Hillsborough police report 'may not give answers'

Families of some of those killed in the Hillsborough disaster fear they may once again be denied full accountability as the long-delayed report into police conduct surrounding the stadium crush is due to be published on Tuesday.

Several people who worked on the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) investigation - including a former director - have told the BBC they doubt the report will deliver all the answers survivors and bereaved relatives were promised.

Some have warned that it may lead to accusations of another Hillsborough cover-up.

Families have also criticised the length and cost of the investigation - the largest of its kind ever carried out in England and Wales.

The police watchdog has spent more than 13 years examining the actions of South Yorkshire Police and other forces in the aftermath of the 1989 disaster in which 97 Liverpool supporters were killed during an FA Cup semi-final at Sheffield Wednesday's Hillsborough ground.

The IOPC had planned to publish its full report - which BBC News understands runs to several thousand pages - but will now release a "more focused" 400-page version.

It said the change was prompted by "concerns" from survivors and relatives about the sensitivity of some material and is intended to avoid undermining previous inquiries.

Jenni Hicks, whose teenage daughters Sarah and Victoria died at Hillsborough, said she would have preferred families to see the longer report before any decision was made about publication.

"I am not expecting any great revelations," she said. "I'm very disappointed that we are not getting the full report.

"I would have liked to have seen what it's taken 13 years to produce."

Some insiders said they believe the process has been hampered by internal disagreements, overlapping inquiries and a lack of momentum.

Mike Benbow, who previously led the investigation for five years, said: "The investigation was partly about trying to restore faith and trust in a judicial process that had let families down for many years.

"It remains to be seen whether we have achieved closure for anyone.

"After 13 years, people deserve more than a 400-page report."

Another insider, who did not want to be named, said: "It will be the equivalent of doing a house viewing through a keyhole.

"It will tell you absolutely nothing. It will just be an executive summary and a timeline of what went on."

The IOPC said the full report would be placed in the National Archives and that the transfer would begin next year, though no deadline has been set.

The IOPC investigation ran alongside Operation Resolve, a criminal inquiry focused on the day of the disaster.

Both were set up in 2012 following revelations of a widespread cover-up in which police leaders were found to have spread false narratives blaming Liverpool fans and withheld evidence of their own failings.

Officials promised a new era of transparency.

At that time, the families bereaved by the disaster - and the thousands who survived it - were daring to feel optimistic for the first time in more than 20 years.

Investigators were aware of the weight of their responsibility, to put right the wrongs of the past.

In 2013, Deborah Glass, then deputy chair of the IPCC - the IOPC's predecessor - told the BBC she hoped the investigation could be completed within two years.

"Hillsborough has a history of failed inquiries done by other bodies leading to results that people had no confidence in. We can't have more of that," she said.

"What we need to deliver here is the last definitive investigation into Hillsborough so the next generation isn't still looking for answers. We have to succeed."

More than £150m has been spent across the IOPC and Operation Resolve investigations, BBC analysis of the accounts has found.

This includes more than £56m on IOPC staff, which peaked at about 200 employees, at least £10m on accommodation, with dedicated offices in Warrington, and as much as £18,000 per year of IOPC spending on stationery.

In the early years of the investigation, teams navigated practical and technological challenges.

On a visit to the archive in 2016, the BBC saw original police notebooks kept for 25 years in a lock-up.

Some were so neglected they had to be cleaned of rat droppings before they could be analysed.

Evidence on VHS tapes and floppy disks required resurrected 1980s computers to view and modern facial-recognition tools had to be used to track fans' movements frame by frame.

The scale was unprecedented and there was a sense of purpose. Yet, 13 years on, the optimism felt by survivors and families has ebbed away.

After the criminal trials ended without significant convictions and after the police commander David Duckenfield was acquitted, many bereaved relatives began to lose faith in the process.

Several told the BBC they felt there was no point to the IOPC investigation.

They knew that all of the police officers involved had either retired or died. Even if they were found to be guilty of misconduct, no sanction could be imposed.

"I hope it's not going to be a waste of taxpayers' money," Ms Hicks said.

"We've just had the Budget and people are struggling. Perhaps the money would have been better spent on the NHS, or somewhere else it's desperately needed."

Charlotte Hennessy was only six years old when her father, James, was killed in the disaster.

She said the length of the investigations, as well as the original cover-up, has resulted in Hillsborough haunting her adult life.

"The process has been extremely lengthy and I have no doubt it will only leave us feeling frustrated," she said.

"We want to be able to live our lives but we keep getting pulled back into this."

She added: "There has been no empathy for my own mental health, no compassion for how distressing the outcome may be."

Ms Hennessy also feels uncomfortable about the cost of such a long-term investigation.

"You can't put a price on my dad's life but I would never have wanted public money to be used in this way. It's an appalling waste," she said.

Families received the full report on Monday though those who submitted complaints had already been notified of the outcomes.

Many have not been upheld, with the IOPC citing a lack of evidence.

This has been hard to stomach for complainants who felt they had read plenty of evidence in the Hillsborough Independent Panel report in 2012 which exposed the cover-up, and who had heard plenty more at the inquests that followed.

For them, it has had the effect of turning back the dial on justice.

Ms Hennessy had complained of police gross negligence after the 2016 Hillsborough inquests found that her father might have survived with better emergency medical care.

She has now been informed that the IOPC found no case to answer.

"I'm really frustrated," she said.

"They've had a decade to write this and I don't think it's worth the paper it's written on. No number of reports will change the facts."

Debbie Matthews, whose brother Brian was killed at Hillsborough, made two complaints alleging that officers had fabricated evidence and given false statements.

She said one was not upheld while the other was deemed outside the scope of the investigation.

"We've already been through hell and back and it feels like they are kicking us again," she said.

"We are really, really frustrated. Our mental health is suffering really badly because of this."

Andy Burnham, the Merseyside-born mayor of Greater Manchester, who was culture secretary when renewed scrutiny of Hillsborough began, said he hopes the report will result in senior police officers from the time being held to account.

"The campaign we worked on established the truth about Hillsborough… that there was a failure of police control at an unsafe ground," he told BBC Radio Manchester last week.

"What it has never achieved is individual accountability on officers who led a cover-up and attempted to blame the Liverpool supporters."

The report's publication comes as the Public Office (Accountability) Bill - widely known as the Hillsborough Law - continues its passage through Parliament.

The legislation aims to ensure that victims of major incidents receive greater transparency and accountability in future and that public bodies have a legal duty to be truthful and fully cooperate with investigations.

The bill is backed by Sir Keir Starmer, who Ms Hennessy said personally promised her that it would be implemented.

Mr Burnham has also renewed his call for a permanent victims' advocate body to support bereaved families in holding institutions to account.

Many of those who once felt hopeful now approach the IOPC's findings with a sense of resignation.

Families who celebrated the publication of the Independent Panel report and cried with joy after the inquests verdicts in 2016 felt they were getting to the truth but they also wanted justice and accountability.

An IOPC spokesperson said: "We share the frustrations of survivors, bereaved families and all of those who have campaigned so long for answers - and we have said to them, they deserve better.

"Our investigations are part of what have been very lengthy and unprecedented processes."