Hillsborough Inquests: Coroner to begin summing up evidence
The coroner presiding over the fresh inquests into the deaths of 96 Liverpool supporters at the 1989 FA Cup semi-final at Hillsborough will begin summing up the evidence today.
The coroner presiding over the fresh inquests into the deaths of 96 Liverpool supporters at the 1989 FA Cup semi-final at Hillsborough will begin summing up the evidence today.
The hearings into Britain's worst sporting disaster at a specially built courtoom in Warrington, Cheshire, started on March 31 2014.
More than 260 days of evidence have been heard at 305 Bridgewater Place at the town's Birchwood Park business park.
Lord Justice Goldring, acting as Assistant Coroner for South Yorkshire (East) and West Yorkshire (West), is expected to take up to three weeks to sum up the evidence to the jury of seven women and three men.
The inquests will then adjourn for the half-term break in mid-February and are due to reconvene on February 22 when the jury is expected to be sent out to consider its conclusions.
The tragedy unfolded on April 15 1989 during Liverpool's FA Cup tie against Nottingham Forest as thousands of fans were crushed on Sheffield Wednesday's Leppings Lane terrace.
At the start of the fresh inquests, Lord Justice Goldring said none of the victims should be blamed for their deaths.
Emotional tributes to each of the 96 were then delivered by family members in the form of personal portraits.
Evidence topics heard at the inquests included stadium safety, match planning, the events of the day, the emergency response and evidence gathering by police after the disaster.
The jury were then told of the final movements of each victim before hearing from medical experts and pathologists as to the circumstances of the deaths.
The 1991 verdicts from the original inquests were quashed following the 2012 damning report of the Hillsborough Independent Panel, which concluded there was a cover-up that attempted to shift the blame for the tragedy on to its victims.