Liverpool fans caused the Hillsborough disaster
| Liverpool fans caused the Hillsborough disaster | |
|---|---|
| FALSE | |
| "Drunk, ticketless Liverpool fans caused the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, and some robbed victims and attacked police and rescuers." | |
| Domain | Disasters & Emergencies |
| Tactic | Fabrication Propaganda Technique |
| Era | Historical |
| First seen | 1989 |
| Origin | South Yorkshire Police briefings, repeated by The Sun newspaper under the headline "THE TRUTH" on April 19, 1989 |
| Last reviewed | 2026-10-30 |
| Further reading: books on Disasters & Emergencies | |
On April 15, 1989, a crush in the standing pens at Sheffield's Hillsborough stadium during an FA Cup semi-final killed 97 Liverpool supporters. Within days, police sources blamed drunk, ticketless fans. The Sun published claims that fans had picked victims' pockets, urinated on police and attacked officers giving the kiss of life.
For 27 years, families fought an official version that blamed the dead and the survivors.
What the evidence shows
- Independent Panel. The Hillsborough Independent Panel reported in September 2012 that fans were not the cause of the disaster. It found that 164 police statements had been altered, 116 of them to remove or change comments unfavorable to the police.
- Inquests. New inquests ruled in April 2016 that the 96 victims who had died by then were unlawfully killed, that police errors caused the crush, and that fans' behavior did not contribute.
- The Sun. The Sun apologized in 2004 and again in 2012. The paper is still boycotted by many on Merseyside.
- Accountability. Match commander David Duckenfield was acquitted of gross negligence manslaughter in 2019.
Why it matters
Hillsborough is a defining British example of institutional gaslighting: the people harmed were told for decades that they were to blame.
Gaslighting Survivors and bereaved families were told for 27 years that the fans were to blame, a defining British case of institutional gaslighting. The word comes from Patrick Hamilton's 1938 play Gas Light and the 1944 film Gaslight, in which a husband dims the gas lamps and insists his wife is imagining it. Where the word comes from · More gaslighting cases
Sources
- Hillsborough Independent Panel, Hillsborough: The Report of the Hillsborough Independent Panel, September 12, 2012.
- Hillsborough Inquests, determinations of the jury, April 26, 2016.
- BBC News, "Hillsborough: The Sun's front page," coverage.