Officer ‘boasted’ about Hillsborough cover-up

Shadow transport secretary Maria Eagle claimed Sir Norman Bettison, who was a chief inspector with South Yorkshire police at the time of the 1989 tragedy, revealed he had been asked to help “concoct” the force’s version of events.

The claims come during a commons debate on the Hillsborough Independent Panel’s report, which last month revealed some fans could have survived if emergency services had responded sooner, and blamed police for an official cover-up designed to smear innocent supporters.

Ms Eagle, a Merseyside MP, used parliamentary privilege to make the allegations which were based on new evidence from a witness who discussed the disaster with Sir Norman.

She said Sir Norman had “always denied any involvement in the dirty tricks campaign”.

‘Black propaganda’

But she alleged he was behind the “black propaganda” campaign.

She quoted from a letter from John Barry, who was at Hillsborough for the FA Cup semi-final tie that led to the death of 96 Liverpool fans.

The letter, written in 1998 to a solicitor for the Hillsborough Family Support Group, was copied to Ms Eagle in 2009 and she has been given permission to make it public.

Ms Eagle said Mr Barry was studying part-time at Sheffield Business School where one of his fellow students was a “middle-ranking police officer”.

Mr Barry wrote: “Some weeks after the game, and after I had been interviewed by West Midlands police, we were in a pub after our weekly evening class.

“He told me that he had been asked by his senior officers to put together the South Yorkshire police evidence for the forthcoming inquiry.

“He said that ‘we are trying to concoct a story that all the Liverpool fans were drunk and we were afraid that they were going to break down the gates so we decided to open them’.”

Two investigations

Ms Eagle said: “Mr Barry confirmed to me in the covering letter in 2009 that the middle-ranking police officer to whom he referred is Norman Bettison.

“He has agreed to swear a statement to that effect and I have put him in touch with the families’ solicitors.

“Here we have an account of a contemporaneous conversation in which Norman Bettison boasted he is engaged in a South Yorkshire police plot to fit up the Liverpool fans and deflect blame from the force.

“That is indeed what happened subsequently, so what Sir Norman denies in public he boasts about in private conversations.”

Sir Norman, who has announced he will retire in March, faces two investigations by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).

Home Secretary Theresa May told the Commons that she would work with Labour to see if new laws were needed to compel former officers to co-operate with the IPCC.

Knighthood forfeiture

She said the “thorough and wide-ranging” IPCC probe will focus on “potential criminality and police misconduct in respect of police officers, both serving and retired”,

There were also calls during the debate for former Tory MP Sir Irvine Patnick to be stripped of his knighthood over his part in the smearing of Liverpool fans in the wake of the Hillsborough tragedy.

Former lord mayor of Liverpool Steve Rotheram, now a Labour MP, said the forfeiture committee should examine the honour.

Sir Irvine, who was revealed as one of the sources behind the Sun’s controversial coverage of the tragedy, has said he was “deeply and sincerely sorry”.

He insisted he had been given “wholly inaccurate” information by police officers.