JFT96
David Duckenfield, the police commander at Hillsborough in 1989, has finally admitted that his incompetency caused the deaths of 96 fans.
Duckenfield said that he had tried his best under “very trying circumstances” but said that this was clearly not good enough and his “mistakes” contributed to the disaster.
However, hadded that he should be judged on the standards that he was an “incompetent” and “inexperienced” match commander but denied he had been negligent.
However, quite brazenly, Duckenfield revealed to the court that he was still suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder from the incident – which does little to 96 families who’ve waited over 25 years for the truth to come out whilst having to live with countless smears in their loved ones names
Questioned by Rajv Menon QC, the representation for 75 of the Hillsborough families, Duckenfield denied it was his negligence that caused the crush.
“I wouldn’t use the word negligence, sir,” Mr Duckenfield said, reports BBC.
Asked what word he would use he said: “Mistake. Oversight.”
Before adding: “With hindsight, the mistakes I made were a contributory factor.”
He also said that he was unable to deny that his failure to order the close of the tunnel that led to the central pens of the Leppings Lane terrace was a “blunder of the first magnitude” as put by Rajiv Menon.
Duckenfield still maintained his belief that “drunk, ticketless and late fans” had some impact on the disaster, saying that “football fans played a part”.
When it was put to him that his memories of the events seemed selective and he was unable to remember things when it suited him but was fine we he needed to be assertive, Duckenfield replied:
“This is one of the strange realities of post-traumatic stress disorder,” which caused gasps in the court…
The inquests and cross-examination of Mr Duckenfield continues this afternoon.