96 women, men and children died as a result of the disaster in Hillsborough Stadium on 15 April 1989. They were crushed due to overcrowding in the Leppings Lane terrace, penned in by the ground's fencing. Hundreds more were injured and thousands traumatised. Lord Justice Taylor led a judicial inquiry (1990, Cm. 962, ISBN 9780101096225), concluding that the main cause of the disaster was the failure of police control. The next 11 years saw a variety of investigations and proceedings, including a scrutiny of new evidence (Lord Justice Stuart-Smith, 1998, Cm. 3878, ISBN 9780101387828). Yet many bereaved families felt that the true context, circumstances and aftermath had not been adequately made public, and were particularly aggrieved that it had become widely assumed that Liverpool fans' behaviour had contributed to the disaster. The Independent Panel was established in 2010 to oversee full public disclosure of all documents relating to the disaster and to report on its work. This report is in three parts. Firstly it shows what was already known and in the public domain by 2010. Secondly, in 12 detailed chapters, it describes what the disclosed documents add to public understanding. The third part gives a review of options for providing an archive of the documents. The disclosed documents (available at http://panel.hillsborough.independent.gov.uk/) add considerably to public understanding. They show that multiple factors were responsible for the tragedy and that the fans were not the cause. The report also shows that the bereaved families met a series of obstacles in their search for justice over more than 20 years.

This is the definitive, unique account of the disaster in which 96 men, women and children were killed, hundreds injured and thousands traumatised. It details the appalling treatment endured by the bereaved and survivors in the immediate aftermath, the inhumanity of the identification process and the vilification of fans in the national and international media. In 2012, Phil Scraton was primary author of the ground-breaking report published by the Hillsborough Independent Panel following its new research into thousands of documents disclosed by all agencies involved. Against a backdrop of almost three decades of persistent struggle by bereaved families and survivors, in this new edition he reflects on the Panel’s in-depth work, its revelatory findings and their unprecedented impact – an unreserved apology from the Prime Minister; new criminal investigations; the Independent Police Complaints Commission’s largest-ever inquiry; the quashing of 96 inquest verdicts; a review of all health and pathology policies. Paving the way for truth recovery and institutional accountability in other controversial cases, he details the process and considers the impact of the longest ever inquests, from the preliminary hearings to their comprehensive, devastating verdicts. Powerful, disturbing and harrowing, Hillsborough: The Truth exposes the institutional complacency that led to the unlawful killing of the 96, revealing how the interests of ordinary people are marginalised when those in authority sacrifice truth and accountability to protect their reputations.

On 15 April 1989, ninety-six spectators lost their lives at Sheffield's Hillsborough Stadium as they gathered for an FA Cup semi-final match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. The events of that spring afternoon sparked a controversy that continues to reverberate through British football and policing to this day. Norman Bettison, a Chief Inspector in the South Yorkshire Police at the time of the Hillsborough disaster, witnessed the tragedy as a spectator at the match. Since then, he has found himself one of the focal points of outrage over the actions of the police. Comments he made in the wake of the Hillsborough Independent Panel in 2012 stoked further criticism in the press and in Parliament and, in October 2012, he resigned from his job as Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police. This personal account describes how the Hillsborough disaster unfolded, provides an insight into what was happening at South Yorkshire Police headquarters in the aftermath, and gives an objective and compassionate account of the bereaved families' long struggle for justice, all the while charting the author's journey from innocent bystander to a symbol of a perceived criminal conspiracy. The author is donating his proceeds from the sales of this book to charity.

On 15 April 1989, the world witnessed one of the worst football disasters in history occur at the Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield. 96 people were crushed to death and another 766 injured in a tragedy that was later admitted to have been exacerbated by police failures. Hillsborough Voices does justice to the memory of all those who died and for all those left behind. From the tragic events of the day to what unfolded in the hours, days and eventually years that followed, the book will interweave the voices of those who were there with the families and friends of those who died, and all those who have played key roles in the long search for the truth. The author, Kevin Sampson, has a long history with Hillsborough. Not only was he there as a fan to witness the horror first-hand, he also helped organise the Hillsborough benefit concert at Anfield and has close connections with the justice campaign. He has conducted exhaustive and exclusive interviews both with people who have become familiar public figures and those who will be telling their heart-rending personal stories for the first time – to bring us the full story. The book will be fully endorsed and promoted by the Hillsborough Justice Campaign and will carry the official HJC logo.

An examination of the Hillsborough disaster, drawing on eyewitness accounts and interviews with those who were there and those most affected.

The treatment of victims and complainants by the police is examined in this pioneering new work. Case studies, based on interviews carried out at the University of Portsmouth’s Institute of Criminal Justice Studies, in the United Kingdom, reveal that victims and complainants are routinely discredited by police agencies. Whilst in the United States, victims may include anyone subjected to police interrogation, particularly those of African-American origin, complainants across the globe may include victims of rape, bereaved families, and individual officers. The reason why certain victims and complainants are targeted by policing agencies is complex and leads to an investigation into police bias, covert practices, and one of the most common areas of policing: road death investigations. Consequently, other members of the criminal justice system, such as prosecutors, coroners, and hospital pathologists (medical examiners) are shown to often corroborate the police’s version of events compromising victims’ rights and the very nature of justice. Given recent miscarriages of justice and public relation campaigns on behalf of the police, Eccy de Jonge argues that never before has a greater openness on the inner workings of the police been needed to fully support the interests of those the criminal justice system is meant to serve.

With close attention to the spheres of sport and religion as important sites of moral currency, this book draws on media coverage of major cases of hypocrisy, attending to differing meanings and consequences of hypocrisy within the US, France and Iceland. Instances come from scandals within the established churches, as well as cases from the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the Tour de France, and the inquest into the Hillsborough Disaster in the UK. It considers the importance of the context within which moral conduct takes place and the relevance of this for the occurrence of hypocritical action, while exploring also the implications of advances in computer and information technology for controlling messages and monitoring deceit. Identifying the negative effects of the detection of hypocrisy at individual and institutional levels, the author engages with the work of Goffman to argue for the importance of trust in institutions, underlining the necessity of minimizing and correcting hypocritical acts by which this is undermined. A detailed study of hypocrisy and the need for trust, this volume will appeal to scholars and students of sociology with interests in social and moral conduct, sport, religion, Goffman and the notion of social life as artifice.