The Casualties at the Hillsborough Stadium were mindblowing and someone had to take the fall for the events that led to it. The following is from the Wiki article about the Inquiry and prosecution of those involved.

The process of inquests into the deaths of those who died at Hillsborough proved controversial. The coroner, Dr Stefan Popper, limited the main inquest to events up until 3:15pm on the day of the disaster - just nine minutes after the match was halted and the crowd began to spill onto the pitch. Popper said this was because all of the victims were either dead, or brain dead, by 3:15pm. (This statement apparently fails to take the fatalities of Lee Nicol or Tony Bland into account.) This decision angered the families of the victims, many of whom felt this meant the inquest was not able to consider the response of the police and the other emergency services after that time.^[31] The inquest returned a verdict of accidental death.

Relatives have failed in their attempts to have the inquest reopened, to allow for more scrutiny of the police actions at Hillsborough, as well as closer examination of the circumstances of individual cases. Anne Williams, who lost her 15-year-old son Kevin, appealed to the European Court of Human Rights, on the strength of witness statements that her son was still showing signs of life at 4:00pm. Her case was rejected in March 2009.^[32]

It was announced on 19 April 2009 that the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith had requested that secret files concerning the disaster should be made public.^[33]

A private prosecution was brought against David Duckenfield and another officer on duty, Bernard Murray. Prosecutor Alun Jones QC told the court that Chief Superintendent David Duckenfield gave the order to open gates that allowed hundreds of fans to flood on to the already crowded terraces at the Sheffield Wednesday stadium. Mr Jones then stated that minutes after the disaster, [Duckenfield] "deceitfully and dishonestly" told senior FA officials that the supporters had forced the gate open themselves. Duckenfield admitted that he had lied about certain statements regarding the causes of the disaster. Several other officers, including Norman Bettison, were accused of manipulating evidence. Bettison was later to be appointed Chief Constable of Merseyside in controversial circumstances. The prosecution was abandoned when Duckenfield's doctor declared him unfit to stand trial due to illness. Because he was unavailable, it was decided that it would be unfair to proceed with the charges against Bernard Murray. Duckenfield took medical retirement on a full police pension.