CHAOS: Fans caught up in the Hilllsborough disaster, 1989. Pix: Daily MirrorMANY of the Hillsborough victims could have been saved if the emergency services had had proper access to the pitch, the independent report panel said today.
The panel studied 400,000 official documents to produce today's report and found 41 of the 94 "had the potential to be saved".
The original inquest into the deaths set a 3.15pm cut-off time for evidence, saying all the victims were dead by that time, but the panel found this to be untrue.
At the press conference the panel were asked if they could estimate how many people might have been saved if the emergency had been better handled.
The panel said there were a total of 41 victims who were either alive after 3.15 - the coroner's cut off time - or who suffered injuries which were inconsistent with the findings of the pathologists.
The coroner ruled that by 3.15 all the victims had received fatal injuries, which meant that the inquests did not examine the chaotic response after that time.
Panel member Dr Bill Kirkupp said: "Twenty eight people had definite evidence that they didn't have obstruction of the bloodflow, 16 people had definite evidence of heart and lungs continuing to function for a prolonged period after the crush.
"In total 41 therefore had evidence that they had potential to survive after the period of 3.15.
"What I can't say is how many of them could, in actuality, have been saved.
"But I can say is that, potentially, it was in that order of magnitude."
The Truth: South Yorkshire Police Doctored Evidence to Blame Innocent Liverpool Fans
The Hillsborough disaster in which 96 innocent people lost their lives was the subject of a cover-up.
THE TRUTH: A copy of the report delivered by the Hillsborough Independent Panel at a press conference at the Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral. Pix: Daily MirrorThat disclosure was made by the Hillsborough Independent Panel, which has been overseeing the release of thousands of official documents relating to Britain's deadliest sporting disaster.
In its summary the panel said: "It is evident from analysis of the various investigations that from the outset South Yorkshire Police sought to deflect responsibility for the disaster on to Liverpool fans ... there is no evidence to support this view."
The documents also reveal the "extent to which substantive amendments was made" to statements by South Yorkshire Police to remove or alter "unfavorable" comments about the policing of the match and the unfolding disaster.
The documents show, for the first time, that South Yorkshire Ambulance Service documents were "subject to the same process", the panel said.
They went on to say the wrongful allegations about the fans' behavior later printed in some newspapers, particularly The Sun, originated from "a Sheffield press agency, senior SYP officers, an SYP Police Federation spokesperson and a local MP".
The panel said the Police Federation, "supported informally by the SYP Chief Constable", sought to develop and publicize a version of events derived in police officers' allegations of drunkenness, ticketless fans and violence.
"The vast majority of fans on the pitch assisted in rescuing and evaluating the injured and the dead," the panel said.
The panel said their report raises "profound concerns about the conduct and appropriateness of the inquests".
The documents go on to reveal the original pathologists' evidence of a single, unvarying pattern of death was "unsustainable", the panel said.
The families have always disputed the accidental verdict which followed the inquest into the deaths.
The report found that 116 of the 164 police statements identified for "substantive amendment" were "amended to remove or alter comments unfavorable to SYP."
One police officer said he only accepted the changes because he was suffering from post-traumatic stress and that he considered it an injustice for statements to have been "doctored" to suit the management of South Yorkshire Police, the report found.
The panel also found that access to Cabinet documents revealed that in an exchange about her Government welcoming the Taylor Report into the tragedy Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher expressed her concern that the "broad thrust" of the report constituted a "devastating criticism of the police".
The Truth: Liverpool Fans Were NOT to Blame for Hillsborough Confirms David Cameron
Liverpool fans were NOT to blame for the Hillsborough disaster - and the Prime Minister David Cameron has 
MOMENT OF TRUTH: The truth: Prime Minister David Cameron addresses the Commons. Pix: Daily Mirrorapologized to the families of the 96 victims after documents revealed official attempts to cover up that truth.
Prime Minister David Cameron offered a "profound" apology to the families of the 96 people who died, telling the House of Commons that today's report made clear that "the Liverpool fans were not the cause of the disaster".
Mr Cameron said that Attorney General Dominic Grieve will review the report as quickly as possible in order to decide whether to apply to the High Court to quash the original, flawed inquest and order a new one. It will be for the court to make the final decision.
Today's report showed that the Hillsborough families had suffered a "double injustice", both in the "failure of the state to protect their loved ones and the indefensible wait to get to the truth", and in the efforts to denigrate the deceased and suggest that they were "somehow at fault for their own deaths", said Mr Cameron.
He told MPs: "With the weight of the new evidence in this Report, it is right for me today as Prime Minister to make a proper apology to the families of the 96 for all they have suffered over the past 23 years.
"On behalf of the Government - and indeed our country - I am profoundly sorry for this double injustice that has been left uncorrected for so long."
Ninety six Liverpool supporters died in a crush at Sheffield Wednesday's Hillsborough stadium on April 15, 1989 where their team was to meet Nottingham Forest in an FA Cup semi-final.
Introducing the report to the Hillsborough families at the Anglican Cathedral in Liverpool, Bishop James Jones, the Bishop of Liverpool and chairman of the panel, said: "For nearly a quarter of a century the families of the 96 and the survivors of Hillsborough have nursed an open wound waiting for answers to unresolved questions. It has been a frustrating and painful experience adding to their grief.
"In spite of all the investigations they have sensed that their search for truth and justice has been thwarted and that no-one has been held accountable.
"The documents disclosed to and analyzed by the panel show that the tragedy should never have happened. There were clear operational failures in response to the disaster and in its aftermath were strenuous attempts to deflect the blame onto the fans. The panel's detailed report shows how vulnerable victims, survivors and their families are when transparency and accountability are compromised.
"My colleagues and I were from the start of our work impressed by the dignified determination of the families."
He added: "The panel produces this report without any presumption of where it will lead. But it does so in the profound hope that greater transparency will bring to the families and to the wider public a greater understanding of the tragedy and its aftermath.
"For it is only with this transparency that the families and survivors, who have behaved with such dignity, can with some sense of truth and justice cherish the memory of their 96 loved ones."
Hillsborough Papers: Families of the 96 Begin Viewing Released Documents
MEMORIAL: The names of the 96 are immortalised outside Anfield. Pix: Daily MirrorThe families of 96 Liverpool supporters killed in the Hillsborough tragedy have begun viewing for the first time thousands of official documents relating to the disaster.
The Hillsborough Independent Panel is overseeing the release of previously unpublished papers from around 80 organisations including the government, police, emergency services, Sheffield City Council and the South Yorkshire coroner.
The club offered an apology to the families and said it hoped the documents would bring them "closure".
A statement from Sheffield Wednesday said: "Chairman Milan Mandaric and the current board of directors have adopted a policy of complete compliance with the requests of the Hillsborough Independent Panel and on behalf of the club would like to offer our sincere condolences and an apology to all the families who have suffered as a consequence of the tragic events of 15 April, 1989."
Mandaric took over in December 2010 and the statement added the club had been "totally transparent" in helping the report be compiled.
It added: "Sheffield Wednesday FC welcomes the release of the Hillsborough Independent Panel report and would like to acknowledge the enormous amount of hard work by all involved during what was, and continues to be, an extremely emotive process."
- Daily Mirror
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