19/11/2012

Almost 90,000 Signatures Call For Rush On Hillsborough Inquest

More than 88,000 people have signed an online petition calling for a new inquest to be brought forward for Kevin Williams, a 15-year-old victim of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, whose mother, Anne, has been diagnosed with terminal cancer.

The attorney general, Dominic Grieve, is preparing a high court application to quash the original Hillsborough inquest verdict, after the report of the Hillsborough Independent Panel in September discredited its principal findings.

The petition seeks to enable Anne Williams, who has campaigned relentlessly against the inquest since its jury reached a verdict of accidental death 21 years ago, to see it quashed in her lifetime.

Elkan Abrahamson, Williams's solicitor, said he believed it should be possible for Grieve to complete his application by the end of November and for the high court to hold the hearing before Christmas.

However, Grieve's office, which has said he will make the application "as soon as he possibly can", hopes only to have a draft completed by the end of this month. When the online petition reaches 100,000 signatures, the issue will have to be considered for a debate in parliament.

"It is fate," said Williams, who has now moved to a hospice in Southport, Merseyside. "I have known all along what the inquest said about Kevin was wrong, that witnesses were pressured to change their evidence. I couldn't let go, for my son. I do want to see the inquest quashed."

(H)


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25 April 2013
Hearing Underway To Decide Date And Venue Of New Hillsborough Inquest
A hearing is underway at the Family Division of the High Court in London to decide on the date and location of a fresh inquest into the deaths of the 96 Hillsborough victims. A new inquest was ordered after High Court judges quashed the original accidental death verdicts in December.
13 February 2013
Coroner Announced For Hillsborough Inquest
Lord Justice Goldring has been announced as the coroner to oversee the new inquests into the Hillsborough disaster. Fresh inquests are to be held into Britain’s worst sporting disaster, in which 96 football fans were crushed to death at a 1989 FA Cup semi-final on the steel-fenced terraces of Sheffield Wednesday’s home stadium.
13 September 2012
Calls Rise For Fresh Hillsborough Inquest
Following the release of the findings of the Hillsborough Independent Panel calls for a criminal investigation are increasing. Former chief constable Richard Wells, who led South Yorkshire Police from 1990 to 1998, has said charges were "absolutely essential" after the damning report into the tragedy.