Yesterday, a small well-behaved crowd of Liverpool supporters had gathered outside the Hendrix pub in Gibraltar. The crowd had been watching an FA Cup Semi Final match played at Wembley between the two best teams in England at the moment. They were all in good spirits, as Liverpool had just triumphed over Manchester City 3-2.
Liverpool supporter, Orlando Yeats saw me passing by, and so he kindly introduced me to two brothers named Paul and Stephen Collins. Thirty-three years ago, the brothers had been to Hillsborough to watch the FA Semi-Final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. They are survivors of the Hillsborough Disaster. Paul told me that he helped establish the campaign group known as Total Eclipse of The Sun. They had brought over to Gibraltar a large banner stating that The Sun NOT WELCOME HERE, perhaps not realising that Gibraltar does not routinely sell British Newspapers, let alone Rupert Murdoch's Sun.
Stephen told me his story. He went to Hillsborough in a minibus as a group of ten, and all ten survived. Stephen who was only17 years of age at the time. He recalled to me how he was outside Gate C at the Leppings Lane end getting crushed and lifted off his feet. He feared for his life , and was relieved when the gates were opened.
He made a statement to the police. Twenty-five years later, he was to learn from Operation Resolve how the police had changed his statement without him ever knowing.
"A large crowd had gathered outside Gate C" unbeknown to Stephen had been altered by officers from South Yorkshire Police to instead read "A large drunken and unruly mob had gathered outside Gate C. "
"That's truly diabolical", I said, even though I had been for many years acutely aware of the statement changes made by my former employers. Somehow hearing it first hand shocked me.
Stephen was never called to be a witness, and those officers criminally responsible for making such devilish alterations, avoided prosecution when Donald Denton, Alan Foster and Peter Metcalf were acquitted by judge William Davis.
Lord Justice William Davis to the Judicial Hall of Shame (intelligenceuk.com)
In turn, I told the two brothers about the unjust judge Openshaw, and The Hillsborough Ripple Effect film, made by Muad'Dib, The Sun of Righteousness.
The sun was shining in Gibraltar yesterday.