The police commander of the 1989 FA Cup semi-final at Hillsborough, where 96 people were killed in a crush, said as the disaster unfolded that Liverpool supporters had rushed in after a gate was “forced”, his trial for alleged manslaughter has heard.



David Duckenfield , then a South Yorkshire police chief superintendent, said that to Graham Kelly, the Football Association’s chief executive, at 3.15pm on 15 April 1989, after the match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest had been stopped due to the crush on the Leppings Lane terrace.



Glen Kirton, the FA’s then head of external affairs, recalled that conversation in his evidence at Preston crown court, where Duckenfield is being prosecuted for gross negligence manslaughter of 95 of the people who died. Kirton said after the semi-final was stopped at 3.06pm by a police officer at the Leppings Lane end running on to the pitch, he and Kelly went up to the police control box to find out what had happened.



Asked by Christine Agnew QC, for the prosecution, what Duckenfield had said, Kirton replied: “I recall that Mr Duckenfield said to Graham Kelly that a gate had been forced, and that there had been an inrush of spectators.”

Benjamin Myers QC, defending, clarified with Kirton that Duckenfield had said the inrush was of Liverpool supporters. Kirton said Duckenfield had indicated the CCTV monitors in the control box, but it was not clear what he was referring to.

“As I said in my statement at the time, it meant nothing to me,” Kirton said.

Duckenfield did not identify which gate he was referring to, or when the “inrush” had happened, Kirton said. There were a number of other police officers in the small control box, including Walter Jackson, an assistant chief constable, he said.



He and Kelly left the control box, then between 3.30pm and 3.45pm Duckenfield came to a meeting within Hillsborough, attended by senior officials of the FA, Sheffield Wednesday, Liverpool and Nottingham Forest.

Asked about the scene after he left the control box, when he could see people being brought out from the Leppings Lane “pens” on to the pitch, Kirton said: “It all looked, to my untrained eye, extremely chaotic.”

Duckenfield has pleaded not guilty. He is not charged in relation to the 96th victim, Tony Bland, who suffered critical brain injury at Hillsborough due to loss of oxygen and died in 1993 after life support was lawfully withdrawn in hospital. According to the law in 1989, no criminal charge relating to a death could be brought if the victim died longer than a year and a day after the acts alleged to have caused it.

The trial at Preston crown court in front of judge Sir Peter Openshaw continues.

