Hillsborough legacy should be first aid training in our schools

Professor John Ashton, who was one of the first people to publicly condemn the emergency response to the disaster, spoke out after welcoming verdicts that the 96 fans who died were unlawfully killed. 

The tragedy unfolded on the Leppings Lane stand of Sheffield Wednesday's Hillsborough Stadium during an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. 

The fans were crushed to death. 

Dr Ashton, who worked for many years as director of Public Health in Cumbria, was at the match with his two teenage sons and his 24-year-old nephew and joined efforts to help injured and dying fans. 

At a public inquiry, he condemned the police and ambulance response that day as “woefully inadequate”. 

In his evidence to the Warrington inquest, the professor had described how he saw police fail to react as the tragedy unfolded. 

He recalled the anxiety in the crowd as the crush became increasingly dangerous. 

The professor told the jury: “A man came up to the police and was in a state of distress and he said: ‘There are kids dying in there. 

“You’ve got to do something’.”  

When he responded to a Tannoy announcement asking for doctors to help injured fans, he was staggered at the lack of organisation and planning. 

There were emotional scenes at the coroner's court in Warrington yesterday as the verdicts were announced in the court, with some relatives of those who died hugging each other and punching the air. 

Years after the tragedy, it emerged that South Yorkshire police tried to shift the blame on to the fans, even arranging to have blood alcohol tests done on the bodies, including a 10-year-old. 

The unlawful killing verdicts exonerate them all. 

Dr Ashton, who is president of the UK's Faculty of Public Health, said he welled up when he heard the verdicts. 

"This has not been about vengeance,” he told The Cumberland News . 

“It's about justice. Now we're getting near to the truth - but justice still has to come. 

“I've always said that if you lose a close relative from a natural cause it's hard to deal with; if you lose them from an accident, it's many times worse; but if you you lose someone from a disaster which was avoidable, and which is followed by conspiracy and lies, how do you deal with that? 

“[This] should be for the families, and for remembering the 96 who have now got the right verdict - after 27 years." 

Asked what he hoped the legacy of the tragedy would be, Professor Ashton said: “One legacy I would like to see is a new generation of school leavers who have been trained in first aid – particularly CPR [a resuscitation technique]. 

“It should be a standard part of every child's education in school.” 

The inquest jury ruled that the match commander Chief Superintendent David Duckenfield's actions had amounted to "gross negligence" due to a breach of his duty of care to fans. 

Police errors also added to a dangerous situation at the FA Cup semi-final. When the conclusion of the unlawful killing was revealed at a courtroom in Warrington, families were seen hugging each other in the public gallery and some punched the air. 

The jury also ruled that failures by commanding officers caused a crush on the terraces; defects at the stadium contributed to the disaster; and South Yorkshire Police and South Yorkshire Ambulance Service delayed declaring a major incident and thus delayed the emergency response.