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STAMJSSpion KopNorth StandSouth Stand - Seated
Standing
WEST STAND Pen 1&2 Pen 5-7 PEN 3 PEN 4
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INTeae on Pitch Hanson's Naee Kick Off Ball hits X-Bar Barrier breaks
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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
220689 OP 10007 I YF iNCa ShrtV X CL DOCUHLN f
£-4C_ INTO VIA- ~T)OTl l£i t o . c a m o u t " t o $ £ a / s i 7
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
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" S 3
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Number of Page'
Dated
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i ntVDAKSu~. w - ■; .W w s *s jr GT LONDON,
E3 u i 1 d
Compi e k ion
Us e
07GSS9
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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