So tomorrow that’s it, Tuesday 26th April, the day the jury announce their decisions after a 2 year trial. Can you believe that this fight for justice and fight for answers has been going for 27 years? This is still known as the worst sporting disaster in the United Kingdom.
Tomorrow at 11am, the world will find out what decisions have been reached by the jury, (through a majority – seven of nine jurors in this particular case).
As this is an inquest, the inquest process is not binary, and is far more complex than just a ‘guilty’ or ‘not guilty’ decision.
As a result, the jurors were given a series of 14 questions by the coroner (Sir John Goldring) and they had to answer them in full. These questions included whether the South Yorkshire Police force were adequately prepared for the 1989 FA Cup semi-final at Hillsborough, whether the stadium was defective, whether the owners of Sheffield Wednesday were culpable etc.
So tomorrow the families of the 96 hear the answers of these questions.
There was one particular question which has taken the jury a very long time to decide on – and a decision has only been reached after the coroner allowed them to do so by majority verdict today. This question was question six, which asked “Are you satisfied, so that you are sure, that those who died in the disaster were unlawfully killed?”
This question is crucial for the families, and if the jury forewoman responds tomorrow in the affirmative, it is hoped that there might be a sense of finality and some form of justice for the families, who have waited 27 years for answers as to how their loved ones died, and they have waited and fought for someone to be held responsible.
Let’s hope that tomorrow brings good news, or good news in the sense that the families of the 96 finally have the answer they have so desperately sought after 27 years.
Rebecca x