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The Hillsborough disaster was a fatal human crush during a football match at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, on 15 April 1989. It occurred during an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest in the two standing-only central pens in the Leppings Lane stand allocated to Liverpool supporters. Shortly before kick-off, in an attempt to ease overcrowding outside the entrance turnstiles, the police match commander, David Duckenfield, ordered exit gate C to be opened, leading to an influx of supporters entering the pens. This resulted in overcrowding of those pens and the crush. With 97 deaths and 766 injuries, it has the highest death toll in British sporting history. Ninety-four people died on the day; another person died in hospital days later, and another victim died in 1993. In July 2021, a coroner ruled that Andrew Devine, who died 32 years after suffering severe and irreversible brain damage on the day, was the 97th victim. The match was abandoned and restaged at Old Trafford in Manchester on 7 May 1989; Liverpool won and went on to win that season's FA Cup.
English tort law concerns the compensation for harm to people's rights to health and safety, a clean environment, property, their economic interests, or their reputations. A "tort" is a wrong in civil, rather than criminal law, that usually requires a payment of money to make up for damage that is caused. Alongside contracts and unjust enrichment, tort law is usually seen as forming one of the three main pillars of the law of obligations.
James Ashley was a British man who, while unarmed and naked, was shot dead by police in his flat in St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex, on 15 January 1998. Armed officers raided the building on the suspicion that Ashley kept a firearm and a quantity of cocaine there, and to arrest him and another man in connection with a stabbing. Neither a firearm nor a significant quantity of drugs was found, the other man was not present, and it later emerged that Ashley was not implicated in the stabbing. Ashley, likely woken by the noise of the raid, was out of bed when an armed police officer entered his bedroom. On seeing the officer, Ashley raised one arm and the officer reacted by firing a single shot. Later that morning, Sussex Police chief constable Paul Whitehouse held a press conference in which he praised the conduct of the operation.
Humberside Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing The East Riding of Yorkshire including Hull and northern parts of Lincolnshire including Grimsby and Scunthorpe.
West Yorkshire Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing the metropolitan county of West Yorkshire, England. It is the fourth largest territorial police force in England and Wales by number of officers.
South Yorkshire Police (SYP) is the territorial police force responsible for policing South Yorkshire in England. The force is led by Chief Constable Lauren Poultney. Oversight is conducted by Police and Crime Commissioner Alan Billings.
North Yorkshire Police is the territorial police force covering the unitary authorities of North Yorkshire and the City of York in northern England. As of September 2018 the force had a strength of 1,357 police officers, 127 special constables, 192 PCSOs and 1,072 police staff. Of the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales, the force has the 5th largest geographic area of responsibility whilst being the 15th smallest force in terms of police officer numbers.
In English tort law, an individual may owe a duty of care to another, in order to ensure that they do not suffer any unreasonable harm or loss. If such a duty is found to be breached, a legal liability will be imposed upon the tortfeasor to compensate the victim for any losses they incur. The idea of individuals owing strangers a duty of care – where beforehand such duties were only found from contractual arrangements – developed at common law, throughout the 20th century. The doctrine was significantly developed in the case of Donoghue v Stevenson, where a woman succeeded in establishing a manufacturer of ginger beer owed her a duty of care, where it had been negligently produced. Following this, the duty concept has expanded into a coherent judicial test, which must be satisfied in order to claim in negligence.
In English law, a nervous shock is a psychiatric / mental illness or injury inflicted upon a person by intentional or negligent actions or omissions of another. Often it is a psychiatric disorder triggered by witnessing an accident, for example an injury caused to one's parents or spouse. Although the term "nervous shock" has been described as "inaccurate" and "misleading", it continues to be applied as a useful abbreviation for a complex concept. The possibility of recovering damages for nervous shock, particularly caused by negligence, is strongly limited in English law.
Geoffrey James Dear, Baron Dear, is a crossbench peer and retired British police officer who is a former Chief Constable of West Midlands Police. He was described by the broadcaster and writer Sir Robin Day as "the best known and most respected police officer of his generation".
Alcock v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police[1991] UKHL 5, [1992] 1 AC 310 is a leading English tort law case on liability for nervous shock. The case centred upon the liability of the police for the nervous shock suffered in consequence of the events of the Hillsborough disaster.
Sir Norman George Bettison, QPM is a British former police officer and the former Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police. He resigned in October 2012 amidst controversy about his role in the Hillsborough disaster, in which he was involved in the implementation of a cover-up of police errors. He remained the subject of an Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) investigation, and was charged on the 28 June 2017 with four counts of misconduct in public office. The case was dropped on 21 August 2018. Bettison's own book Hillsborough Untold (2016) contains his version of events.
R v The Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis [2011] UKSC 21 was a 2011 judgment of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. The case concerned the extent of the police's power to indefinitely retain biometric data associated with individuals who are no longer suspected of a criminal offence. In the case, a majority of the Supreme Court, including the Court's President Lord Phillips and the Lord Chief Justice Lord Judge reversed an earlier ruling of the High Court of Justice and found that the police force's policy of retaining DNA evidence in the absence of 'exceptional circumstances' was unlawful and a violation of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The court declined to offer any specific relief however, recognising that the policy is expected to be subject to legislative scrutiny as Part 1 of the Protection of Freedoms Bill 2011.
A police and crime commissioner is an elected official in England and Wales responsible for generally overseeing police forces. A police, fire and crime commissioner (PFCC) is an elected official in England responsible for generally overseeing both police forces and fire services. Commissioners replaced now-abolished police authorities. The first incumbents were elected on 15 November 2012.
Alfred Herbert Richardson (1874–1951) was an English policeman. He joined the Birmingham City Police in 1890. He achieved very rapid promotion within this force and in 1901 became chief constable of Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire. In 1903 he successfully applied for the chief constable's office at Halifax, West Riding of Yorkshire, where he remained until his retirement in 1944. During his time there he achieved many early improvements in policing at Halifax, some of which were later used nationwide. The most notable were the installing of coloured lights as traffic signals at road junctions, the formalisation of procedures for police identity parades, making 'keep left' mandatory for traffic and the installation of police telephones in the town, among others. In later years he was recognized as being a policeman who was ahead of his time. He came from a police family: his father, Frank Richardson (1851–1938), was the Chief Constable of Hereford from 1882 until 1920, and his elder brother, Ernest Frank Richardson (1871–1952), served as Chief Constable of Salisbury between 1903 and 1929. Thus three members of the Richardson family served as chief constables between 1902 and 1920. He also had three other brothers who served in other police forces.
The floodgates principle, or the floodgates argument, is a legal principle which is sometimes applied by judges to restrict or limit the right to make claims for damages because of a concern that permitting a claimant to recover in such situations might open the metaphorical "floodgates" to large numbers of claims and lawsuits. The principle is most frequently cited in common law jurisdictions, and in English tort law in particular.
Hill v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire[1987] UKHL 12, [1989] AC 53 was a judicial decision of the House of Lords in relation to the claim by the mother of Jacqueline Hill against West Yorkshire Police that their negligence in failing to apprehend the killer resulted in her daughter's death.
The 1999 New Zealand bravery awards were announced via a special honours list on 23 October 1999. The awards recognised 30 people, including six posthumously, for acts of bravery between 1989 and 1998.
The 2006 New Zealand bravery awards were announced via a special honours list on 14 October 2006, and recognised 15 people for acts of bravery between 2000 and 2005.
Robinson v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police[2018] UKSC 4 is a leading English tort law case on the test for finding a duty of care. An elderly woman was injured by two police officers attempting to arrest a suspect and she claimed that the police owed her a duty of care not to be put in danger. The UK Supreme Court found that the police did owe a duty of care in this case as there was no general rule that the police are not under any duty of care when performing their duties.
References
- ↑ "White and others v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire and others %5B1998%5D HL". sixthformlaw.info. Retrieved 27 February 2013.
