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Police officers who are Freemasons have been banned from working on the criminal investigation into the Hillsborough cover-up.

The revelation adds weight to the theory that members of the secretive organisation suppressed the truth after 96 Liverpool fans died in 1989.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission took the unusual move after families of the football fans who died in the disaster demanded that no members of a lodge be involved.

All of the employees in the IPCC investigation have also been told they cannot be from South Yorkshire or Merseyside, where the tragedy occurred.

Former West Midlands Police officers have also been banned after their force carried out a review that led to the flawed inquest verdicts being quashed last year.

Officers from the force have also been accused of changing witness statements.

The probe into the police’s role on the day of the disaster – codenamed Operation Resolve – employs 170 people, including 70 officers. The latest review, led by former Durham chief constable Jon Stoddart, was expected to report soon but the team has been swamped with evidence and has to interview 237 officers who were on duty at the match.

A source close to the probe said: “We have been told that no Freemasons are allowed on the investigation.

“One theory at the time was that the whole conspiracy was covered up by the group’s members as there are so many Masons in the police.

“The families have raised concerns… so we have prohibited them from being part of the investigation team. The deadline that officers were working towards is impossible and the review’s findings will be delayed.”

An IPCC source confirmed that Freemasons and former officers from the three forces had been banned from the probe.

The investigation team, while independent from the fresh inquests into the deaths, is helping coroner Lord Justice Goldring to prepare for and carry out the inquests, set to start by March 3, 2014.

Hillsborough was Britain’s worst-ever sporting disaster. Thousands of fans were crushed on the Sheffield Wednesday ground’s Leppings Lane terrace during Liverpool’s 1989 FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest.

Last December verdicts of accidental death from the original Hillsborough inquest in March 1991 were quashed.

The action was taken after the Hillsborough Independent Panel reported that there had been a huge cover-up.

The IPCC has previously revealed that statements given by witnesses could have been changed by police.

Secret society pervades the establishment

The Freemasons is a “fraternal brotherhood” dating back to the 14th century. It started as an organisation to monitor the qualifications of stonemasons.

But in modern times the organisation is seen as an elitist group that has been dogged by allegations of corruption.

The all-male group, governed by the United Grand Lodge of England, has 250,000 members. Many figures in authority are Freemasons. The first US president, George Washington, and another leading American revolutionary, Benjamin Franklin, were Masons. Today a significant proportion of the Royal household are members, and the Duke of Kent is grand master of the UGLE.

Despite royal patronage, and their presence in the judiciary and the higher reaches of the City, the Masons deny being an underground arm of the Establishment.