The former South Yorkshire police officer in command of the 1989 FA Cup semi-final at Sheffield Wednesday’s Hillsborough stadium was guilty of “extraordinarily bad” and “reprehensible” failures, which caused 96 people to be killed in a crush, his retrial for manslaughter has been told.

Opening the prosecution’s case at Preston crown court, Richard Matthews QC said that David Duckenfield, now 75, failed grossly in the planning of the match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest, and particularly in the management of safety for the 24,000 people with tickets to support Liverpool.

Matthews told the jury that for Duckenfield, then a chief superintendent, “it was part of wearing the uniform, with the pips, braid and crown” that he was responsible for dealing with an emergency, particularly crowd crushing, which was “obvious and serious”.

Matthews accused Duckenfield of failing to take measures to prevent a crush building up at the Leppings Lane turnstiles allocated to Liverpool ticket holders. Then, after he ordered a large exit gate, C, to be opened to alleviate that crisis, Duckenfield failed to have people directed away from the Leppings Lane terrace’s central “pens”, 3 and 4, and did not monitor how full they already were.

“Once in and beyond gate C, the crowd was naturally drawn down the slope of the tunnel and into the confined area of the central pens,” Matthews said, “and David Duckenfield gave no thought to the inevitable consequence of the flood of people through gate C, nor did he make any attempt to even monitor what was occurring, let alone avert the tragedy.”

The terrible crush in those central pens caused the deaths of the 96 people, who were aged between 10 and 67, Matthews told the jury.

Duckenfield bore personal responsibility for his failures, which substantially caused the deaths, Matthews said, even though “it may be that there was an extraordinary series of collective and personal failures on the part of very many, if not all, of those who were responsible for the planning, organisation and management of the arrival, entry and accommodation of the 50,000 fans at the Hillsborough stadium”.

He continued: “David Duckenfield’s criminal responsibility for the deaths of 95 of those who died flows from his gross failure to discharge his personal responsibility as match commander. This was an extraordinarily bad failure – it was so bad, so reprehensible, so blameworthy and unforgivable that it amounts to a gross failure.”

Duckenfield is charged with gross negligence manslaughter of 95 of the people killed. No charge has been brought in relation to Tony Bland, the 96th person who died. Bland, who was 18 when he went to Hillsborough as a Liverpool supporter, “suffered terrible brain damage from being starved of oxygen in the crush”, Matthews told the jury, and he “remained in a permanent vegetative state until March 1993, when he passed away”.

The law in 1989 provided that no criminal charge of causing a person’s death could be brought if the victim died longer than a year and a day after the acts alleged to have caused it. Matthews told the jury that Bland’s death almost four years later was “out of the time” for a manslaughter charge to be brought.

The jury of eight women and four men, who were sworn in on Tuesday, was told that Duckenfield previously faced a trial for the same manslaughter charge, which began in January and ended with the jury unable to return a verdict.

“That task of deciding the case against Mr Duckenfield has now been passed to you,” he told them.

He also informed the jury that Graham Mackrell, Sheffield Wednesday’s safety officer at the time of the disaster, was found guilty at that trial of failing to take reasonable care in relation to the turnstile arrangements at the Leppings Lane end. Mackrell’s conviction, Matthews said, “does not in any way suggest Mr Duckenfield’s guilt”.

Family members of people who died were in the public seats of court one listening to the evidence, and proceedings are also being broadcast live to the Cunard building in Liverpool.

Duckenfield has pleaded not guilty to the charge. The trial, in front of the judge Sir Peter Openshaw, is expected to last about six weeks.



