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Senior police officers will accuse Liverpool fans of drunken behaviour at the Hillsborough disaster, a pre inquest hearing was told today.

Families at the hearing in London shouted "disgrace" at John Beggs QC, representing match commander David Duckenfield and ground commanders Roger Greenwood and Roger Marshall, as he said he would be making the suggestion that the drunkenness of spectators contributed to the disaster.

Paddy Shennan comment: "This was beneath contempt - an absolutely appalling assault on the memories of the 96 and all the survivors."

Andrew Nuttall, representing former Dep Chief Constable Peter Hayes and Assistant Chief Constable Stuart Anderson, said: "The levels of blood alcohol of the deceased are not relevant to either the cause of deaths or the cause of the disaster, however, our position, like that of the match commanders, in relation to spectators is that we do feel it's relevant and we will be pursuing that case."

Paul Greaney QC, representing the Police Federation, he did not anticipate making the suggestion that the blood alcohol levels of the victims played any part in the disaster, but he said he did not want to steer witnesses away from talking about alcohol consumption.

He said: "The idea of taking witnesses away from evidence that they have to give about drink, in particular in relation to other supporters, in particular later attendants, is unattractive."

Pete Weatherby, representing the 22 families from the Hillsborough Justice Campaign (HJC), said they had commissioned a report on the blood alcohol levels of the victims.

He said: "The difficulty that we foresee and the reason we commissioned Professor Jones' report is that some interested parties might seek to highlight or rely on intoxication issues regarding not the deceased but supporters."

He added: "In those circumstances we believe this evidence is e only objective evidence of alcohol use."

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Mr Beggs also called for a jury visit to the stadium not to include the police control box.

He said the stadium's box, where Duckenfield was based for the match, was different "in just about every conceivable way" to how it had been in 1989.

He said: "It's in a different location, it's completely different dimensions, it has different contents and it affords a completely different view of various aspects of the stadium.

"It won't provide a helpful perspective but what it will do is mislead the jury as to the location, dimension, contents and view.

"Witnesses may have already been misled as to what could be seen from that control box."

But coroner Lord Justice Goldring said the visit to the control box would be included.

He said: "The visit will at least give some, albeit vague, impression of being in a small structure in the general area of where the box was."

The hearing also heard that expert evidence suggested handheld police footage from the day had been edited.

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Pete Weatherby QC, representing the families in the Hillsborough Justice Campaign, said experts had analysed tapes from the day of the 1989 disaster.

He said he one of the tapes, which had footage from the Leppings Lane end and inside the stadium, was thought to have been edited.

He said: "The joint conclusion is there is strong support for the proposition that this is not the original tape."

He said the way it was edited could not have been done on the camera.

He added: "The facts the edits are of a different nature points away from an innocent explanation."

The inquest also heard South Yorkshire Police had requested that witnesses were screened from the jury.

Lord Goldring said he was concerned that pathology reports, which were due to be ready by the end of January, had not yet been disclosed to interested parties.

Christina Lambert QC, counsel to the inquests, said: "We are very conscious of the concerns which have been expressed by all the family representatives."

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She said the reports would be given to families and lawyers in "sufficient time" for them to be considered before the inquests.

All the reports would include the cause of death, the process leading to death and the prospect of survival for the victims.

Ms Lambert said a report by a policing experts included "very telling observations and criticisms" of police planning, crowd management by police, the response of senior officers to the crush at the turnstiles and the emergency response by police.

The full inquests, which start on March 31, are expected to finish around December, although some lawyers suggested the hearings could run in to 2015.