HILLSBOROUGH : TIME TO MOVE ON.

 A jury in Preston seems to have shown a degree of common sense in deciding that David Duckinfield was not guilty of negligent manslaughter over the sad deaths at Hillsborough 30 years ago. Sadly, it seems that at least some of the relatives of those who died don't want to accept the verdict and are still looking for someone to blame for the incident.

As the man in charge of crowd control on the day, Mr Duckinfield was required to try to control tens of thousands of football supporters, some of whom certainly didn't much like being controlled. Duckinfield had to make decisions on the spur of the moment and at least one of those decisions, with benefit of hindsight, may have been misguided. However, how that amounts to such a serious mistake as to lead to 95 charges of "negligent manslaughter", and a witch hunt, escapes me. 

The inquests held in 2014-16 resulted in a jury deciding that the 96 people who died were "unlawfully killed". Ever since, those who have been determined to lay the blame on an individual have used these verdicts to demand "justice". Today, they got justice but still aren't happy because their target hasn't been found guilty. They seem to have forgotten that justice is about assembling evidence, laying charges and placing the case before a jury - what the jury then decides is justice, like it or not.

To my mind, the problem lies with the original inquest verdicts which were arrived at in a highly fevered and sensationalist environment. The unfortunate supporters who died were just that, unfortunate, and to claim that they were "unlawfully killed" is nonsense. No one set out to commit murder, no one made decisions negligently and no one was individually responsible. Yes, it was a terrible event; yes, things went wrong, but to try to lay the blame on any individual was also wrong. No one person was responsible; responsibility rests with those who managed the stadium, perhaps with those who managed the crowds, but probably also with some of those fans who forced their way into the ground through an exit gate. In truth, no one person was responsible, it was a terrible accident resulting from a concatenation of situations and actions.

The sooner the still-aggrieved relatives come to this realisation and move on, the better.