Hillsborough parents launch final campaign to correct daughters’ death records
The parents of two teenage sisters who died in the Hillsborough disaster have launched a new campaign to correct official court records which they say inaccurately describe their daughters’ final moments.
Jenni and Trevor Hicks lost their daughters Victoria, aged 15, and Sarah, aged 19, when 97 Liverpool supporters died at Hillsborough on 15 April 1989.
The couple say civil court records from the early 1990s wrongly state that their daughters were unconscious within seconds and died within minutes of the terrace crush.
They point to later evidence, including findings from the 2016 inquests, which concluded that many victims were conscious for significantly longer. Medical evidence heard during those inquests stated that victims who died from asphyxia were likely to have experienced fluctuating levels of consciousness.
The records the family want corrected stem from a civil case brought in the 1990s against South Yorkshire Police, which relied on what later became known as the discredited “30-second rule”.
Jenni and Trevor Hicks say the court record cannot be amended without the consent of South Yorkshire Police, and they want a fresh hearing where an accurate statement can be read in open court.
South Yorkshire Police Chief Constable Lauren Poultney said the force would take steps available to support the families in achieving a sense of justice, while acknowledging that serious errors and mistakes had led to lives being lost and caused lasting distress.
The campaign is due to be formally launched at a parliamentary event in Westminster hosted by Baroness Helena Kennedy KC, bringing together MPs, peers and legal experts to examine what legal mechanisms may exist to correct inaccurate court records.
The family’s legal representative, Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC, said the case raises wider questions about whether the justice system has the ability to correct itself when later evidence proves earlier assumptions to be false.
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