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*Click here for a timeline of Hillsborough and the long road to justice

THE campaign for the truth about Hillsborough has been going on for much longer than many of the victims’ lifetimes.

Philip Hammond junior was just 14 years old when he died on April 15, 1989.

His parents, Phil and Hilda, have now been seeking justice for their son and all 96 victims of the disaster for more than 23 years.

Now, finally, the door they have been pushing against for so long looks like it could be about to open.

But it’s been a battle which has nearly cost Phil, 63, his own life.

A few days after Christmas, 2008, the then-chairman of the Hillsborough Family Support Group suffered a devastating brain haemorrhage. At one point, doctors gave him no chance of survival.

But he fought for his life – and won.

Phil spent six days short of a year in the Walton Centre for Neurology and Neurosurgery and today, at home in Aigburth, he is continuing slowly but steadily on the road to recovery. But the road to justice has been slower: “People look at you and say ‘Is he soft? Why is he going on about this all the time?’”

For years now, some thoughtless outsiders have asked: “What is it they want? What do they mean by ‘justice’?”

While Prime Minister David Cameron added to the ignorance when he said, regarding the quest for answers: “It’s like a blind man, in a dark room, looking for a black cat that isn’t there.”

Really? Has he seen all the Hillsborough documents?

Phil spelled it out: “All Hilda and I have ever wanted is the truth – we want to know the whole story from the start. We can’t speak for anybody else and different people may think different things, but this will be enough for us and will give us closure – because it will clear our son’s name. Justice is the truth – the whole story.

“We want people, including future generations, to be educated. Having all the facts out there will let them know what really happened at Hillsborough – that the fans were not drunken hooligans, but decent and honest people.”

*Hillsborough: Andy Burnham MP on a major turning point in the campaign for justice – the day he was barracked at Anfield

Hilda added: “No-one wanted compensation. All we wanted was the truth. Ninety-six people went to a match that day – it was a travesty that the disaster happened and it was a travesty after it happened.

“They were criticised, labelled and their good names taken away from them. All we want is for that to be put to bed.

“All these years we’ve had to live with people’s misconceptions.

“Some of it is down to ignorance and some of the misconceptions have been put in people’s minds by other people lying and covering things up.

“We have had to live with a lot of horrible accusations – young Philip, he was a young 14 and he wouldn’t have said boo to a goose. He respected authority to the hilt.”

Phil added: “That day, if the police told him to go back in that crowd, he would have done. The main thing is my son wasn’t to blame for his own death and today’s children need to be educated about that.”

Phil has done plenty of educating of his own over the years. He explained: “I’ve helped a lot of students with their various projects about Hillsborough and there is a lot of interest in Hillsborough among journalism students.

“I went to the University of Central Lancashire in Preston and talked to journalism students there.

“At the end they asked me if I had any advice and I said ‘Don’t write for The Sun’.

“The Sun, with all its lies, caused a lot of damage because no matter what follows, things stick in people’s minds. It’s like a book which has a lot of chapters – people don’t forget what they read in an early chapter.”

Now a major new chapter – and, perhaps, the final and defining chapter – is about to be written with the release of the Hillsborough files. And Phil played his part in setting the wheels in motion.

Ahead of the 20th anniversary service at Anfield in 2009, when her husband was in hospital, Hilda asked the ECHO to tell readers Phil would want as many people as possible to be there – more than the record-breaking 14,000 who attended the 10th anniversary service.

Nearly 30,000 turned up – such huge numbers that, from the following year, it was felt necessary, for health and safety reasons, to make it a limited, all-ticket event.

And it was at the 20th anniversary service that the then-sports minister Andy Burnham, after being barracked while addressing the crowds, raised the issue of Hillsborough with then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the cabinet.

The minister said there had been a “major injustice” and, backed by the MP for Garston [now Garston and Halewood] Maria Eagle, called for a full disclosure of documents.

Phil said: “I was made up when that happened – and grateful that Andy Burnham did what he did.

“He grasped the nettle and moved things forward.

“We should always be grateful to him for that.

“He was brave and he deserves a lot of credit.

“And I am hopeful that this time we will get some answers.

“There are so many questions – like, for example, I want to find out where [Margaret Thatcher’s then-press secretary] Bernard Ingham got his information from.

“I want to know if [Sheffield coroner Dr Stefan] Popper was in touch with Thatcher.”

Ingham outrageously claimed the disaster was caused by a “tanked- up mob” of Liverpool fans, while Phil said of Popper: “He caused so many problems by imposing the 3.15pm cut-off time at the inquests.”

Phil and Hilda are also still waiting for former South Yorkshire police Chief Superintendent David Duckenfield to open his mouth.

Duckenfield and a former superintendent, the late Bernard Murray, were jointly accused of manslaughter – two specimen charges in a private prosecution brought by the Hillsborough Family Support Group.

Dad-of-two Murray, 58 at the time of the trial at Leeds crown court in the summer of 2000, was found not guilty. He died from cancer in March, 2006.

The jury was discharged after failing to reach any verdicts on Duckenfield and the judge ordered proceedings against him to be “stayed” after ruling out a retrial.

Murray was close to tears when he told the jury: “I feel a great deal of sympathy and sadness for the people who I have seen here every day.

“I am a parent myself and I know what they have lost. I know how they must feel and I know that a lot of them must blame me.

“I do feel a sense of responsibility and always have. I do feel very sorry for their loss.”

Duckenfield, 55 at the time of the trial, moved to a village near Bournemouth with his wife, Ann, less than a year after taking early retirement. He chose not to give evidence at his trial.

At a press conference, his solicitor said he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

He has never spoken publicly about the disaster, but Phil Hammond said: “Duckenfield owes it to the families to make a statement – I think he is arrogant.”

Hilda added: “I don’t know how he sleeps of a night. He might be going through torment – but we just don’t know.”

Finally, as they look ahead to the release of the files tomorrow, Hilda said: “If you look at the transcripts of every speech Phil has made over the years, you will see he has always said ‘Something will turn up’.”

We could be just hours away.

*Click here to look back at our archive coverage of the Hillsborough disaster