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POLICE OFFICER ON DUTY.South YorkshireMerseysideNottinghamshire

POLICE OFFICER OFF DUTY MerseysideNottinghamshire

South Yorkshire Others

MEDIAPressTVRadio

g r o u n d s t a f f.StewardTurnstile OperatorCateringOther

l o c a l r e s i d e n t s House to House Shopping Other

PUBLICLetterTelephoneVisit to Police Station

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MEDICALDoctorPolice Surgeon Surgeon Pathologist NurseSt Johns Aeto

SUPPORTERS Liverpool Notts Forest Other

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PREVIOUS NATOCS Seei Final 1981 Seei Final 1̂ 36 Seei Final 1968 Other State* ---

INMESTI8ATI0N Forged Tickets Forcing Gates Unauthorised acci Alcohol Disorder

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STATEMENT NUMBER S2393

N A C 6 6 Q ^ M K ^ M T R i ll aJG t- 3 ( y3t a t i o n

Age

Address

0 c cupation

T s 1 a p h o n e

IC

Hai r colo u r

Hair tyoe

" S 3

Facial hair

Glasses

Number of Page'

Dated

He i qn

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i ntVDAKSu~. w - ■; .W w s *s jr GT LONDON,

E3 u i 1 d

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iiqnea

On Saturday, April 13th 1989 (150439), 1 was a spectator at the FA

Cap Semi Final at Hillsborough:, Sheffield, between Liverpool and

No11:i.ngham F o rest.

Toget^e>\wi^Na David Miller, Chief Sports Correspondent of “The T i m e s ’*

I travVl &'4. f ronNiiondon St., Parser as on the 10 = 33 hours service,

arriving in Sheffield at 13.02 hours.

Mr. Hiller two prs% s photographers we met at S het field Station, ana me

shared a taxi from the station to Hillsborough where we were set aown

near the entrance in Penistone road leading to the car park ana

Sheffield Wednesday Club offices just before 13.30 hours.

PAGE 2S 2 3 9 3

I had a terrace ticket tor the Leppings Lane end of the ground, that

is to say the west end.

I said goodbye to Mr Miller and the press photographers, one of whom

accompanied me as far as 0 entrance (to the North Stand) whi ch is

situated at the Peni stone Road or Kop (east) and of the ground.

I then made my way along Penistone Road, past the Hop and North Stand

entrances until 1 came to the first side street, running east to west,

passing behind the North Stand.

do not K n o w the XharrNs of the / r/crad but crush barriers were pos

at the Penistone Road and Lepifins/Lane and were manned by Pol

otf icers.

I snowed my ticket to a police officer at the Penistone\Road end and

he allowed me t hrough, giving access to the Lepping

there I went immediately to the turnstiles.

e\end and once

There was no filtering of ticket and non ticket holders away from the

turnstiles and by the time 1 had made my way around the ground and was

approaching the Leppings Lane turnstiles it was probably about 13.. 40

h o u r s »

&UO& AT

—̂

out of the west End of the side street referred to.As I turned le

n oemar ap

ns 1 1 1e s becausenimediate

CS 0 W O Y' Cjl S z o x n 6 h at f\0Yj.in v e rn &1)i’l £ a n 'C:> e

P 8 0 p .1 0 W n O Cl I 0. H 0 C n 3. V 0 lie K 9 Z % S hOU I Q1 Q IT? O V 0 o. W-S.V t r Otii otic: -‘H r «?i «

PAGE32393

Upon reaching the Lappings Lane turnstiles, I had some difficulty

locating those which would admit spectators with terrace tickets.

There were perhaps 4 or 5 turnstiles for holders of North Stand

tickets imt only about 3 which would admit those with terrace tickets.

I probably entered the SH^rnst i les about 13.45 hours. Having passed

\ ) 0 c£>y S £ a ^ G 11£ 2> / b u c ithrough i was searched by a ̂ po i. i csman .

At this time of the afternoon, I did not see any Sheffield Wednesday

club stewards in evidence to direct terrace spectators to various

parts of that end of the ground.

\ O T T TTo ^ fN5lThere was a complete lack oS^ signs pointing to the various entry

points to the terrace beneath wnfi around the West Stand.

Inaeed? upon leaving the policeman who had searched m e , tne oruy

entrance to the terrace immediately in view was the tunnel beneath tne

West Stand.

Although I had been to Hillsborugh on several occasions in over 35

years of watching football, I had always previously had a seat. I had

never stood at the ground before.

However from my knowledge of its topography, 1 knew from which part of

the terrace I would be able to obtain a good view of the game, that is

to say on the high terrace banking between the North and West stands.

Access to that area was, on first entering the ground, invisible.

PAGE 4✓------------------------------------ 552393

Accordingly; seeing the under We»t/ S T a i w Tunnel immediately ahead of

me, I made for it with the intention of working my way North across

the terrace to take up my intended position.

At this early stage in the afternoon, 1 "1/4 hours before kick-off, 1

did not anticipate t<hat movement across the terrace would be difficult,

In the event, when 1 reached\tne end of the tunnel, I found that the

_ crowd alreadv in that middle se"Nli\n of terracing immediately behindT U r v W ^ U - ------------:---------------

the West goal was sacked up to the mouth of the tunnel and although IN £ b 7

5 T , triea to see whether I could go across the terrace as I had intended,

tne number of people dissuaded me from even making an attempt at

pushing through..

Even if I had attempted to do so, I would not have got very far

because as I subsequently appreciated from my established position

Detween the west and North Stands, vertical fences separated the

Leppings Lane terrace immediately under the West Stand into four

sections and the section to the North/North West which I would have

wantea to pass through was rendered inaccessible by. the gates at the

top of the vertical fencing being shut.

I retraced my steps down the tunnel so that I was virtually back where

I had started when I first entered the ground through the turnstiles,,

I turned right hoping that I could find another entrance which would

leaa me onto the high terrace between the North and West Stands,,

To the left of the turnstiles as one entered the ground and now

directly in front of me as 1 made a right hand turn out of tne tunnei

PAGE 3S 2 3 9 3

(walking North) was a brick wall perhaps 12* high but which was broken

in the middle to allow one through., As I went through the yap, it

seemed as if I was walking towards the North Stand. Again, there were

no direction signs picking out various entrances to other parts of the

terracing. There was no indication whatsoever that these entrances

existed unless, a K J did, one actually went looking for them.

There are in fact 2 entracesScnto the high banking,. I went u;> the

\ , Oftrf s-17stairs of ins first of these anoSajjIde my way across the terrace w m c n

perhaps 70 minutes before the start of the game, was very sparsely

p o p u 1 a t e d „

I took up a position against a crush barrier a couple of steps from

the front of the brick wall dividing the upper and lower terrace, at a

point where I wasNsQoking diagonally across the pitch,,

it occured to me, at about >4.13 hours, that the central section of

the terrace beneath the west SoS«mJ was becoming uncomfortably full.

Conversely, t he areas o n e i t he r side of t he c e n t, rax s action were

cons idarably less crowded and the section to the North of the central

section was virtually empty.

There was no overe rowdi ng on the high terrace banking or on the

terracing immediately below my position. The only discomfort 1

experienced was at about 14.50 hours when several people came through

the crowd and for a few moments, until they found other spaces, hemmed

me onto the crash barrier 1 had hitherto seen leaning on.

!•• rom 14.13 hours, the middle section of the terrace under the we si.

PAGE

82393

Stand became increasingly fHJl until, about 14.45 hours, it w«

abundantly plain that it was grossly overpopulated.

Mysteriously, tne outside sections remained under-used and I remember

thinking to myself that it was ridiculous that so many people were

crammed into the middle section with so few in the adjoining areas.

So great was the number of people in the middle section that at about

14.45 hours I noted the crowd swaying and pushing down to the front

before regaining its previous position.

In the days before vertical fencing, the crowd would have spread

itself out naturally from the middle to the outsides by people making

and pushing their way through the more densely occupied parts of the

terrace while the natural sway of the crowd would make sure that it

found its own level by dispersing itself across the whole of the

terrace.

Tne fact that the various section were isolated from each other by

virtue of the vertical fencing and the locking of the gates at tne top

of that fencing rendered this natural movement impossible.

It was quite obvious to me long before the kick off that the middle

section of terracing had reached saturation point and could not

accommodate any more people.

From 14.13 hours until 15.00 hours, I was amazed that more and more

people seemed to be admi11ed to t he rniddle se c1 1 on whi ie t ne a utside

sections remained, inexpli cably, very much under-populated.

PAGE 732393

(AT No attempt was made by theSjfai i ce to relieve the congestion in tne

middle section by opening the gate on the perimeter fencing or the

9ates the top of the vertical fencing and relocate spectators in

the adjoining areas of the terrace.

There did not appear to be any club stewards patrolling the track

oehind the pitch at the West end of the ground to see just what space

was available in other sections of the terracing.

As soon as the game began, my attention was drawn from the terraces to

the field of play but it was soon obvious that there was fierce

overcrowding in the middle section of terrace because spectators were

attempt isw to climb the perimeter fencing and were also being pulled

up by other *ans into the west stand itself.

As more and more s p \ c t y o r s attempted to come over the perimeter fence

onto the track and field of play, I kept watch on the developing

circumstances Put initially the police simply tried to push people

fau c £

a t

uack into the terrace ana prevent them from climbing out, in my view

somehow failing to appreciate just how serious things were.

No doubt the police felt that they were dealing with crowd disorder

rather than anything else out 1 am amazed that, with cameras,

monitors, nigh powered binoculars and other equipment, nobody seemed

to appreci cate that the middle section of the terrace was

frighteningly overcrowded while the adjoining sections were capaaie of

holding many more people than were occupying the availaDle s p a c e .

When people were dying in the middle terrace, other spectators HU or

30 yards away had superabundant space,,

PAGE 8S 2 3 9 3

Whi le conceding that I was on the terracing rather than behind the

West Stand, it seems reasonably clear, by virtue of the fact that more

people were all the time attempting to gain access into the

middle section of terracing that spectators weren't prevented from

using that tunnel when lead to a suffocatingly full terrace and

weren't directed to other entrances to adjoining sections where there

was ample room to accommodate them.

Once through the turnstiles, there was no mechanical check of how many

spectators were funnelling into each Darti.cul.ar section of terracing.•To a very large extent, the spectators entering the Lappings Lane

turnstiles were left to thsir own devices, that is to say left to find

out for themselves which areas of terracing were available for

occupation and where the entrances were situated.

DATE 5

STATEMENT TAKEN PLACE:;

w i t n e s s t o s i g n a t u r e s

OFFICERS SIGNATURES

END OF REPORT