AS someone who was at Hillsborough in 1989, I write concerning the recent collapse of the trial of three defendants charged with perverting the course of justice following the disaster – which claimed the lives of 96 innocent men, women and children, including sadly Keighley’s own Tony Bland.

The judge in the trial, Mr Justice William Davis, ruled there was no case to answer against the three defendants. Yet the weight of evidence heard at the trial would suggest the opposite. What the judge actually ruled on was that altered and amended police statements were intended for a public inquiry in 1990 led by Lord Justice Taylor, but that was not "a course of public justice". So, these three defendants go free on a legal technicality.

The fact that 164 police statements were "significantly amended" was not in dispute, even by the defence lawyers or the defendants themselves – yet, because the amended statements were submitted to a public inquiry, then, according to this judge, it was deemed alright to lie and meant the charges of perverting the course of justice did not apply.

Really? So, the "course of justice" cannot have been perverted by changing the police statements? Most right-minded people would consider that shocking and unbelievable. It really does beggar belief. Margaret Aspinall, of the Hillsborough families, was right to call it "a cover up of a cover up".

This court decision is a disgrace. The Lord Justice Taylor inquiry’s official questionnaires, completed by witnesses including myself who were visited by the West Midlands police investigating the disaster, were entitled – in capital letters – Lord Justice Taylor’s Judicial Inquiry into the Hillsborough Football Disaster. Furthermore, question no 54 in the questionnaire asks ‘is there anything that you wish to add which you feel is vital to this judicial inquiry?’

Completing this official questionnaire and giving my statement to police officers certainly made me believe it was a legal proceeding and nothing will ever change my view on that. The QC, who represented 22 families at the 2014-16 judicial inquests, has said the questionnaires supported the view that the Taylor inquiry was a course of justice.

In addition to this appalling court decision, the QC for one of the defendants again besmirched and denigrated the reputation of the families and supporters, by repeating publicly the proven lie that it was Liverpool supporters who were responsible for the disaster. This despite the fact that both the Hillsborough Independent Panel in 2012 and the 2014-2016 judicial inquests exonerated the supporters. At the 2016 inquests, the jury found the supporters to be entirely blameless. The jury further found that the 96 men, women and children who died were unlawfully killed, due to police gross negligence.

Yet, in 32 years of inquiries, inquests and trials (apart from one person convicted of a health and safety offence and fined £6,000) not one person has been held responsible for those unlawful killings.

That is an appalling scandal and a gross injustice and insult to the 96 innocent lives lost and to the families who have lost their loved ones, as well as to all the survivors.

In spite of the utter desolation and hurt this trial and others have heaped on the families of the 96, they know that the 2016 inquest jury decision in finding their loved ones unlawfully killed was a massive victory in itself. The fact that nobody has been held accountable for that is not their fault – they have adhered to the law and with dignity, respect and humanity have tried their very best to get justice for their loved ones.

It is entirely the fault of the state and establishment that not one person has been held responsible for the unlawful killing of 96 innocent men, women and children at Hillsborough. It is that, which is shameful and a stain on our so called justice system.

Ralph Quigley, Cononley

* Email your letters to alistair.shand@keighleynews.co.uk