Tonight at 9pm "A Panorama investigation into Britain's worst football disaster, when 96 Liverpool fans died during the 1989 FA Cup semi-final. Reporter Peter Marshall asks why a succession of official investigations left the truth hidden for a generation, while previously unseen footage reveals a failure by the emergency services, how lives might have been saved and how subsequent inquiries were misled." http://www.radiotimes.com/episode/wq745/panorama--hillsborough-how-they-buried-the-truth
Unfortunately couldnt watch it as my wife chose tonight to watch the movie Impossible. So maybe on iPlayer.....
I did not watch the programme as I know longer have TV, but maybe I can still catch it on iPlayer. It is astonishing that a cover-up could exist for over 20 years in full view of tens of thousands of spectators and TV cameras. Bettison was Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police at the time of his resignation, shortly after the IPCC report came out. He was a serving officer with South Yorkshire Police at the time of the disaster. He was even at the game, though off-duty at the time. West Yorkshire Police is, I am afraid, a den of inept and corrupt Police Officers. Right from the very top (Bettison, before he retired) to the lowliest Constable. The level of corruption in that constabulary just beggars belief. The Discipline and Complaints department at West Yorkshire Police (WYP) housed at least one subsequently-convicted paedophile, who was responsible for investigating other Police paedophiles and letting them off the hook. And don't forget that Jimmy Savile lived within West Yorkshire's patch as did the Yorkshire Ripper. Savile and the Yorkshire Ripper became friends and Savile had many WYP Police officers as friends. And we all remember the debacle of that bungled investigation and the notorious Wearside Jack tapes and that incompetent West Yorkshire Police Assistant Chief Constable, George Oldfield, who was convinced that Wearside Jack was the real Yorkshire Ripper. You can read all about it here... http://www.upsd.co.uk/ I can tell you that one of the reports on UPSD is written from my own experience. For more information on very senior officers around the country who have resigned/been sacked then read here... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukn...800-suspended-police-keep-their-pensions.html Bettison has retired of course, he was not sacked, that means he avoids discipline and keeps his hefty pension.
Yes, I am not a Liverpool supporter. I am a fan of football in general and I have been alarmed by the revelations that have come out on this disaster. I should never be surprised that it happened and am convinced more than ever of a cover up by the authorities. I recall reading about an MP conveying evidence in parliament, from a man who was a student when the disaster occurred and knew Sir Norman as a younger police officer and evidently Sir Norman conveyed to this man at the time (not long after) that there was indeed a cover up. Bettison 'boasted of smearing fans' "West Yorkshire Police Chief Constable Sir Norman Bettison "boasted" about smearing Liverpool fans in the aftermath of the Hillsborough disaster, a senior Labour MP has claimed. Shadow transport secretary Maria Eagle claimed Sir Norman, who was a chief inspector with South Yorkshire Police at the time of the 1989 tragedy, revealed he had been asked to help "concoct" the force's version of events. She used parliamentary privilege to make the allegations which were based on new evidence from a witness who discussed the disaster with Sir Norman. Ms Eagle, a Merseyside MP, said Sir Norman had "always denied any involvement in the dirty tricks campaign". But she alleged he was behind the "black propaganda" campaign. She quoted from a letter from John Barry, who was at Hillsborough for the FA Cup semi-final tie that led to the death of 96 Liverpool fans. The letter, written in 1998 to a solicitor for the Hillsborough Family Support Group, was copied to Ms Eagle in 2009 and she has been given permission to make it public. Ms Eagle said Mr Barry was studying part-time at Sheffield Business School where one of his fellow students was a "middle-ranking police officer". Mr Barry wrote: "Some weeks after the game, and after I had been interviewed by West Midlands Police, we were in a pub after our weekly evening class. He told me that he had been asked by his senior officers to put together the South Yorkshire Police evidence for the forthcoming inquiry. He said that 'we are trying to concoct a story that all the Liverpool fans were drunk and we were afraid that they were going to break down the gates so we decided to open them'." Ms Eagle said: "Mr Barry confirmed to me in the covering letter in 2009 that the middle-ranking police officer to whom he referred is Norman Bettison. He has agreed to swear a statement to that effect and I have put him in touch with the families' solicitors. "Here we have an account of a contemporaneous conversation in which Norman Bettison boasted he is engaged in a South Yorkshire Police plot to fit up the Liverpool fans and deflect blame from the force. That is indeed what happened subsequently, so what Sir Norman denies in public he boasts about in private conversations." Sir Norman, who has announced he will retire in March, faces two investigations by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC). The senior officer was referred to the IPCC over claims that he gave misleading information in the wake of the Hillsborough disaster and that he tried to influence West Yorkshire Police Authority's decision-making process in relation to the referral." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...sted-about-smearing-fans-Parliament-told.html
I am not a football supporter either but I can understand the pain of those who lost loved ones, only to suffer more years of anguish at the hands of corrupt senior Police Officers, such as Bettison. I watched the iplayer version of the BBC report and I don't think it was made clear that football fans were visited by Police Officers and told to change their statements. Can you imagine? You son, daughter, mother or father dies in such a tragedy and the Police then accuse you of lying in your statement. Bettison is a scum-bag. He lied in his CV to get his first appointment as Chief Constable. That appointment was in Merseyside 10 years after the Hillsborough disaster That was a kick in the teeth for those Liverpool supporters who had loved ones die at Hillsborough. He also conveniently left out any mention of his Hillsborough role in that CV and now he walks away, pension intact, no possibility of disciplinary proceedings and probably never having to account for his actions in a court of law. Then, of course, there is an old allegation that Bettison was involved in the selling of stolen platinum wire whilst he was a serving Police officer. Apparently there was video evidence to prove this. But, as the internal investigation proceeded to higher levels within the force, it was quietly dropped and all evidence disappeared. You can read all about that on the uPSD website... http://www.upsd.co.uk/sir-norman-bettison/
What is shown on the uPSD is, apparently, around 30% of what they know. I am told that the 70% of what remains is mainly stuff even more serious! My own experience of inept and corrupt west Yorkshire Police Officers dates back almost 20 years. In 1995 I uncovered, single-handedly, Yellow Pages biggest ever fraud, just as a member of the public. As a consequence, I had to move home following death threats. The fraudster, who was subsequently convicted, then hired a private detective to find me. A Police Officer visited me to warn me of this. I then discovered that a private detective was also defrauding Yellow Pages. I rang Crimestoppers to report the matter. At that time, Crimestoppers had a voice-mail service operating out-of-hours. I inadvertently pressed the '*' or '#' button on my phone and it played back to me 52 voice-mails. I found that by pressing a single key during the any OGM that this gave me access to several voice-mail boxes on what turned out to be West Yorkshire Police's voice mail system; many did not have passwords. Within minutes of making my call to Crimestoppers I was listening to a message about a Police Officer being investigated for sexual harassment against a fellow Police Officer. I soon found a similar allegation against another Officer. I immediately reported my findings to my local Police force in Humberside, to West Yorkshire Police, Crimestoppers, ACPO, a Hull Councillor who worked as a computer security expert at Hull University. Also to the Police Federation as one of those messages had been left by a Police Federation official. For over a year virtually nothing was done. I could stomp around the voice mail system with impunity and access any mailbox that was not password protected. Frustrated, I reported the matter to the News of the World. Within hours I was arrested by Humberside Police! Around the same time, the Private Detective I had uncovered perpetrating a fraud against Yellow Pages made a complaint to West Yorkshire Police about me. The incompetent West Yorkshire Police posted a request for Humberside Police to investigate me but posted that request, not to Humberside Police. They posted it to me instead! The allegations were clearly concocted and my barrister found out that the Private Detective had been in prison for perverting the course of justice. That was basically the end of that case. However I still had to answer the case about accessing the West Yorkshire Police voice-mail system via Crimestoppers. My barrister advised me to plead guilty whilst saying that any publicity could kill of Crimestopopers. Even of the day of my trial I could still stomp around the voice-mail and retrieve messages. Many of the mail-boxes I had identified to the authorities as having no password, still had no password! I was fined and that was the end of the matter. Three days later, Crimestoppers announced that messages could not be left on voice-mail boxes. Crimestoppers is now manned, of course, 24 hours per day. Although it was no longer possible to access the voice mail system via the Crimestoppers freefone number it was still possible to access via virtually any West Yorkshire Police DID. I could not report that of course since, no doubt, I would have been arrested!
From the UPSD link above... "Bettison is also further accused by two former MBA fellow students who have independently claimed that Bettison bragged about the Hillsborough cover up to them. The first of the two made his deposition to, solicitor and MP, Maria Eagle, as far back as 1998. It is understood that these allegations will be lumped together with the broader accusations of Bettison’s role in the Hillsborough ‘Black Ops’ squad which was led by South Yorkshire Police C/Supt Terry Wain."
I am not sure if the deposition was made to Maria Eagle back in 1998. I think it was made to the victim support group's solicitor in 1998 and then permission was given to Maria Eagle to raise the matter in parliament (under privilege) in 2009. The reporter on the uPSD website is prone, in her haste, to making a number of errors. She then adds to her articles at later dates and they become almost incomprehensible to understand, particularly as she goes off at so many tangents in most of those articles.
It's not the whole story! A few weeks earlier, I called Kingston Communications in Hull one evening. This was the first time I had ever called a phone system with voice-mail. Within two minutes I found that voice-mail box #2 could be entered without a password! But that voice-mail box was the system admin's voice-mail box that gave the passwords for every voice-maii box on the system. I then discovered that the voice-mail system had been developed by Kingston Communications and sold to several Police Constabularies around the country. Each of those constabularies had the same defect. Kingston Communications tried the rectify the problem by updating the software by phone links without letting those Police constabularies know. The result was to promptly crash those systems making them totally inoperable. KC suffered a great deal of embarrassment as I had also informed the Police constabularies of the problems and they soon realised that KC was trying to rectify the problem without admitting the problem ever existed. It was even more embarrassing for ACPO as they had awarded KC some sort of commendation for providing a safe and secure system! Those voice mail systems in the mid 90s were new territory for companies and were woefully insecure. I also phoned a drugs hotline and retrieved messages the public had left about drug dealers by just using the password 0000. One guy had even left his name and phone number and he was somewhat shocked when I called him and told him I could read his message. I asked him if he wanted it deleted, so I promptly deleted it for him At least the Police quickly rectified that problem. And I did tell the Police, of course, I had deleted that message. Then I tried East Riding Council's system - On that it was possible to make outgoing premium rate calls at their expense. I could also access the East Riding Council's fraud hotline, Hull Council's fraud hotline, numerous solicitors voice mail boxes. I even uncovered wrongdoing at Hull Council by accessing the Labour party's telephone answering machine. On each and every occasion I contacted the parties to let them know of their insecurities. I think my access of such systems pre-dates those of News of the World! Although these later accesses were deliberate, they all stemmed from my first two accesses which were absolutely by chance. Finally, after that private detective's complaint about me to the Police failed, I decided I would access his mobile phone voice-mail system. What I found were a number of disgruntled customers who had paid money and got no real service. I also found out the private detective's wife was a pharmacist that had also been in prison for perverting the course of justice. She had failed to disclose her conviction to her regulatory body, so the private detective must have regretted ever making a false report to the Police about me after I contacted that regulatory body.
