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Dukenfield Cleared

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Treboeth

Treboeth

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-50592077
Hillsborough match commander David Duckenfield has been found not guilty of the gross negligence manslaughter of 95 Liverpool fans in the 1989 disaster.

Former South Yorkshire Police Ch Supt Duckenfield, 75, was cleared after a seven-week retrial at Preston Crown Court.

Mr Duckenfield, now of Ferndown, Dorset, was in charge of the FA Cup semi-final at which 96 Liverpool fans died.
 
Sorry but, without hearing all the evidence, I don't feel able to criticise the verdict, especially since IMO the police were essentially scapegoats anyway, admittedly not competent but presented with an impossible job to do by culpably inadequate handling of the arrangements by the FA at the time.
 
I doubt there's much controversy about the evidence Jules - most of which is public knowledge at this point.

The argument surely focused on the culpability of Duckenfield in those circumstances. You can make your mind up yourself on that - and you've long held the view that the FA have to take the lion's share of the blame.

So it's probably not that surprising to you that the jury went the same way as you did.

For general info the CPS website has the following :
We can summarise the law shortly. The critical ingredients of gross negligence manslaughter can be taken from R v Prentice, Adomako and Holloway [1994] QB 302 in this court and Adomako [1995] 1 AC 171, [1994] 99 Crim App R 362 in the House of Lords as well as R v Misra [2005] 1 Cr App R 21. They can be summarised as being the breach of an existing duty of care which it is reasonably foreseeable gives rise to a serious and obvious risk of death and does, in fact, cause death in circumstances where, having regard to the risk of death, the conduct of the defendant was so bad in all the circumstances as to amount to a criminal act or omission (see Adomako [2005] 1 Cr App Rep at 369). The elements of GNM were set out by the House of Lords in R v Adomako [1995] 1 AC 171.


It's that last bit "so bad in all the circumstances" that creates a high hurdle.
 
Thanks for that Ross. I am actually a bit surprised because I wondered whether the jury members might have individually bought into the "Police mainly to blame" school of thought before they were summoned to sit in this case, but I do know that Duckenfield's barrister partly took the line I've taken over time. Doubt this will turn the spotlight on the FA now, but there's probably not a lot to be gained from that any more anyway.
 
Its a sad sad state of affairs..

Truth is we are where we are through the years of smearing of fans being to blame.. That essentially allowed everything to run its course

No one will ever be held to account..

I agree with Jules long term view.. The FA has a lot to answer for, the fans should never have been given that end in the first place, let alone the ground should never have been used.. Warning signs where shown in previous FA Cup. Semis, yet the FA continued to use it as venue..

In the grand scheme of things.. the police had a near an impossible job on that day, if anything they are absolutely guilty of, is the mass cover up that followed and should be brought to justice for that..

One individual held responsible.. its a collective of many and it starts with the FA
 
Judge Jules said:
Thanks for that Ross. I am actually a bit surprised because I wondered whether the jury members might have individually bought into the "Police mainly to blame" school of thought before they were summoned to sit in this case, but I do know that Duckenfield's barrister partly took the line I've taken over time. Doubt this will turn the spotlight on the FA now, but there's probably not a lot to be gained from that any more anyway.
Click to expand...

Maybe not. It was your posts over the years that educated me on the FA aspect
 
ajco07 said:
The police managed a near impossible job the year before without incident
Click to expand...
They had someone with experience in place.. Duckenfield was new to the job

Hence my comments..

There is a collective that are responsible and it should have started with the FA
 
It's a great lesson for anyone in authority. Proceed with arrogance. Don't listen to anyone else. Don't worry when people warn you that there might be a problem. Even when scores of people die and you cover it up, you'll be well looked after with a nice pension.
 
Its sickening to be honest. He was not the only person culpable, but he did oversee the police operation, he did order gates to be opened, adding 2000 people to the crush and he did lie about it all in the immediate aftermath, preferring to slander innocent fans , the dead and dying in order to cover up his on failures.

There's a good opinion piece on the Echo website - https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/news-opinion/opinion-david-duckenfield-failed-96-17332774
 
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