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On inspecting the area I found that at Turnstile 'H' a small section of
fencing, secured by scaffold clips, had been slackened so that a significant
breach of the fence could be made, giving* access to the circulating
corridor. From the enquiries I made it appeared that this hod been done
by fans during the night, no doubt intending to apply pressure at the
right moment to gain,entry to the Stadium.
Information was passed to officers under my conmand by an unidentified
Liverpool police officer, that he had heard fans planning to rush the
'H', 'J* and ‘K* turnstiles. This confirmed my own view that these were
the most vulnerable areas and therefore the most likely to be attacked.
As time progressed, I noticed that there were more people in that area
suffering the ill effects of alcohol and tension was beginning to increase.
This culminated in a number of fights at the 'pinch point', the narrowest
point of the concourse, outside the Stadium Offices. The fights were
caused apparently by tlie tsale of tickets by *touts'. Although well known
touts were not evident, there seemed to be a number of people selling
one or tvro tickets. The fans were keen to attack such people and yet
also to buy the tickets at inflated prices.
By 12.30pm, the crowd was building up generally, but especially so outside
turnstiles 'H'# ,J t and ’K*. Because this area is confined, l had to
put in a cordon of police horses and foot police between the T.V. compound
and turnstile 'H' to prevent the danger of crushing.
Outside of the cordon, there were more outbreaks of disorder among fans
who had been drinking and I personally received a blow to the head whilst
assisting one of iny officers in making an arrest.
The turnstiles were- late in opening because a lorry was still carrying
out some .-work in the circulating c o r r i d o r . This Jarry could only «akc
an exit through a gate at the side of turnstile 'X'. it did this just
before 1.15pm but caused quite severe problems with crowds waiting for
the turnstiles to open. The gate stuck when it was o n l y half open and
a lot of effort was required to prevent a large number of illegal entries
to the Stadium.
Once the turnstiles opened, 1 expected the crowd to ease considerably
and to reduce the cocrplaints of crushing I was getting from people in
the crowd. That people were obviously pressing forward and causing a
crush in these circumstances, in the wake of Hillsborough, amazed ire.
I was more amazed, however, to find _that the crush was not diminishing
as I expected -it to at turnstile 'H*. This was because of ticket less
fans forcing their way through the turnstiles with ticket-holders and
having to be removed through exit gates, slowing down the whole of the
operation.
Whilst a lot of illegal entrants were removed, I believe an appreciable
nunber were not. The rrost intense crush was at turnstile 'H', which had
had a fence weakened during the night, and in my mind must have been preplanned
by a large number of fans hoping to breach the security of the
fence, if they were unable to get in through the turnstiles.
By 2.30cm. the number of people going in through turnstiles 'H\ 'J' and
'K' had reduced greatly. This had been achieved by having tickets for
turnstile 'H* accepted at 'J* and *K* turnstiles and filtering people