By Paul Nicholson
January 7 – With the last evidence in the Hillsborough disaster inquest being heard earlier this week, the Hillsborough Family Support Group (HFSG) announced another step forward for families and fans of Liverpool, saying that that Friday April 15 will be the last Hillsborough Memorial service held at Anfield Stadium.
The inquest into the deaths of 96 Liverpool supporters at the 1989 FA Cup semi-final at Hillsborough began in March 2014 and has heard more than 260 days of evidence at a specially built courtroom in Warrington, Cheshire.
The Hillsborough disaster was is the worst to have happened in British football and has shamed the country’s government, police and the Murdoch-owned media for almost three decades.
The tragedy happened at an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest on April 15, 1989 when thousands of fans were crushed in the ground’s Leppings Lane terrace.
The verdicts from the original inquests were thrown out in 2012 following a damning report by the Hillsborough Independent Panel which concluded there had been a government and police cover-up. The prime minister David Cameron issued an apology in the House of Commons, though Margaret Thatcher was the British premier at the time.
Coroner Lord Justice Goldring is now beginning his summing up of the case and it is expected the jury will be sent out in late February to consider their verdicts.
The decision to bring to an end the annual Anfield services was unanimously agreed by the families of the HFSG.
Chair of the HFSG, Margaret Aspinall, said: “The 96 will never be forgotten. It is likely that the inquests will be concluded before the anniversary so this final memorial service will provide the families with some closure.
“The HFSG would like to thank everyone for all the support the families have received over the past 27 years and all those people who have attended the service at Anfield each year.
“We would also like to extend our thanks to Liverpool Football Club for their continued support over the past 27 years and for hosting the service each year at Anfield.
“We hope that the public and fans respect the decision of the HFSG and will continue to remember the 96 in their own perhaps more private way.”
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