The day began with a statement from Sheffield Wednesday Football Club and was followed by a profound apology from Prime Minister David Cameron.
Those have been followed by apologies from South Yorkshire Police, and Kelvin Mackenzie, we are yet to get an apology from The Sun newspaper.
South Yorkshire Police
On 18th April 1989, 96 of the Liverpool fans went to Hillsborough to watch the FA Cup Semi Final and died as a result of the Disaster.
On that day South Yorkshire Police failed the victims and families. The police lost control.
In the immediate aftermath senior officers sought to change the record of events. Disgraceful lies were told which blamed the Liverpool fans for the disaster.
Statements were altered which sought to minimise police blame.
These actions have caused untold pain and distress for over 23 years.
I am profoundly sorry for the way the force failed on 15th April 1989 and I am doubly sorry for the injustice that followed and I apologise to the families of the 96 and Liverpool fans.
South Yorkshire Police is a very different place in 2012 from what it was 23 years ago and we will be fully open and transparent in helping to find answers to the questions posed by the Panel today.
Chief Constable David Crompton
Kelvin Mackenzie (Then editor of The Sun newspaper)
Today I offer my profuse apologies to the people of Liverpool for that headline. I too was totally misled. Twenty three ago I was handed a piece of copy from a reputable news agency in Sheffield in which a senior police officer and a senior local MP were making serious allegations against fans in the stadium. I had absolutely no reason to believe that these authority figures would lie and deceive over such a disaster.
As the Prime Minister has made clear these allegations were wholly untrue and were part of a concerted plot by police officers to discredit the supporters thereby shifting the blame for the tragedy from themselves. It has taken more than two decades, 400,000 documents and a two-year inquiry to discover to my horror that it would have been far more accurate had I written the headline The Lies rather than The Truth. I published in good faith and I am sorry that it was so wrong.
KELVIN MACKENZIE
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