Families of victims face agonising decision

The Independent Panel reported on Wednesday that up to 41 lives may have been saved had there been a “swifter, more appropriate, better focused and properly equipped response”.

Panel member Dr Bill Kirkup said he will meet privately with relatives to discuss medical evidence which emerged in the 400,000 official documents released this week.

Trevor Hicks, president of the Hillsborough Families’ Support Group, said the families faced “a very emotional journey”.

Mr Hicks, who lost daughters Vicky, 15, and Sarah, 19, in 
the tragedy, said: “Dr Kirkup has said he will make himself available to any of the families in private.

“Anybody who feels the need, or thinks they want to know more of the circumstances of how their loved one died, can go and see him in confidence.

“It’s a matter for each and every family to decide, as individuals or with other relatives, whether they meet Dr Kirkup and what they want to know.”

The families have always argued coroner Dr Stefan Popper was wrong to rule that every victim succumbed to their injuries before 3.15pm.

Attorney General Dominic Grieve will decide within the next six to eight weeks whether to apply to the High Court for the original verdict of accidental death to be quashed.

Dr Kirkup said 41 victims were either alive after 3.15pm or suffered injuries inconsistent with the findings of the pathologists.

He said: “Twenty-eight people had definite evidence that they didn’t have obstruction of the bloodflow, 16 people had definite evidence of heart and lungs continuing to function for a prolonged period after the crush.

“In total, 41 therefore had evidence that they had potential to survive after the period of 3.15.

“What I can’t say is how many of them could, in actuality, have been saved.

“But I can say is that, potentially, it was in that order of magnitude.”