Hillsborough group plans next move (From St Helens Star)

Hillsborough group plans next move

2:03pm Sunday 16th September 2012 in News

Families of Liverpool fans killed in the Hillsborough disaster are meeting for the first time since an independent panel revealed a shocking cover-up which attempted to shift the blame for the tragedy from the police on to the victims.

The Hillsborough Families Support Group (HFSG) is meeting at Anfield to discuss the next step in its campaign for justice for the 96 victims of the 1989 disaster.

High-profile lawyers for the campaign, Michael Mansfield QC and Lord Falconer, will appear via an internet videolink.

Margaret Aspinall, chair of the HFSG, spoke just before she went into the meeting.

She said: "We are going to be taking legal advice to find out what we do next. We have got to make sure we are all singing from the same hymn sheet."

Trevor Hicks, the group's president, said: "We will be looking at all the options and seeing where we go from here. I think it's almost certain now that there will be fresh inquests."

The damning Hillsborough Independent Panel report revealed a cover-up took place to shift the blame on to the victims and that 41 of the 96 lives lost at Sheffield Wednesday's stadium on April 15, 1989, could have been saved.

The panel found that 164 police statements were altered, 116 of them to remove or alter "unfavourable" comments about the policing of the match and the unfolding disaster.