Die Hillsborough-Katastrophe war ein schweres Zuschauerunglück mit 96 Toten und 766 Verletzten am 15. He has been a Liverpool fan since the age of five and, aged 22, was at Hillsborough on April 15th, 1989 – the day on which 96 of Neil’s fellow Liverpool fans went to a football match and never returned home. There were police on horses; the horses were trying to move about. Hillsborough: Our Steve. And while waiting in the concourse area, recovering from his ordeal, Steve saw the order being executed: ‘I saw a policeman with a couple of stewards, and they had keys. Bearing in mind that the tunnel leading to the central pens was directly in front of exit gate C, the simple act of blocking access to the tunnel and directing fans to the side pens would have stopped thousands more supporters using the only obvious entrance to enter the already packed pens. Our Steve is a personal insight into the process of new inquests into the disaster (2014) and the forensic search into how my brother Steve died there. Opening the gates was a decision not taken lightly. Hillsborough disaster, incident in which a crush of football (soccer) fans resulted in 96 deaths and hundreds of injuries during a match at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, England, on April 15, 1989. I said that he needed to be outside sorting that lot out, or else somebody was going to get hurt. They should be held accountable for their actions. They should have been safe. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. Something went horribly wrong on that day. Neil, what are your memories of the day of the disaster and at what point did you first become aware that there was a problem at Hillsborough? By 2.30pm, I was becoming concerned. On a bright sunny day in Sheffield, an exit gate had increased the density of the crowd considerably and, with no direction and no attempt to seal access, the lives of thousands were about to change forever…. "Waiting 23 years is a long time to have waited for the truth. It doesn’t matter that it was 23 years ago or that some may have retired or changed jobs. You’d show your ticket to go through one barrier and then further down the street you’d show your ticket again to be allowed through the next barrier. I looked over my shoulder and there was just a sea of people, and you could see people’s eyes getting wider. I was screaming then at the police inside the ground that it was carnage outside and if they didn’t do something it was going to be bad. The crowd was shouting at him to get a grip of the situation.”, Inside, the central pens were already becoming too full. And we strained our necks upwards, we could see a little bit of the pitch, with only a small gap that you could actually see down. The philosophy in Liverpool is that you look after your own. Once there, Steve Hart remembers, I was shouting at the turnstile operator that it was chaos outside and he needed to do something, and he didn’t even take my ticket … he was just clicking people through. This harrowing account of the Hillsborough disaster is told through the eyes of a survivor. Outside, Nick Braley decided it was getting to be too much: ‘I say to the lads that I don’t care if I miss the kick-off, don’t care if I miss the match, this is dangerous and I want out. Hillsborough is a definitive account of the 1989 Hillsborough Stadium disaster in Sheffield, England, during an FA Cup semi-final football match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. Overcrowding in the stands led to the deaths of 96 fans in a crush. It has become a little easier as groups began to form and provided us with a voice and a platform. It’s an open concourse outside the turnstiles, and everyone was allowed onto it. I couldn’t believe what I saw. There was another problem with the tunnel, though, in that it was dark inside; and it initially sloped slightly upwards in the dimming light of the entrance before falling away downwards into the dark and a one-in-six gradient. Getty Images offers exclusive rights-ready and premium royalty-free analog, HD, and 4K video of the highest quality. There were no exits left and right, so you could only go forwards. There wasn’t much you could do, though, because you were stuck, penned in by the side against railings. This is an edited extract from ‘The Hillsborough Disaster: In Their Own Words’ by Mike Nicholson (Amberley Publishing, £12.99), Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies. My dad was convinced that he’d seen my jacket being packed away into a plastic bag during a television update and, so, my parents hadn’t seen any updates for hours because my dad wouldn’t let my mum watch it. Whenever it got dark, it gave you the incentive to keep fighting. Steven Gerrard says the memory of his cousin who died in the Hillsborough disaster has inspired him to reach the pinnacle of his profession. When I looked out across the pitch, it was like a war zone. Even those who chant for justice for the 96 at football matches have done their bit in keeping up awareness of the campaign and kept the profile high. The sways and surges were getting more and more violent, and I was just thinking that I was going to get shoved about for 90 minutes. Everyone just headed for the tunnel. Here is a look at the Hillsborough Disaster, a 1989 tragedy at a British soccer stadium. ", ...red sky thinking for an open and diverse left. I would like to see those who were responsible to be held accountable for their actions and I believe that previous reviews into the case and decisions that have been made should be overturned immediately. People were running around in circles in sheer desperation doing their best to help those who were dying. It was like watching a war scene in a movie but it wasn’t a war: it was only a football match and those people should never have been killed. When I got back to my seat, I said to my dad, ‘There is no way that lot are getting in before kick-off; you wanna see it out there’!”, The crowd in the cramped courtyard outside the turnstiles had become compacted, as the number of fans arriving at the back outnumbered the number that the turnstiles could admit. The cover up within public office was so widespread that it was easier to ignore it or do nothing. Neil spoke to The Point's Willie Duncan about his recollection of the events of that day, the aftermath of the smear campaign and cover up perpetrated the UK Government, South Yorkshire Police and the media, as well as his hopes for the future of the campaign for justice for the 96. I saw with my own eyes what happened that day and I knew the truth but most people didn’t and that was difficult to accept. My shoelace was undone, but I couldn’t bend down to tie it. At the Leppings Lane end, in the already packed central ‘pens’, 96 Liverpool supporters died after the police opened an exit gate on them to relieve crowd pressure outside the ground. I never knew any of the 96 who died but, even still, that day has affected me ever since. A not-guilty ruling related to the 1989 disaster presented a difficult reality: The 96 who died were unlawfully killed, but nobody, most likely, will ever be held responsible. What needs to happen for justice to be done for those who lost their lives as a result of the tragedy? Official misinformation, misrepresentation, falsified evidence and a deliberately constructed incorrect narrative, had informed the world with this version of the Hillsborough disaster. ‘Open the fucking gates, people are going to die outside,’ is heard by a number of people and the coppers are standing taking it, looking scared and out of their depth. Interview. We went down the tunnel into Pen 3 and stood at the back, where we were hoping to stay.”, Val Yates had been one of the very first people into the stadium, such was her excitement, but by 2.30pm, the central pens were rammed and getting worse: “Some lads I know joined me and we noticed that the Forest end was starting to fill. It’s a real community. As the saying goes, “the lie is halfway around the world before the truth has got its pants on”. 507 likes. At that time I was scared and starting to panic. My parents never even knew that I was alive until I walked through the door at around 10pm that night. Every so often, you’d hear a small cheer as someone was brought back to life on the pitch, only to fade away again. There was a barrier to my left, so I tried traversing across, thinking that if I get behind that then I can’t go further forward as it would offer protection.”. "Those responsible need to face the consequences of their actions – no more, no less. I remember little things like that nobody had a mobile phone in those days so you couldn’t phone or text to let people know that you were ok. In an interview with LFC TV, Ms Aspinall said: "The group has folded now - it's a … I remember that the queues for the pay phones were absolutely massive. I just remember watching on in horror and seeing fans on the pitch using advertising hoardings as emergency stretchers. Being a nosy sod I went to have a look outside. I head off to the side, but then someone shouts that the gate is open and I find myself looking at an open gate, a couple of coppers and a few fans jumping through. I really do struggle with it at times. I remember seeing The Sun headline and thinking to myself: “Wow. The next thing we knew we went tumbling forward. Once you got into that dark tunnel … horrendous … the nightmares I’ve had over it since...’. That simply is not good enough. People were climbing up walls, gates, anything to get out of the crush. One lad near me joked that Liverpool hadn’t sold all their tickets. It was very much my practice to try and stand in front of a barrier, with my back on it. Much to the pain of the victims’ families, the legal process to establish the facts and ascribe guilt for the Hillsborough disaster has endured for more than 30 years Interview: A Hillsborough survivor speaks Neil McDougall, 45, is a born and bred Liverpudlian now living in London and is the father of four children. I go for it but as I arrive the copper is trying to pull it shut. We were singing, ‘We’ve got more fans than you Nottingham,’ and knocking a beach ball around. It was such a horrible sight to see. Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? We got into the pens and the crowd had stopped moving by then. Writer of Hillsborough The Truth, Professor Phil Scraton gives a unique account of the Hillsborough football disaster. Now the inquest has judged them unlawful killings, the witnesses can give their accounts of the events leading to this tragedy, Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile, Peter Carney recalls walking towards the Leppings Lane end: “What was noticeable from the year before [when the FA Cup semi was also played at Hillsborough] is that we’d had to walk through barriers. He just laughed and said, “Well, in that case I'm better off in here.”, At around this time, Richie Greaves and his friends also arrived at the Leppings Lane end: “Outside the turnstiles it was absolutely chocka. Hillsborough disaster: police officer in charge showed 'lack of leadership' This article is more than 2 years old. To wait that long to get the truth widely accepted is far too long to wait. Whenever I recall the day and see the pitch, in my mind, I always think of a scene akin to something from World War I: The shell suits turn into army uniforms with tin helmets on, those advertising stretchers are real stretchers. All I thought to myself was to try and keep my spot because I still wanted to get a good view and am only about armpit level to everyone else! This started to alarm me, as normally if you go forward then you can jostle back to your position. Even this early, people looked tense, and as time got closer to kick-off it was getting more and more tense. Anyway we got something to eat in the corner shop, a Mars bar and a pint of milk I think, and we got into the ground at about twenty to three or a quarter to three … it was obviously packed.”, Liverpool supporter John Joynt remembers arriving later than he had planned in Sheffield because of the traffic: “The police had the ground well boxed off the year before, but we didn’t think too much of it at the time. As the gate is opened I dodge the first few fans coming in as I try to wait around, but the numbers coming in becomes a flood and I am swept away, up the tunnel onto the entrance to the terraces.”, After being crushed against the wall outside the ground for what felt like an eternity, Steve Hart fell through a turnstile, with his ticket still intact, and was struggling to get his breath back in the concourse area between the turnstiles, exit gate C and the tunnel: ‘By the time I got into the ground I had lost my mates. They should not be treated differently, they should be held accountable for their actions in the way that anyone else would be.". The police, the Government, the ambulance service: all of those who failed to do their job properly and caused the deaths of the 96 and then covered it up should be brought to justice. I looked around and there were people being dragged up into the stands behind us and I said to the lads, ‘Let’s try and get back towards the wall, because at least if there was a wall behind us we’re not going to get hurt’.”, Grant Walker also recalls the moment that the gate opened: “Everyone was worried that we were going to miss the kick-off.