Ninety-six candles stood on the steps of St George’s Hall in Liverpool this morning. Draped above, banners listed the names of the 96 people who we can now say were unlawfully killed at Hillsborough. The candles are still burning – as they will be when the victims’ families gather here for a commemoration at 5.45pm tomorrow – but the banners underwent a transformation shortly after 11am. “Truth and Justice” were added. Finally. After 27 years.

Car horns are sounding repeatedly as they pass St George’s plateau, where people gathered this morning for news from the inquest being held in Warrington. Their numbers grew steadily after it was concluded that the 96 were unlawfully killed and supporters’ behaviour was not to blame for the disaster in 1989. Many more will be back tomorrow.

Inside St George’s Hall, in the opulent concert room where Charles Dickens gave readings from his novels, around 50 family members and friends watched as the verdicts came through on a live stream.

There were loud cheers when question six - “Are you satisfied, so that you are sure, that those who died in the disaster were unlawfully killed?” - was answered with a simple yes. Applause greeted the ‘No’ to question seven – was the behaviour of football supporters a contributory factor? At that point, a man in the front row put his arm across his wife’s shoulders. At the back of the room, a man wept openly.

Later, they listened for over 50 minutes to the individual verdicts that confirmed the medical cause of death and the time of death of their loved ones. In absolute silence, they received the news that 95 of the 96 victims died, or could have died, after the 3.15pm cut-off point that was imposed by the coroner at the original inquest.

As they filed out of the concert room, some of the relatives were asked if they would like to give a comment to the media. With the exception of Margaret Matthews, who lost her 38-year-old husband Brian at Hillsborough, each one declined politely and apologetically. Each one said the same line: “I’m still taking it all in.”