Monday 31 March 2014

New Hillsborough probe begins

Liverpool supporters hold scarves and shirts during a memorial service on the 24th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster
Fresh inquests into the deaths of 96 Liverpool supporters at Hillsborough will begin in Warrington on Monday.
The inquests were ordered in December 2012 when the High Court quashed the original accidental death verdicts which had stood for more than 20 years
Proceedings, to be heard by coroner Lord Justice Goldring, are expected to last up to nine months.
A jury will first be selected in the purpose-built courtroom in Birchwood Park, with opening statements from the coroner and the bereaved families due to be presented to the court later this week.
Later in the hearing the jurors will make a site visit to Hillsborough stadium in Sheffield but will be directed not to read the "deeply moving" tributes on the memorial to the tragedy.
Britain's worst sporting disaster happened on 15 April, 1989 during Liverpool's FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest as thousands of fans were crushed on the ground's Leppings Lane terrace.
Verdicts of accidental death from the original Hillsborough inquest in March 1991 were quashed in December 2012 after the Hillsborough Independent Panel delivered its final report on the disaster earlier that year.
It was decided that the inquests would be held in Warrington after a split emerged between two separate campaign groups, with one side pushing for the inquiry to be held in London and the other calling for it to take place in the north west.

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