Hillsborough police trial collapses as judge rules no case to answer over ‘cover-up’

The trial of retired police officers and a solicitor accused of amending statements to cover up failures during the Hillsborough disaster has collapsed.

Former chief superintendent Donald Denton, retired detective chief inspector Alan Foster, and Peter Metcalf, who was a solicitor for South Yorkshire Police at the time, applied to have the case against them dismissed after a month of evidence in a trial that had been awaited for decades by the victims’ families.

The trio had been charged with perverting the course of justice, but a judge found the offence “did not apply” because the statements were changed for a public inquiry.

Steve Rotheram, the mayor of Liverpool, wrote on Twitter: “32 years ago, 96 innocent people were unlawfully killed, yet still nobody has been brought to justice.”

Andy Burnham, the Greater Manchester Mayor, called the outcome “a disgrace and so disrespectful to the families”.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said the fact that a public authority had been able to withhold information over the disaster without sanction should be “subject to scrutiny”.

It comes after David Duckenfield, the commander of the police operation on 15 April 1989, was found not guilty of gross negligence manslaughter of the 96 victims in 2019.

Their families have long campaigned for justice over not only the failures that contributed to the disaster and actions on the day, but an alleged cover-up during initial inquests and a public inquiry.

The trial of Mr Denton, Mr Foster and Mr Metcalf at a Nightingale Court at the Lowry theatre in Salford heard that police statements were changed to remove criticism of South Yorkshire Police.

But an expert witness, Sir Robert Francis QC, told the jury there was no legal duty of candour for police at a public inquiry.

Mr Justice William Davis ruled that amending the statements of police officers who were on duty at the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest was not captured by the offence of perverting the course of justice.

He concluded there was no case fit for consideration by the jury based on any of the six counts on the indictment, because the amended statements were intended for a public inquiry into safety at sports grounds led by Lord Justice Taylor.

Justice Davis said the offence of perverting the course of justice, which all three defendants were charged with, “did not apply” to the public inquiry because it was “not a process of public justice”.

“Whatever the defendants did in relation to the public inquiry, they could not and did not commit the offence charged,” he added.

“An inquest is a course of public justice. However, in 1989 the ambit and purpose of an inquest was limited. Nothing done by the defendants could have affected that purpose.”

The judge said that amendments of police accounts were not “positively misleading”, although “matters may have been omitted”.

He added that there Mr Denton “simply acted as a conduit for Mr Metcalf’s advice as it was passed to Mr Foster” and may not have known the extent of changes.

Justice Davis acknowledged the “anxiety and distress” felt by the families of the 96 Liverpool fans who died as a result of the disaster, and the “drawn-out” legal proceedings.

“However, whatever the anxiety and distress, I have to determine whether there is evidence to support the particular criminal offence with which these defendants have been charged,” he added. “In concluding that there is not, that is all I do.”

The judge directed the jury to acquit all three defendants.

The CPS said it had “worked tirelessly to prepare the case” but had decided not to appeal Wednesday’s ruling.

Sue Hemming, the CPS director of legal services, said the victims’ loved ones had faced untrue allegations about the behaviour of Liverpool fans who were in fact “unlawfully killed through the negligence of others”.

“The CPS was right to bring this case and for a court to hear the evidence of what happened in the aftermath of the Hillsborough disaster,” she added.

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“What has been heard in this court will have been surprising to many. That a publicly funded authority can lawfully withhold information from a public inquiry charged with finding out why 96 people died at a football match, in order to ensure that it never happened again – or that a solicitor can advise such a withholding, without sanction of any sort, may be a matter which should be subject to scrutiny.”

Mr Denton, Mr Metcalf and Mr Foster were charged in 2017 following an investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) into allegations of a cover-up by police following the tragedy.

Claire Bassett, deputy director-general of the IOPC, said the decision was a “bitter disappointment” for bereaved families and survivors.

“For many, not least those most personally affected, serious questions must remain over the public and moral duty of police in helping authorities to understand and prevent a further disaster like Hillsborough,” she added.

“We will now focus on finalising our report which will cover the findings of more than 160 individual investigations into the actions of the police following the disaster.”

Speaking outside court on Wednesday, Mr Metcalf’s lawyer said accusations of a cover-up were false.

“There was no cover-up at Hillsborough,” Jonathan Goldberg QC added, calling successive investigations a “witch hunt”.

The Police Superintendents’ Association, which supported Mr Foster and Mr Denton, said allegations of a cover-up were “completely unfounded” and called for the home secretary to review the IOPC for allegedly “enforcing a culture of blame within policing”.

Sir Norman Bettison, a chief inspector in 1989 who went on to become chief constable of Merseyside and West Yorkshire, was charged with misconduct in a public office as part of the investigation but the charges against were dropped in August 2018.

The match commander on the day, Mr Duckenfield, was charged with gross negligence manslaughter in 2017 but he was cleared in 2019 at a retrial, after the jury in his first trial was unable to reach a verdict.

In May 2019, former Sheffield Wednesday club secretary Graham Mackrell was fined £6,500 and ordered to pay £5,000 costs after he was convicted of failing to ensure the health and safety of fans arriving at the ground on the day of the disaster.