Hillsborough: Trial collapses as judge rules no case to answer — Transcript

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1. 0:00heartbroken the verdict of margaret
2. 0:02aspinall today as another criminal case
3. 0:05ended without conviction
4. 0:07what a very sad day today is for the
5. 0:10justice system of this country
6. 0:13what chances any single person got
7. 0:16where 96 people can be unlawfully killed
8. 0:19and no one can be held to account
9. 0:22we all should be ashamed of ourselves
10. 0:25for allowing that to happen
11. 0:27ms aspinall's 18 year old son james was
12. 0:29one of the 96
13. 0:31the liverpool fans who died in the crush
14. 0:33at the fa cup semi-final in sheffield
15. 0:3532 years ago three men have been on
16. 0:39trial for perverting the course of
17. 0:40justice
18. 0:41from the left retired police officers
19. 0:43donald denton and alan foster
20. 0:45along with former solicitor peter
21. 0:47metcalfe they are accused of trying to
22. 0:49minimize the blame placed on south
23. 0:51yorkshire police in the aftermath of the
24. 0:53disaster
25. 0:54by altering statements they prepared for
26. 0:56the public inquiry in 1990
27. 0:59but today some of the families of the 96
28. 1:02listened in dismay
29. 1:03as the judge declared that the
30. 1:05defendants had no case to answer
31. 1:08justice william davis said that they had
32. 1:10given statements to a public inquiry
33. 1:12not a statutory inquiry in other words
34. 1:15it hadn't been a court of law
35. 1:16and so justice couldn't have been
36. 1:18perverted the collapse of this trial
37. 1:21means that nobody has ever been
38. 1:23criminally convicted
39. 1:24over hillsborough the cps defended their
40. 1:27decision to bring this case
41. 1:29but the barrister for one of the
42. 1:30defendants donald denton told me that
43. 1:33the trial had been a waste of public
44. 1:34resources
45. 1:35the truth is there never was a
46. 1:37hillsborough cover-up there never was
47. 1:39evidence of a hillsborough cover-up
48. 1:41and the persecution of elderly men for
49. 1:44just doing their jobs over 30 years ago
50. 1:46does no favors to the hillsborough
51. 1:48families but you understand why the
52. 1:50families will be incredibly
53. 1:52upset at the thought of you saying that
54. 1:54they were just doing their jobs
55. 1:55i have absolutely huge sympathy
56. 1:59for the families and and the grief that
57. 2:01they must still be suffering to this day
58. 2:04but the truth is that justice is not
59. 2:06about
60. 2:07going after people with no evidence it's
61. 2:10about finding the truth
62. 2:13and the families have fought for that
63. 2:15truth for over three decades
64. 2:17in 2016 they celebrated when inquest
65. 2:20verdicts found that the 96 had been
66. 2:22unlawfully killed they hoped
67. 2:24accountability would follow
68. 2:26today they said that hope had been
69. 2:28crushed
70. 2:30we've seen how the scales of justice are
71. 2:33weighed against
72. 2:34ordinary people that is what has
73. 2:36happened here that is the story of
74. 2:38hillsborough
75. 2:39these families have fought against
76. 2:41impossible odds
77. 2:43and they established the truth in 2016.
78. 2:47but sadly the establishment of this
79. 2:48country has sought to undermine
80. 2:50that truth four trials two sets of
81. 2:54inquests a public inquiry and numerous
82. 2:56investigations
83. 2:57but today only disappointment and
84. 2:59distress for those who've tried so
85. 3:02desperately to get criminal justice
86. 3:04for the 96. darshan assani channel 4
87. 3:06news liverpool
88. 3:08well earlier i spoke with charlotte
89. 3:10hennessey whose father jimmy was killed
90. 3:12in the disaster and i began by asking
91. 3:14her how she feels about today's
92. 3:16acquittal
93. 3:18in a word i was devastated families like
94. 3:21your own
95. 3:22have been campaigning now for justice
96. 3:24for for 32 years
97. 3:25and apart from a fine for a health and
98. 3:27safety officer no
99. 3:28single individual has been held
100. 3:31responsible
101. 3:32is it impossible now that that will
102. 3:34happen in the future
103. 3:35and i think it's been made perfectly
104. 3:37clear by the cps that there is no way
105. 3:39forward now
106. 3:40we were told that um we couldn't appeal
107. 3:43david duckingfield's
108. 3:44um verdict we've now been told that we
109. 3:47cannot appeal this verdict either
110. 3:50and so it's it's certainly you know the
111. 3:52end of the road and
112. 3:53i just think it can't be forgotten that
113. 3:56family members have fought so tirelessly
114. 3:59for 32 years even when i was too young
115. 4:02to do so
116. 4:03and the strength and the determination
117. 4:07that they have shown but also
118. 4:10the fact that survivors despite their
119. 4:13own trauma
120. 4:14have always told the truth and they were
121. 4:17vindicated
122. 4:18that cannot be forgotten what is the
123. 4:21impact of
124. 4:22all those years and today's acquittal
125. 4:25on you personally it's had a huge impact
126. 4:28on my mental health
127. 4:29which i don't think i will ever truly
128. 4:32recover from
129. 4:33you know it has a huge impact on on my
130. 4:36children as well and
131. 4:38that for me is it sometimes feels more
132. 4:41devastating
133. 4:42that they're having to live through this
134. 4:44now so is this
135. 4:46today the end of the justice for 1996
136. 4:50campaign that you have been so central
137. 4:51to
138. 4:53i think that we got truth at the
139. 4:55inquests
140. 4:56well there has no been there'd been no
141. 4:58justice and there is no accountability
142. 5:00and does today's ruling stop you in a
143. 5:03way
144. 5:03getting that kind of sense of closure
145. 5:06that perhaps you were looking for
146. 5:08yeah yeah it definitely does you know
147. 5:11there's no doubt about that
148. 5:12this was always about you know in the
149. 5:15deaths of our loved ones and
150. 5:18um you know they were unlawfully killed
151. 5:21at a grossly negligent level
152. 5:24and yet nobody will ever be held
153. 5:27accountable for that and that is just
154. 5:29so devastating how would you like to
155. 5:32remember
156. 5:33your father jimmy i'd like to remember
157. 5:35my dad for the good man that he was
158. 5:38he was in the in the place that he
159. 5:39should be at the time that he should be
160. 5:41he didn't do
161. 5:42anything wrong so when you hear the
162. 5:44lawyer for one of the men
163. 5:45acquitted today saying that the behavior
164. 5:48of liverpool supporters was and i quote
165. 5:50appalling
166. 5:51they were causing a riot that appears to
167. 5:53contradict the findings of the 2016
168. 5:56inquest i just wonder what your response
169. 5:58is to that
170. 5:58the liverpool fans were vindicated at
171. 6:00the inca quests they were not to blame
172. 6:03and this the hillsborough disaster was
173. 6:06no cause of any riot
174. 6:08any ticketless fans any drunk fans the
175. 6:10liverpool fans are not
176. 6:12to blame charlotte hennessey thanks very
177. 6:15much for joining us
178. 6:16thank you
179. 6:21you