Hillsborough victim's father - Time for justice for my son
The father of a young West Midland victim of the Hillsborough disaster today broke his silence to call for justice at the inquest into how 96 people died at the match.
David Birtle, from Cannock, was just 22 when he died at Hillsborough during the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest.
His father Jim Saunders, who had to identify Mr Birtle's body after the tragedy, called for long overdue action, and not words.
The inquest is expected to last for 12 months and has so far heard moving statements from some of the families of victims who died in the 1989 tragedy. Next Wednesday Mr Birtle's mother Jennifer and brother Jonathan will attend the Warrington inquest and pay an emotional tribute to him.
"I felt like I immediately had to defend my son after he'd died," Mr Saunders, of Woodside Place, Cannock, said. "The fight for justice has consumed everyone involved."
Heart trouble has prevented 70-year-old Mr Saunders from travelling to the inquest so far, but he hopes to go in the coming weeks.
He has remained close to fellow victims' families, attending an annual memorial service at Anfield. But, like others involved in the harrowing 25-year aftermath of the match where 96 fans went through the turnstiles but never returned home, he is angry at the lack of accountability which has followed.
Mr Saunders said one of the first things he was asked by police after identifying his son's body was about how much he'd had to drink.
His son – who was also at Heysel four years earlier when 39 fans died during Liverpool's European Cup final with Juventus –took a day off work to go to Hillsborough.
"Everything's been swept under the carpet," Mr Saunders said. "You learn to live with it, I suppose, for the simple reason that it'd drive you barmy. But you never forget it.
"Give David Cameron his due, he's had the guts to stand up and say that mistakes have been made. But this has gone on long enough It's all got to come out into the open and show people up for what they are."
The inquest was ordered after the original verdict of accident death in 1991 were quashed in the high court in December 2012.
Officers from South Yorkshire had been asked to write their own accounts of what happened, and then senior officers and lawyers for the force altered some of the statements before they were passed to West Midlands Police, which was investigating the tragedy.
Margaret Aspinall, chairwoman of the Hillsborough Families Support Group, said to hear that officially from Lord Justice Goldring was 'music to our ears'.
Hillsborough remains Britain's worst sporting disaster.
