Anne Williams Hillsborough

[hippo girl 1,995]

Can I just say how moved I was by the accolade posthumously bestowed on Anne Williams last night , during the sports personality of the year programme.

[LizzieM 9,507]

Made me cry ......

[annswabey 599]

Made me cry, too - the thought of his last word being "Mum"

[catfan 14,793]

A true lady, her family & friends must be very proud.

[tomlinson 879]

A true lady indeed and a dreadful tragedy which will never be forgotten, and nor ought it to be. My only worry with all this is that fingers have been pointed and there has been much agonising over who was to blame but I've never heard of the Heysel Stadium disaster in May 1985 being mentioned. Fourteen Liverpool fans were found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and jailed for 3 years each. Is there not a case for some comparisons with the Hillsborough disaster being made?

[Stan 386]

It will soon be 18 April ,what about an Anne Williams day for Nottingham?

Hillsborough campaigner Anne Williams dies aged 62

Williams, whose 15-year-old son was crushed to death in the stadium disaster in 1989, succumbs to cancer

• inSh

Anne Williams at home in Chester. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

Anne Williams, who has died at the age of 62, suffered the loss of her beloved 15-year-old son Kevin in the Hillsborough disaster of 1989, then dedicated her life to challenging flawed medical evidence accepted at the inquest, and its verdict of accidental death.

A mother of three from Formby, who worked part time in a newsagents, she tracked down witnesses, obtained medical opinions about Kevin's death from some of England's most eminent doctors and levelled repeated legal attacks at the Hillsborough inquest.

With other families of the 96 people who died at Hillsborough, the worst stadium-related disaster in British history, she was refused a judicial review of the coroner's rulings in 1993, then had three applications to the attorney general turned down. In 2009 an application to the European court of human rights was rejected as out of time.

But finally, on 12 September last year, Williams lived to see the truth about the disaster fully established, with the report of the Hillsborough independent panel, chaired by James Jones, the bishop of Liverpool. It confirmed the facts she had known all along and refused to see denied.

The Sheffield coroner, Dr Stefan Popper, had ruled that all the victims had received irreversible crush injuries and were dead or could not have been revived by 3.15pm on the day of the disaster. The ruling meant that no evidence was heard about the chaotic and failed emergency response by South Yorkshire police and ambulance service to the suffering of so many people.

The panel's report, so many years later, established incontrovertibly that the medical evidence was wrong, that many of the victims were alive after 3.15pm and that, with a decent medical response, up to 58 might have been saved. Asked by the Guardian then if she would be seeking the painful truth about whether Kevin was one of the 58, Williams replied: "I have known for all these years that the inquest evidence was wrong and Kevin could have been saved, so I don't need to ask."

Yet after that 12 September vindication of her 23-year fight, with almost unbelievably cruel timing, Williams was diagnosed with terminal cancer. She always said she would never give up campaigning for justice and had told friends that, once that fight was won, as she always believed it would be, she had "promised herself a bit of a life again."

Williams had two other children, Michael and Sara, and three grandchildren, and knew how much the disaster affected the siblings and wider family. She went to live in a hospice before moving in with her brother, Danny, and his wife Sandra, for whose care she told friends she was very grateful.

She lived long enough to savour the day the inquest was quashed, in a damning judgment of the high court on 19 December, including the ruling that the 3.15pm cut-off was "not sustainable". Stricken by the cancer, pale and frail, Williams was determined to be at the Strand, where she arrived at the court in a wheelchair, accompanied by Danny.

Afterwards, speaking softly from the wheelchair on the street outside, Williams told the Guardian: "This is what I fought for. I was never going to give up."

She always rejected the inquest's 3.15pm evidence "cut-off" because she discovered that Kevin had died in the arms of a special police constable, Debra Martin, at 4pm. Martin had testified that Kevin had a pulse and that, just before he died, breathed a final word: "Mum".

Martin's statement, and that of another witness, off-duty police officer Derek Bruder, were later changed following visits from the West Midlands police, the investigating force into Hillsborough, to suggest there were no signs of life after 3.15pm. Martin has since claimed she was pressured to change her statement, Bruder officially complained that his evidence was not presented properly to the inquest.

Williams sought medical opinions about how Kevin died from some of the country's most senior experts, including Dr Iain West, consultant forensic pathologist at Guy's hospital. West contested the inquest finding that Kevin had died from traumatic asphyxia, arguing that he died from neck injuries and could have been treated and possibly saved. Yet Williams could find no court prepared to accept her appeal or that any of the evidence in that inquest was faulty.

It has finally been accepted, following the panel's report, that the portrayal of the Hillsborough families and campaigners as whingeing scousers was a misrepresentation almost as foul as the stories that South Yorkshire police peddled to shift the blame on to the supporters. Williams and the other families fought with remarkable implacability and unity that police campaign, the flawed inquest and other legal processes that left not one person or organisation accountable for 96 people dying at a football match.

It is now accepted that the families fought this battle, with no glimpse of vindication for so long, only out of love for their relatives. So, at the end of her life, Williams, with other Hillsborough families, was recognised not as part of some Liverpool rabble but as a shining example: an everyday person embodying the extraordinary power and depth of human love.

At Monday's memorial service to mark 24 years since the disaster, the Everton football club chairman, Bill Kenwright, said the two greatest words in the English language were "my mum". He paid tribute to the families' fight, and to the solidarity with which the people of Liverpool supported it, saying: "They picked on the wrong city – and they picked on the wrong mums."

Williams had defied medical advice to attend, and watched quietly from her wheelchair. Three days later, she died. She was proved right by the end of a life's mission, and greatly and widely admired. Like her son Kevin, for whose good name and memory she fought so indomitably, she will be deeply missed.

[FLY2 10,108]

Speaking as a Forest Fan who was there, surely one does not expect medical assistance to be present in the quantity that was needed on that fateful afternoon. Every gathering would be totally impractical to provide enough assistance to treat many people simultaneously.

One cannot foresee every impending disaster. She said her son was still alive at 4pm and would have lived had he received immediate assistance. Well, somebody had to be treated first , second , third etc. I don't think the real truth will ever emerge as the Liverpudlians are renowned for sticking together rightly or wrongly. A very sad day indeed.

[Bilboro-lad 294]

How soon did you realise that something was wrong?

[FLY2 10,108]

I think it was between 3.06 to 3.08 when it seemed that there was fighting amongst the Liverpool supporters with late comers forcing their way in. At about 3.15 we realised something was seriously amiss.

[Bilboro-lad 294]

So is there any truth in the often suggested cause that the Liverpool fans, upon hearing the start whistle, started pushing in the tunnel?

[FLY2 10,108]

I would have thought this very lightly. At several matches I've attended over the years I've known fans, home and away start pushing when late arriving, especially if they've had a drink and are in high spirits as the Liverpool fans were that day, FA Cup Semi Final against fierce rivals Forest. They would be hyped up as I'm sure most of the crowd were. It SHOULD have been a great day, not a disaster.

[DJBrenton 738]

Can I just lay to bed a few misconceptions.

Firstly, there was no fighting or forcing in as a cause. The policeman in charge (Duckenfield) ordered the gate opened and did not follow normal procedure which was to have fans directed towards the side pens when the central pen was full, so everyone headed straight ahead which led to the crush. The 'fighting' was people desperately trying to get out of the crush, nothing more. The 'latecomers' weren't in fact late. The crush outside started half an hour before kick off as the lower number of turnstiles at the Leppings Lane end were insufficient to allow the numbers in. Similar problems had occurred in earlier years but with better crowd control in place to prevent the central pen becoming overcrowded. If you look at the end when the crush happened, the side pens were only half full and the total capacity of the end hadn't been exceeded. The CCTV shows fans calmly entering the ground once the gate was open. No mad rush, no force, no fighting. This was the story the police came out with and which has been proven to be a pack of lies. Many, many policeman on duty that day are disgusted at how their own evidence was falsified and their statements altered.

As far as medical help is concerned, there was plenty available. The problems were primarily with the police refusing to allow all bar one ambulance into the ground ( there was a line of them outside doing nothing) and that nothing was attempted once people had been consigned to what became a morgue whether they were alive still or not.

These points are not contentious, they have already been proven. Some people will never change their minds about it being the fans fault as they will never come to terms with the outright lies told by the police and the media straight away.

Here's something interesting

In a ridiculous, and potentially near fatal decision it was decided to award the Leppings Lane end to the ********* supporters, despite their overwhelming greater support.

I entered the ********* end around 2pm and found my way to the left hand side (as the TV cameras look) and several minutes later soon became tight against a barrier. More and more fans entered and just before kick-off it was apparent that the severe crushing was likely to cause the barriers to give way and all those at the front would be crushed on the fencing. The pressure was so intense that I had to lift my chest upwards, above the barrier so that I could breathe. I never touched the ground again until the end of the game.

Meanwhile many fans took it upon themselves to climb over the fencing and get onto the Pitch perimeter. The Police, realising that a disaster could soon unfold, opened a gate and ushered hundreds of fans out of the terracing and instructed them to sit around the pitch.

Guess what. This was about Spurs in 1981 not Liverpool in 1989. It was an accident waiting to happen and was warned about numerous times and Liverpool just happened to be the team playing that year when an inexperienced policeman was put in charge who didn't follow the established safety plan.

[FLY2 10,108]

As I said in #9 DJB, it "seemed" as though the Liverpool fans were fighting, we never for one moment thought that there was overcrowding.

[mick2me 3,033]

I'll ask the same question, as I have asked for many years.

"Why are the police even involved in dealing with crowd control on private premises"

This should be done by specialised firms at the clubs expense.

Exterior policing should also be at cost to the club and not the taxpayer.

[Stan 386]

Speaking from a personal viewpoint, I thought Anne Williams was an outstanding example of the British `bulldog' attitude of the past. I could not comprehend the strength of this mother`s love taking on the might of the legal system (which in my opinion needs a massive overhaul) and the entire political establishment. How fitting that on Mother`s day (just passed) and the start of the 6th (yes sixth) inquiry,we should remember this `lady'.

Greater love hath no man(or woman)........

Hillsborough inquest will not be adversarial battle, coroner tells jury

Rollcall of victims read out as Lord Justice Goldring tells jurors not to think about whether original inquest findings were wrong

• inSh

Lord Justice Goldring: 'We are not concerned with whether what was decided at the previous hearing was right or wrong.' Photograph: Phil Noble/Reuters

The new inquest into how 96 people died at Sheffield Wednesday's Hillsborough football ground on 15 April 1989 will not become "an adversarial battle", the coroner has told the jury in his opening address.

On the second day of the inquest, which is scheduled to last a year, the jury of seven women and four men were introduced to their duty of determining how each of the 96 people died in the "terrible crush" at the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest.

[Bing 78]

Yes, Duckenfield opened the gate. But why? Because of the crush of Liverpool fans. It's worth noting that the Liverpool fans that died were the ones that got there early, the young ones who didn't drink and didn't arrive in gangs. Whilst the vilification and blaming of the Liverpool fans for the tragedy may have gone too far, the current whitewashing of the same fans has gone too far. Once again Liverpool play the part of martyrs carefully evading any tint of blame. Did they all have tickets? Were none of them drunk? Were they all fans and not just thugs out for a bit of bother? And if you want a little bit of confirmation of the latter, then look at what happened when Chelsea beat Liverpool this week. This week of all weeks Liverpool fans show their ugly side and then ask us for sympathy.

[hippo girl 1,995]

This is a post about Ann Williams Bing

[Bilboro-lad 294]

You can't have a crush without a push.

[radfordred 6,284]

South Yorkshire Police looks like you picked on the wrong city and the wrong mums?

[DJBrenton 738]

I deliberately didn't bump this thread because I noticed that even today on Forest forums there were morons still trying to blame it on late, drunk ticketless fans. At last,the truth (which some of us have known for nearly 3 decades). Thanks to South Yorkshire police ignoring the judges instructions to make the inquiry non-adversarial it took 2 years of enquiryfor the truth to come out. Way to go SYP. Only today have you accepted it was nothing yo do with the fans.

Many on the various Forest forums realised the degree of deceit that blamed fans. Still today there are people who won't accept the verdict of jurors who spent 2 years of their lives listening yo the evidence. Unbelievable.

[catfan 14,793]

Very sad indeed, but, why travel from Liverpool to Sheffield to an all ticket football match without a ticket ? All tickets previosly sold out.

[DJBrenton 738]

Because you can normally get tickets from touts at big games. There were almost certainly Forest fans who arrived without tickets too and bought them outside the ground although that was easy as they had the bigger end despite having fewer fans There isn't a shred of evidence that ticketless fans got in. It was a kneejerk lie by the police. Proven to be a fantasy,

[hippo girl 1,995]

We will always remember that fateful Saturday ......a tragic, unnecessary waste of life.....decades of unanswered questions, a city united by grief and sorrow......

To you Anne Williams, the battle had commenced and the system put into question .......a city still united but stronger and wiser thanks to you..

You will never walk alone xx

[FLY2 10,108]

Forest fans had the bigger end, and Liverpool fans the Leppings Lane end purely on geographical grounds.

It was to prevent the crossing over of fans and the ensuing traffic chaos it would inevitably cause.

[DJBrenton 738]

Forest fans had the bigger end, and Liverpool fans the Leppings Lane end purely on geographical grounds.

It was to prevent the crossing over of fans and the ensuing traffic chaos it would inevitably cause.

Which could be amusing as if you check any Forest forum. it's full of people claiming they walked past the Leppings Lane end HALF AN HOUR BEFORE and it was full of drunk Liverpoool fans begging for tickets, even though they were still available at Anfield the day before. So geography caused all these deaths and not incompetence? Now why, in 2 years and 475,000 pages of inquest was that never shown to be the real problem? The ground itself had been opposed on safety grounds and Man Utd had offered to stand in but been refused by the FA as they'd already committed to Hillsborough. and traffic 'chaos' would, presumably, have been better than the minor inconvenience that ensued/