Prosecutors announced criminal charges on Wednesday in the deaths of 95 Liverpool fans in the 1989 Hillsborough soccer stadium crush.
The event, Britain’s worst sporting disaster, was originally blamed on drunken fans, an explanation the families of the victims long rejected.
The deaths took place in to enclosed, standing-only pens, designated for Liverpool supporters. Chief superintendent David Duckenfield, responsible for police operations at the match, had ordered a gate to be opened to relieve overcrowding outside the turnstiles but it led to even more Liverpool supporters crushing into the overcrowded central pens.
Duckenfield had told Football Association figures shortly after the disaster that fans had forced the gate open, a statement he later recanted.
Sue Hemming, head of the special crime and counter-terrorism division at the Crown Prosecution Service, announced charges against Duckenfield in a statement she read aloud.
