm of risk into the realm of disaster. In Mr Cutlack’s opinion, on 15th April 1989 density was permitted to increase to levels which were completely, obviously and visibly unacceptable."
The jury is being played footage and images of crowds in the pens at 2.59pm, one minute from kcik-off, showing Liverpool fans climbing fences into neighbouring pens to escape. Meanwhile, pens at the wings of teh West Stand are not full.
People are seen starting to climb the front fences to escape onto the pitch, all overlooked by the police control box
At 2.59pm, the pitch perimiter gates 5 and 4 can be seen to be opened.
Mr Matthews says that "almost level with the police control box was a view of what pen 3 and 4 looked like, and quite how empty pen 6 was"
Footage at 2.47pm shows pen 1, to the left of the ones where the crush happened, was almost empty
Mr Matthews says that images and video from the period "depict an awful problem. People were climbing over the fences. The pitch fence gates in pens 3, 4 and 5 were open – that could only be done from the pitch side. And you may think that this must have indicated straightaway that this was not a pitch invasion. All this was visible from the police control box."
Mr Matthews says that in the police control box, it is Sergeant Goddard’s recollection that he saw what was happening at the Leppings Lane end
He briefly thought it was a a pitch invasion, but then sent officers to the back of the tunnel and rear of terraces because "people at the perimeter fence were being crushed". He was getting no orders from Mr Duckenfield
The jury is being shown a multi-screen video from 2.58pm showing BBC footage of the game, camera recording from the police control room and the club camera focusing on turnstiles A to G
At the start of the footage, one police camera is focusing on Nottingham Forest fans at the corner of the Spion Cop stand, and another is still focused on turnstiles A to G, as is a Sheffield Wednesday camera. The BBC camera is focused on a warm-up on the pitch