‘Justice’ for fans killed in stadium (From Keighley News)

‘Justice’ for fans killed in stadium

6:24pm Thursday 27th December 2012 in Keighley

Keighley businessman Trevor Hicks – whose two teenage daughters died in the Hillsborough disaster – declared justice was on its way after a new inquest into the 96 victims of the tragedy was ordered.

Lord Chief Justice Lord Judge and two other judges at the High Court in London quashed the original accidental death verdicts returned after 96 Liverpool football fans died in the crush 23 years ago.

A judge will be appointed to hear the new inquests.

More than 40 families, who had travelled to London for last Wednesday’s hearing, burst into applause when the judges granted an application brought by the Government’s top law officer, Attorney General Dominic Grieve.

Mr Hicks, who is chairman of the Hillsborough Family Support Group and whose daughters Sarah and Victoria died in the incident, spoke outside the Royal Courts of Justice of his delight at the decision.

He said: “Justice is on its way.

“Everything we have said has been proven to be correct.”

Among the 96 victims was Tony Bland, of Keighley, who was starved of oxygen in the crush and was in a persistent vegetative state for nearly four years. He died in 1993 at Airedale Hospital, aged 22, after his parents – Allan and Barbara – won a legal battle to allow a life-sustaining feeding tube to be removed.

Lord Judge, announcing there were “good grounds” for the application, described what happened in 1989 as “catastrophic”.

Lord Chancellor, Chris Grayling, said: “The victims’ families and survivors of the tragedy have seen their cause take another important step forward today. I will now do everything I can to help get new inquests established quickly.

“I have received a request from the Doncaster and Bradford coroners for a judge to be appointed to conduct these inquests, and I am asking the Lord Chief Justice to make a recommendation to me on suitable candidates as soon as possible.”