Quote Originally Posted by xsnaggle View Post
The worst thing this man did was that having made a probably genuine mistake he lied about opening the gate and then sought to blame innocent people for the resulting chaos and mayhem.
He was charged with the wrong offence. The level of proof for negligent manslaughter is so high no police officer has ever been convicted of it (nor even charged I think).
His biggest crime was denying the truth and then conspiring with others in the Police force to manipulate the evidence to cast the blame on other people, perverting the cause of justice These are people who are supposed to reveal other peoples fault and they deliberately hide their own
It is one of the things that make a great swathe of the population have no faith in the modern police force.
Indeed , he should along with others who altered their logbooks , have been charged with perverting the course of justice , stupid as the decision to open the gates may seem now , the crush outside was so intense it was lifting police horses off the ground ......he panicked and ordered the gates to be opened , believing it would ease the crushing

It didn't , leading to many deaths

But after all these years it can be understood why he did it

What was criminal was that he and others tried to cover up the fact that this decision had been made

Can they charge him and others with perverting the course of justice or lying in public office ? That I don't know but it would be something for the families