Here's Kirton's statements to the Trubunal 2 years ago. Still makes me sick.
1981 was the first sign...
Hillsborough inquest hears police gave ‘entirely false’ story about a forced gate
FA head of external affairs at time of disaster says police story attributes ‘a lot more than partial blame’ to Liverpool supporters
Wednesday 19 November 2014 09.38 EST Last modified on Tuesday 26 April 2016 14.40 EDT
The inquest into the Hillsborough disaster, in which 96 people died, has heard that South Yorkshire police put out an “entirely false” story during the afternoon of the incident, which was then broadcast by the BBC, saying that Liverpool supporters had caused the lethal crush at the football ground by forcing a gate open.
Glen Kirton, the Football Association’s head of external affairs at the time of the 1989 FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest, told the inquest that the police officer in command of the match, Chief Superintendent David Duckenfield, said a gate had been forced and that there had been “an inrush” of Liverpool fans that had “caused casualties”.
Kirton said he heard Duckenfield state this version of events at 3.15pm on the day, 15 April 1989, in the police control box, where Kirton and the FA’s then secretary, Graham Kelly, accompanied by the Sheffield Wednesday secretary, Graham Mackrell, had gone. Kirton said they were seeking accurate information from the police about what was happening as the disaster unfolded and why the match had been stopped at 3.06pm.
In an account he made the following day, Kirton wrote: “Chief Superintendent Duckenfield told us that a gate had been forced, and there had been an inrush of Liverpool supporters that had caused casualties.”
In fact, the jury has heard, Duckenfield himself had ordered a large exit gate, gate C, to be opened next to the turnstiles at the Leppings Lane end of the ground, and allowed a large number of Liverpool supporters in to alleviate a crush which had built up outside. The incoming people were not directed away from the tunnel leading to the two central pens of the Leppings Lane terrace in which the 96 died and hundreds were injured.
Robert McRobbie, who was in the control box as an off-duty chief inspector wanting to learn about football match policing, told the court he heard no discussion about where the supporters would go, when Duckenfield gave the order for them to be allowed in en masse through the exit gate.
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Duckenfield, Kirton said, pointed to the CCTV monitors when he said Liverpool fans had forced the gate, but Kirton could not say what specifically Duckenfield was pointing to. From the police control box, Kirton said he could see supporters carrying injured or dead people on advertising hoardings across the pitch, and that during five minutes in the control box from 3.15pm he did not hear Duckenfield or anyone else giving instructions in response. Asked by Christina Lambert QC, counsel to coroner Lord Justice Goldring, what his impression was of what he saw on the pitch, Kirton replied: “Chaotic.”
Ten minutes after Duckenfield told them the gate had been forced, at 3.25pm John Motson, the BBC’s commentator for the semi-final, reported on a live broadcast that one of the outside gates had been broken and non-ticket holders had forced their way in. Then at 3.40pm, the court was told, Alan Green, commentating on the match for BBC Radio 2, broadcast that there were unconfirmed reports that a door had been broken down at the Liverpool supporters’ end.
At 4.30pm, Green broadcast again, saying this time that he had heard from Mackrell, who had said that at 2.50pm “there was a surge of Liverpool fans at the Leppings Lane end of the ground, that the surge comprised of about 500 Liverpool fans, and police say a gate was forced, that led to a crush in that area”.
Questioned by Rajiv Menon QC, representing 75 families whose relatives were killed in the crush, Kirton accepted that the story that a gate was forced attributed “a lot more than partial blame” for the disaster to Liverpool supporters.
In between the broadcasts, at around 3.45pm, Kirton said that Rogan Taylor, then a senior office holder in the Football Supporters Association, had told him that Liverpool fans were saying the gate had been opened by the police, and the story being reported was false. Kirton’s role included briefing the press for the FA, and he said that while he did talk to journalists during the afternoon, he could not remember whether he did or did not pass on to them that he had been told the gate was forced.
He said it was not until the South Yorkshire police chief constable, Peter Wright, gave a press conference three hours later, at 6.45pm, that he heard it confirmed that in fact the police themselves had ordered the exit gate to be opened. He said he believed Wright was ill-informed at that press conference, and received hostile questioning from the press.
“For the previous three hours,” Menon said, “this entirely false narrative had been peddled to the press unwittingly by Mr Kelly, hadn’t it?”
Kirton said he could not “pin” the broadcasts to Kelly. He said he had asked both Motson and the BBC’s producer that day who had given them the story that Liverpool fans had forced the gate, and neither could remember.
Questioned more widely about his role that day, Kirton said he was meeting and greeting Sheffield Wednesday club officials and FA guests at the showpiece semi-final occasion, hosted at Wednesday’s home ground, including at a pre-match dinner in the guest room. Menon asked him whether alcohol was served at the dinner and Kirton replied that it was. Asked about the behaviour of the Liverpool supporters, Kirton said he had seen no disorder.
“And no alcohol was consumed inside or outside the ground?” Menon asked. “Correct,” Kirton replied. “Other than in the guest room of the club, obviously,” Menon said.
Jonathan Laidlaw QC, representing the FA, asked Kirton about the evidence previously given by a police officer, Inspector Gordon Sykes.
He told the inquest that the FA, Sheffield Wednesday and South Yorkshire police were “playing Russian roulette” with fans’ lives because they must have known the Hillsborough ground was a “deathtrap”. K
irton said as an FA official he was not aware of safety problems at the ground, he did not know people had been evacuated from the Leppings Lane terrace at the 1981 semi-final due to a crushing problem, and he said Sheffield Wednesday were regarded by the FA as one of the more professionally run among the Football League’s clubs.
The FA did not regard Hillsborough as a “deathtrap”. he said.
The inquest, before a jury of seven women and four men at a converted courtroom in Warrington, continues.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...police-story-forced-gate-liverpool-supporters
