How the Hillsborough disaster unfolded

It will go down as the darkest day in British sport, but Saturday 15 April 1989 started out as a perfect day for a game of football. Bright blue skies greeted Liverpool and Nottingham Forest fans who traveled to the industrial city of Sheffield in northern England for an FA Cup semi-final at Hillsborough, the home of Sheffield Wednesday. Mixed with the anticipation was a sense of deja vu. The teams met at the same ground at the same stage of the previous season’s competition, with Liverpool winning 2-1. Despite bringing far more supporters to the game, Liverpool were given the small Leppings Lane stand at the west end of the stadium, with the larger Spion Kop behind the opposite goal taken over by Forest supporters. The terraces behind the goal at the Leppings Lane end were divided into pens and by 2.30pm, pens three and four behind the goal were already packed with supporters. “Looking around I could see fans older and clearly more experienced than me were getting nervous,” recalled Liverpool fan and survivor Adrian Tempany. Roadworks stopped some Liverpool fans on their way to the match and with kick-off fast approaching at 3pm, thousands of supporters found themselves stranded outside the turnstiles, clamoring to get in. This created a gridlock effect and when it became clear that the fans were being locked out. at risk of injury, the police decided to open Gate C of the security wall and release the pressure on those stuck outside. That decision was key to the inquest that ended on Tuesday when the jury returned a verdict of “unlawful murder”, blaming the decisions of the police and acquitting the fans themselves. To reach their verdict, the jury had to be satisfied that the police commander, Chief Constable David Duckenfield, had committed “gross negligence” and breached his duty of care to those who died. After the gate opened at 2.52pm, fans poured into the ground, sweeping through the concourse leading to the terraces and straight into the already overcrowded pens behind the gate. The result was catastrophic. Enclosed by the perimeter fence in front of the stand, 94 men, women and children in pens three and four were slowly and gruesomely crushed to death. – Makeshift Stretchers – “At my feet, people were sitting dead, huddled together,” Tempany said. “The only solace I could find was that thousands of people who were still alive were now crying out for help, screaming, ‘There are dead people here!'” One victim, 14-year-old Lee Nicol, died seven days later, with the 96th and final victim, Tony Bland, who died in March 1993 after never recovering . Oblivious to the unfolding tragedy, the police allowed the game to start as scheduled at three o’clock. Very quickly, however, it became apparent that something had gone tragically wrong as fans desperately sought to get over the perimeter fence or climb into the level above. At 15.06 the match was stopped by the referee. Finally, the police opened a gate in the perimeter fence and the pressure in the pens was relieved. Breathless fans spilled onto the grass and were soon carrying their seriously injured counterparts onto the pitch on makeshift stretchers made from billboards.