Safety fears at disaster stadium

Ex-club secretary Richard Chester said he took the initiative himself because the club had not revised its maximum capacity for the Leppings Lane end after the terrace had been divided into three pens.

Ninety-six fans died in a crush following overcrowding in that terrace at the 1989 FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest.

Mr Chester yesterday told the inquests into the deaths of the supporters that he would have expected the 10,100 capacity for the terrace to have been adjusted “because there is lesser space for people to stand”.

He explained he had taken it upon himself for “a little bit of protection” to take out 250 visitors’ tickets for sale at two all-ticket matches in the 1984/85 season.

He said: “I wanted a little bit of protection and a little bit of back-up. You appreciate that if you have taken an area of terracing out that is not available then logically you cannot have the same number of people (there).

“Quite clearly we did not want to be involved in a safety problem or a public disorder issue.”

Mr Chester, club secretary at Hillsborough between 1984 and 1986, did not give evidence at the Taylor Inquiry that followed the disaster nor the original inquests.

He said he did make a statement to West Midlands Police, the independent force who probed the tragedy, in May 1989 but did not mention to them the two occasions when he took out the Leppings Lane tickets from sale.

He told Christina Lambert QC, counsel to the inquest, that he did not know why he had not said anything to the police at the time.

Sheffield Wednesday was granted its safety certificate in 1979 but it was not revised before the tragedy despite the division of the Leppings Lane terrace into three pens in 1981 and later into five pens in 1985.

Coroner Lord Justice Goldring asked Mr Chester: “Did you tell anyone that you held back 200 to 250 tickets?” Mr Chester replied: “You this morning are the first people to know.”

The coroner went on: “Did you tell anyone at Sheffield Wednesday that is what you were doing?” He said: “I have just answered you. This morning you are the first ones to know.”

In 1985 the Leppings Lane terrace was divided into five pens with the erection of another radial fence and a 25 square metre “no man’s land” area, along with another hatched area at the mouth of the central tunnel. Both the latter confined areas were not intended for spectators.

Ms Lambert put it to him that the safety requirements could not be achieved with that layout.

Mr Chester, who had also been club secretary at Lincoln City and Sheffield United, replied: “No, not really. It didn’t take into account the capacities into the pens or the movement into the pens.”

He later told Pete Weatherby, QC, representing families of the dead, that nothing formally was done to address the concern of overcrowding in the central pens at the Leppings Lane.

Verdicts of accidental death from the original Hillsborough inquest in March 1991 were quashed in December 2012 after the Hillsborough Independent Panel delivered its final report on the disaster earlier that year.

The new inquests into Britain’s worst ever sporting tragedy started earlier this year.