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(24) The Resumed Inquest
In September of 1990 a decision was reached by the Director of Public
Prosecutions not to prosecute anybody in respect of the Hillsborough disaster.
Thereafter, the Coroner decided that the adjourned inquests should be
resumed and completed with a full inquiry into the question of "how".
However he indicated that he would impose a cut-off point of 3.15pm on the
inquest and would hear no evidence as to events after that point. He chose
this cut-off point because that was the time that the first ambulance arrived
on the pitch. The effect of the decision to impose a cut-off point at 3.15pm
was as follows so far as it affected your Memorialists:
(i) I It ruled out any inquiry into the adequacy of the response of the
emergency services and effectively meant that there was no inquiry
into the question of whether the deaths of the individual deceased
might have been prevented by more prompt and adequate medical
intervention.
(ii) It proceeded on the basis that all the deaths of those involved in the
disaster had become inevitable by the time they had sustained the
crush injuries they suffered before or up to 3.04pm or thereabouts,
despite the fact that there was ample evidence to suggest otherwise
which the jury should properly have been permitted to consider.
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